High-tech field trips

USAToday reports Jacy Borlik and her sixth-grade classmates watched as a curator for the Indiana State Museum showed how a 30,000-year-old dinosaur bone is excavated and then catalogued. "It was cool," Jacy said. But the students never left their school 15 miles southwest of South Bend and the curator never left the museum in Indianapolis. They were connected from North Liberty Elementary School by interactive videoconferencing, which educators say is becoming more common as firsthand learning experiences like field trips are cut from tight school budgets.

I wish they had this when I was in school.

Leslie Lorance, new media director for the Indiana State Museum, said museum curators conduct about 25 distance-learning field trips a month on several topics. The sessions cost about $85. Though curators follow a set outline, the programs vary with each group. "The topic can go anywhere because the students ask questions," Lorance the South Bend Tribune for a story Monday. "We can show artifacts they wouldn't get to see when they come to the museum" because some are too delicate to be brought into a workshop. Andrew Stegemiller, technology coordinator for the John Glenn school district, which includes North Liberty, said the programs are not just high-tech show and tell. Programs come with study guides and adhere to specific national and state teaching standards.

"Educators understand that this is not frivolous. This is not a Friday afternoon video," said Ruth Blankenbaker, executive director of the Indianapolis-based Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. The group is a nonprofit organization that acts as a national clearinghouse for distance learning programs created by more than 100 different organizations. Those groups include museums, waste management districts and theater groups whose live interactive programs can be applied to almost any academic area or age group, Blankenbaker said. She said although this technology has been available for a decade, her organization is only now seeing a "burgeoning interest" because of wider availability of content and tighter school budgets. Even though some programs can cost up to $300, that is cheaper than most conventional field trips once transportation and admission fees are totaled, said North Liberty Principal Bob Lichtenberger.