On the subject of coping with this new economy thing, a lot has been done. Don't take it from me, either. Neil Conan did a great job yesterday asking people to call in to Talk of the Nation and report on what they've done to make their way through our recession: sacrifices, sales, even innovation. It's the latter I want to talk about now:
On Tuesday, teachers at Fairburn Elementary School embarked on a field trip of their own to the Crystal Cove's tide pools, watched elephant seals on the shores of our fair state's central coast, walked through State Capitol Museum live. During all this, they never left the building, and the school never spent a penny. The entire trip was made possible though videoconferencing technology and this is just the first step.
Fairburn Principal Elizabeth Abramowitz wants to use this technology to expand student's understanding of the topic their learning, not to replace field trips (although in these tough times Fairburn could certainly use more funding for real-life excursions), but to do things that would be simply impossible on a normal daytime expedition: "If you can pick up the phone, you can contact three or four centers. You can speak to scientists at NASA, you can look at underwater tide pools, these aren't field trips you can usually take in class," she says. "Imagine being able to talk a your TV show, and your TV show can talk back to you!"
Innovation like this usually flourishes during tough times: necessity really is the mother of invention and there's certainly no want of necessity right now. Maybe once the dust settles the funds again will start flowing to education. If so, the virtual field trip might become reduced but I don't think that it will ever be completely eliminated: technology is here to stay, and thanks to trying times like these we'll come out all the more resilient and experienced for it.
Crystal Cove photo by Automania and used under a Creative Commons License
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This is a cool idea...but danger lurks here too.
Future exploitation of virtual reality for school field trips, etc., and wider use by museums and aquariums to deliver the "travel" or "you are there" experience is a wonderful idea. And it today's shrinking economy and an increasingly dangerous "world" it makes sense to deliver a synthetic experience.
But there is the hidden danger....it is still synthetic. Where is the thrill of REALLY being there and picking up that shell, skinning your 8-year-old knee on the rocks, hearing the keening of seabirds?
The world is becoming a colder place (emotionally) because people interact less with the real world and more with technology that for all its wonders... deliver a sterile, synthetic experience. Maybe not for the eyes...but for the soul.