On Monday, Google took pupils from around South Africa to Constitution Hill, to experience virtually the history of this site without leaving their desks.
Pupils from schools around the country could see and engage with the presenter, who took them through the significance of Constitution Hill.
The schools that were involved in the virtual field trip included Siyabonga Secondary in Illovo, Uplands School from Whiteriver, St John’s College from Johannesburg, Allen Glen High School from Roodepoort, Crawford, Victoria Park High School from Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town High.
The field trip was part of Google’s worldwide “connected classrooms” initiative. The next virtual field trip will be hosted on the 13 October and will focus on Vilakazi Street in Soweto, the site of the former home of Nelson Mandela.
Google country manager Luke Mckend says the initiative is part of the Doodle 4 Google campaign, with three events planned for and funded by the company. The idea is for schools to take the concept and make it their own, he says.
“The idea is to showcase how you can use technology in the classroom, both showing teachers what is possible and also bringing these sorts of historic places to learners. The beauty of these technologies is that you don’t need Google to support or run these — it’s possible for a school with the right connectivity to do these virtual field trips themselves.”
Mckend says all that is needed is a basic Web camera connected to a PC or a smartphone.
For the virtual field trips, Google is employing broadcast quality video and audio, but Mckend says schools can use whatever they have at their disposal. “It’s not the kind of technology that is exclusive. It can be utilised by schools using the existing tools they have. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media