Field Trip 2.0: Creating Digital Content in the Field

York County School Division (YCSD) teachers met at the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News, VA on April 29, 2014, where they completed their fourth and final training session with YCSD and Discovery Education professional development specialists regarding strategies for creating and sharing digital content. 

As a result of a unique professional development partnership between YCSD and Discovery Education, the cohort members developed lessons in which students master the content and skills of the curriculum by creating digital video content and posting their work to a global audience.

Using the theme of environmental stewardship at the Virginia Living Museum, teachers representing kindergarten through high school participated in a professional development, field trip experience.  Working in collaborative groups, the teachers collected original digital content, downloaded content from Discovery Education, and created instructional cross-curricular Boards using Discovery Education's Board Builder platform. 

(Screenshot examples of two Boards created by YCSD teachers on April 29, 2014.  The Boards are posted to Discovery Education's Board Builder platform.)

Teachers contributed to their group's Board by making sure that it reflected specific subject matter (i.e., a math teacher may have created content on the Board that showed graphically how rising
pollutants corresponds inversely to declining amphibian populations).  


During the training, teachers also explored opportunities to replicate their experience as they plan field trips in which students create digital content at locations such as the Virginia Living Museum and then share their work with a global audience.  Rather than simply touring a museum's exhibits during a field trip, the students will have a great sense of purpose if the vist and digital content creation is connected to the teachers intended learning outcome and real-world issues. 

Examples of real-world, purposeful work might include topics such as designing a better lobster trap to save the turtle population, or influencing legislators to promote environmental stewardship.  Field trip experiences in which students master the content and skills of the curriculum by creating digital content that will be viewed by thousands, or possibly millions, can certainly have a positive impact on student engagement and achievement.