Examples of Virtual Tours and Electronic Field Trips
TechTrekers Virtual Field Trips
Excellent for incorporating multiculturalism into the classroom. Through this site teachers can encourage their students to travel virtually to many countries. This site consists primarily of links to numerous virtual field trips as well as teaching projects, strategies and resources used by teachers around the world.
http://www.techtrekers.com/virtualft.htm
British Museum Tours
Tours include: The African Galleries; The 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas'; Changing Face: Masks from the British Museum; Chinese Jade; Cleopatra of Egypt: from History to Myth; Dürer and his Legacy; Egypt in the Old Kingdom; Gladiators and Caesars; Human Image; A Kind of Magic; Our Top Ten British Treasures; Rembrandt the Printmaker; Science and the Past; and The Vikings
http://www.british-museum.ac.uk/visit/onlinetours/
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
There is much quality material for art students, educators, and enthusiasts at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art web site. Start with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History, a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world. Each timeline page includes representative art from the Museum's collection, a chart of time periods, a map of the region, an overview, and a list of key events. The timelines— accompanied by world, regional, and sub-regional maps—provide a linear outline of art history, and allow visitors to compare and contrast art from around the globe at any time in history. There is plenty more here apart from the Timeline: "Just for Fun" has interactive activities for kids, "A Closer Look" examines the "hows and whys" behind Met objects (such as George Washington Crossing the Delaware), "Artist" enables visitors to access biographical materials on a selection of artists as well as general information about their work, and "Themes and Cultures" presents past and present cultures with special features on the Met's collections and exhibitions.
http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp
BBC History Virtual Tours
'Walk' around a historical building or structure take a 3D tour of a famous site in British History. You can embark on a Viking Quest, see how an Iron Age roundhouse was built, or take a virtual tour of a World War One trench.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/multimedia_zone/virtual_tours/
index.shtml
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is America's first federal art collection, dedicated to the art and artists of the United States. More than 7,000 American artists are represented, including major artists such as John Singleton Copley, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others. Themes and topics include Colonial portraiture, nineteenth-century landscape, American impressionism, twentieth-century realism and abstraction, New Deal projects, sculpture, photography, prints and drawings, contemporary crafts, African American art, Latino art, and folk art are featured in the collection. Today the collection consists of more than 40,000 artworks in all media, spanning more than 300 years of artistic achievement. The Smithsonian Online Exhibitions feature prize holdings from different eras in American history. The online version of American Art, the academic journal of the Smithsonian American Art Museum has articles of interest to art historians.
http://www.americanart.si.edu/index3.cfm
Oriental Institute Virtual Museum
The Oriental Institute Museum is a showcase of the history, art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. The Museum exhibits major collections of antiquities from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, Syria, Palestine, and Anatolia. The Oriental Institute Virtual Museum makes use of a series of Apple QuickTime VR panoramic movies to take you on an tour of each of the Museum's galleries, accompanied by descriptions of each alcove and their artifacts. Where appropriate, links to related materials, such as the Museum's Highlights From The Collections, the Photographic Archives, and relevant Oriental Institute Archaeology and Philology projects elaborate on the most significant objects in greater detail.
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/QTVR96/QTVR96_Tours.html
U.S. History.org
The Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia has produced this fun and engaging site where you can enjoy a virtual tour of Philadelphia and visit Betsy Ross' House. You can also learn why Pennsylvania is misspelled on the bell and the story of the crack. Electric Franklin provides resources for you to explore the diversity that was Benjamin Franklin and there are several section that deal with the revolutionary war.
Pilgrim Hall Museum
Through its exhibition of Pilgrim possessions and Native American artifacts, Pilgrim Hall tells the stories of America’s founding and traditions. The museum features an online tour of artifacts owned by Pilgrims. Tour the PILGRIM STORY, which combines artifacts with historical information to illuminate the Pilgrim and Native American story to 1692, when Plymouth Colony as an independent entity came to an end.Beyond the Pilgrim Story gives additional information about particular aspects of the Pilgrim story that have been of interest to visitors.
Historical Tour of the White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/whtour/index.html
Britannia Virtual Tours
Britannia's Virtual Tours will take you to some of the most interesting places in England and Wales and in the process help you to gain a better understanding of an area, its famous people, its landmarks and its history.
http://www.britannia.com/tours/
Vatican Museums, Vatican City
This site offers online tours of the collections of art and antiquities at the Vatican museums. Collections include the Gregorian Egyptian and Etruscan Museums, Raphael's Rooms, the Pinacoteca (Art Gallery), and the Ethnological Missionary Museum. Visitors can examiner various rooms in the Vatican, including the Sistine Chapel. Visitors may also take a virtual tour of each room.
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html
Mr. Dowling's Electronic Passport
Mr. Dowling's Electronic Passport helps kids browse the world in his virtual classroom. He introduces you to many civilizations with clear explanations, engaging graphics for kids, and "cool links". His study guides, homework assignments and exams are free and available for you to print or to edit.
http://www.mrdowling.com/index.html
Forum Romanum
A nineteen year old freshman at Harvard has put together an award-winning site on Ancient Rome that includes a virtual tour, a dictionary of Mythology, a Picture Index, and much information on History, Life, Language, and Literature
Dead Romans
Part of the History Online project, this site features an introduction to Roman coins, a 3D tour with maps and historical background, artwork from the early Roman empire, a timeline of emperors, and links
http://www.jacksonesd.k12.or.us/k12projects/jimperry/history.html
Virtual Jamestown
The Virtual Jamestown Archive is an on-going digital research, teaching and learning project that explores the legacies of the Jamestown settlement and "the Virginia experiment." There are first-hand accounts and letters, interpretive essays, and more.
http://www.virtualjamestown.org/
Pyramids -- The Inside Story (PBS)
This attractive PBS site provides a nice blend of images and history of the pyramids and offers insights into excavations and mysteries.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/
Virtual Tour Around a Medieval Town and Village
"You are a fantastic inventor who has created a magnificent TIME MACHINE.
You set the dates for the time of the dinosaurs, but due to a mechanical fault the machine has crash landed in the MIDDLE AGES.
Your task is to find the missing pieces of the time machine which have been scattered around this area.
When you have found all of the missing pieces, you must then get back to the machine to return home.
You should have a worksheet to help you with this."
http://www.activehistory.co.uk/Miscellaneous/hotpots/1sts/villagetour/
villagetour.htm
Enter the Middle Ages
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/middleages/
Tramline Virtual Tours with Tour Maker
American Presidency (9-12)
September 11 and Beyond (8-12)
Dark Ages (5-8)
Lewis and Clark (4-8)
My America (4-7)
The Oregon Trail (4-8)
Women’s History (9-12)
http://www.field-trips.org/trips.htm
Bringing an Online Museum Exhibit to Classrooms
by Laura C. Lewis
Laura shares her work in creating an on-line exhibit based on the Illinois State Museum exhibit "At Home in the Heartland." The exhibit explores 300 years of family life in Illinois through the personal narratives of men and women who lived in Illinois and through objects from the home across the centuries. Read her article and then visit the site.http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/lewis.htm
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/tate.htm
Using the Internet to Take a Field Trip and Encourage Writing
In the third installment of his "Connecting Collaborators" column Frank offers two creative ways for Internet collaborative teaching partners to involve their students. In "Field Trip Exchanges" he offers suggestions on using both words and pictures to share an educational experience. In "Story Starters & Other Writing Ideas" he offers sparkplugs to spur student creativity.
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/
miracola3.htm
