A Virtual Field Trip?

So, the scenarios is: that I have been teaching my students about famous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artists. As a final activity, I want to take my students on a field trip to an art museum. The nearest museum, however, is three hours away, so the trip requires bus transportation. Due to the cost of the proposed field trip, my principal has asked you to explore other possibilities.
There is a possibility of using a virtual "art museum" through one of the museum's web site and I think this is a great tool to use for say...a project or a lesson, but I do not think this can substitute going to a real museum. The kids would probably find looking at pictures online and listening to videos boring. They would much rather go on a field trip.
I also think that you cannot fully appreciate art unless you see it up close, the texture of the paint, the marks of a chisel...Art should not be seen over a computer screen. Sure it would save a lot of money and it's better than no field trip at all, but I still do not like it.
I think that instead we should work as a class to raise money to go on the trip. We could have a car was or sell our own art. It would be worth seeing the art in person.
Now, the virtual field trip would work much better if the site was in CGI and made the "tour" look realistic and not just be a wall of information, a picture and a cartoon clip. I think the online tour is a very good resource, but it cannot replace seeing the real thing.
-Cassie Burris   

Information Overload?

In this day in age students have a strong availability to an infinite amount of information due to the internet and other forms of technology. One does not even have to read a book anymore with tools such as the Kindle(c) and the Nook(c). So, how are kids supposed to deal with this, "information overload"? I personally do not see this as an issue at all. We, the Millennial Generation, have grown up with the internet and have managed just fine with all of the ways to collect information. There can never be too much information, because as life time learners we value all the information there is. We should praise the fact that anyone can access any information out there.


All of this information will allow students to excel more outside of class and even help teachers learn more as well. Students can go online and find extra help in math or find videos that explain conjugating words in Spanish in a fun and creative way. The problem is trying to find reliable sources online. There are many unreliable sources out there, so we would have to teach the students in our classes how to decide what is a credible source and one that is unreliable. But the problem with all this information is that students might stop listening to teachers, since they have other pools of information available to them. Teachers can also be sucked into false teachings and teach their students something untrue if they use an internet source in their teaching. 


Although, there is an issue of organizing this information, but this could occur no matter how you collect your information. When someone gathers research for a paper they will have to organize their thoughts and research no matter how much they collected or where they collected it. As teachers we need to teach students how to organize their information so they are not overwhelmed by all the information they gathered up.


Overall I believe that all the access to an infinite amount of information is a good thing. The more access to information one has the smarter they can be. Plus, they will be very prepared  for Jeopardy. ;) Though an information overload can be a bad thing, with good organized thoughts and a good process it can be very helpful.  As Thomas Jefferson  once said, "I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way." Having access to information is a good thing, how we use it is another.