April ten, 2020

Through the Middle for Education Through Exploration, learners can experience field trips with experts — via laptop

It's a beautiful day at the ancient urban center of Teotihuacan. The Avenue of the Dead isn't too crowded, you see from where you lot stand on top of the Pyramid of the Moon. On your left lies 1 of the urban center's resident dogs, enjoying the dominicus.

Today you lot volition explore the city and its history with distinguished and award-winning anthropologist and archaeologist Professor Emeritus George Cowgill of Arizona State University. Cowgill has been significant in his contributions to the archeology of Mesoamerica with most of his archaeological fieldwork and analysis centered on Teotihuacan.

It'due south going to be a great day. And it will all happen on your laptop.

Online field trips have exploded in popularity since the pandemic sent the entire state home. For crazed parents trying to homeschool their children, they are near as valuable as quiet time.

"In that location's definitely been a surge of involvement and users in the last x days," said Ariel Anbar, ASU's Center for Teaching Through Exploration director and education innovator of the heart'due south suite of offerings, including Virtual Field Trips (VFTs).

Among the classes and learning experiences offered by the center are 19 immersive virtual field trips, covering topics such every bit geology, early on life, the extinction of the dinosaurs, astrobiology, volcanism, and early civilizations.

Students can visit the rainforest or the Australian outback any time they want. The trips are designed with a philosophy of learn past doing, Anbar said.

"The pupil is learning through a lot of trial and error, experimentation," he said. "They have a lot of options and they have to figure their way through things. We know from research that that type of learning is normally superior when it's done well. We larn by doing, so having online experiences that are of that type, every bit opposed to other online experiences where you're just watching a video, is superior. And information technology can be superior to an in-person lecture. Those are a couple of advantages."

All of the projects offered by the center button students to exist problem solvers, not fact regurgitators.

"That'south our aspiration, to produce problem solvers," Anbar said. "You're not going to get in that location without putting people through lots of learning experiences that train you to practise that, that advantage you for doing that, that inspire you to do that. That's necessary. We see that every bit a solution and we come across ourselves as function of the solution."

Some of the projects are geared toward entry-level college students and some are practiced for all ages. Infiniscope was created by ASU'south School of Earth and Space Exploration and NASA's Scientific discipline Mission Directorate to invite learners of all ages to explore space exploration.

The first wave of online didactics tried to emulate a classroom. Think TED talks. These are way more than that.

"That's fine for what it is, but a computer tin can do more serve up videos and Powerpoint slides," Anbar said. "Look at gaming. Computers tin serve upward a very immersive, addictive feel. We're trying to bring that into pedagogy. … We're trying to primary the medium of pedagogy through a calculator."

His favorite virtual field trip is the Dinosaur Doom K-Pg Mass Extinction Event.

"That'due south like asking me to selection my favorite kid," Anbar said. "Information technology'south a suite of VFTs that expose the learners to the fact that we have testify of an bear upon that wiped out the dinosaurs all around the world, in multiple locations and walks them through that testify. I recollect it'due south really cool to see those field sites. One of the nearly famous field locations in all of geology, the place where we first discovered evidence of a big meteorite impact at the time the dinosaurs became extinct is this roadcut by the side of a highway. You lot wouldn't know was anything special if you just drove up to it. Merely seeing a photo of it doesn't really give you that context. In a 3D immersive environment where you tin plow around and see, 'Oh, x feet behind me is a highway.' You larn just by seeing - not by someone telling - that profound geology can be in all kinds of places you wouldn't wait. I think that's really cool, just getting that kind of context out of information technology is powerful."

The M Canyon virtual field trip was put together in a 2-week river expedition. Skillful scientists give lectures along the way, through videos in the right places.

"That's an experience very few people e'er get to continue," Anbar said.

And that's where VFTs come up in.

"What you're seeing and why it'southward important, that's an feel very few people will e'er have. It's pretty powerful."

Top prototype courtesy of the Middle for Pedagogy Through eXploration.

Scott Seckel