Updated on July 14, 2008

What are virtual field trips?
Wikipedia.com, the free online encyclopedia defines virtual field trips as the following:

How are virtual field trips used in education?
"Virtual field trips (VFTs) started appearing around 1996, but greatly grew in popularity starting around 2000. The VFT was seen as a way to organize the educational potential of the internet in a coherent, appropriate fashion, particularly for primary and secondary education. Typically a VFT will contain a selection of topic-specific web pages that are strung together into a grade-targeted, organized package. Often these are provided by commercial distributors, such as Tramline.

There are a number of different formats used for VFTs and if you do a search on the Web, you will find thousands of trips. Some trips simply consist of a list of links on one web page, while other trips use some type of navigator (or buttons) to move through the tour. In its best implementation, a VFT is a guided and annotated tour of pages on the Web that have been selected by educators and arranged in a "thread" that students can follow from page to page, or site to site."

 -Wikipedia.com

Virtual field trips allow students to explore the world from the safe surrounds of a classroom.  Students can be transported from a dairy farm to Ancient Greece just by the click of a mouse.  They have the advantage of discovering each location at their own pace.

How do educators plan for virtual field trips?
Planning is an important aspect of virtual field trips.  As an educator, you must ensure that there is a clear purpose for the field trip.  Research and explore each virtual field trip before you have the students access the site.  The Internet is an unlimited resource so use it to your advantage.  Make sure every aspect of it is appropriate for classroom use.  Encourage your students to be actively engaged in the experience.  Give them background information and discuss the topic before allowing them to sit down at a computer.  Provide some structure by implementing some goals and objectives for the virtual field trip.  Formulate questions for students to think about an answer during their experience.  Extend learning when the field trip is completed.  Have discussion time to allow students to compare what they saw and talk about aspects they liked and others that could have been improved upon.  Let your students become experts in judging what made a specific virtual field trip fun and exciting or dull and uninformative.

What are resources for virtual field trips?
The Internet is the primary source for virtual field trips.  It is your best resource to transport your students to all corners of the globe.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of virtual field trips?
Nothing can compare to visiting and experiencing destinations in person, but it is many times impossible to arrange class field trips any where further than a 120 mile radius around your school.  The price for field trips can be a stretch, especially if schools are experiencing budget cut-backs. 

What are examples of virtual field trips?
Here are some links to good examples of virtual field trips and also some sites that help educators create their own:

Digital and Virtual Field Trips
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic35.htm
This site offers one stop shopping for all you virtual field trip needs; purpose, how to, and links.

eduScapes
http://eduscapes.com/sessions/virtual/index.html
Gives options to help explore, use, adapt, and create virtual field trips.

Houghton Mifflin: Geology Link
http://college.hmco.com/geology/resources/geologylink/fieldtrips.html
Allows user to select virtual field trips based off of which country and region they are inquiring about.

Internet 4 Classrooms
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/vft.htm
Gives insight and ideas on virtual field trips.