Google wants to take South Africa’s schoolkids on a virtual field trip

Think back to your school days for a moment. We bet you loved field trips right? They were a chance to get out of the classroom and not stare at a blackboard all day. Thing is, among all the fun there was actually value in those trips. A concept you may have battled with on paper, for instance, might suddenly have made sense when you saw it in real life.

Unfortunately distance and cost mean that schools can’t always send their learners on the field trips they’d like to. It seems pretty cool therefore that Google has launched a series of virtual field trips that allow teachers and learners to visit some of South Africa’s most important historical sites.

Called Connected Clasrooms, one of the first tours will see the search giant take learners from across the country for a virtual visit to Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Learners will be able to explore the democratic significance of the location, learn more about some iconic high court judge personalities such as George Bizos and Albie Sachs, and participate and watch the live broadcast from their own classrooms.

On the international front, Google’s Connected Classrooms has allowed teachers from around the world to give their students virtual tours of The White House’s kitchen garden, watch a demonstration of pasta-making in Naples, Italy and peruse the American Museum of Natural History’s pterosaur collection.

Image: Harvey Barrison via Flickr.