There
is no doubt that it is always better to get students out on
a visit, this could be the local church, synagogue, mandir
or temple or it could be a graveyard or museum. However this
is not always possible due to the constraints on time or opportunity
so a Virtual Visit can be a second best,
but still very worthwhile, activity.
Even
if you have a place of worship nearby it is unlikely you will
have the time of the opportunity to get all of your students
to a variety of places of worship in the course of a period
of study so the Virtual Visit can be a supplementary
to the main event as well as a replacement.
The
key to a good virtual visit is the same as to a good real
visit. The objectives of the lesson must be clear and shared
with the group. What is it the students are looking for? What
is it that you want them to record, remember and respond to?
You
can also get your students to create their own virtual
visits. See the ideas section below to see how this
can be done quite simply. |
Collecting
data - When you are on your real
or virtual visits use the technology to collect information.
On a real visit this could be stills or video. This allows
the students to focus more on the 'why' and less on the 'what'
of the visit. Digital cameras also have the advantage of,
once they are bought, having very little cost implications
so get the students to take a lot of pictures and then select
the images that are most appropriate to the RE question e.g.
'what symbols can you see in the place of worship and what
are these representing about the beliefs of those who worship
here?'. On a virtual visit use screen capture technology and
'right clicking or 'control clicking' to save image and video
files [keep in mind the IPR and copyright rules when doing
this].
Your
own virtual visit - once you have collected data you
could get your students to make their own virtual visit either
as a piece of assessed work for you, for them to present to
their classmates or to produce for a younger year group. See
the 
Discerning
Students - Encourage your students to critique web
sites and to suggest how they would develop web resources of
their own. Consider the question how would the internet allow
you to experience a place of worship? YOu might set these criteria
for the pupils or you might develop these as part of a class
discussion. Now get the pupils to look at a couple of places
of worship and then produce a proposal for how a virtual visit
should look for this to best be accomplished.