Context
Going on a field trip? Its a great opportunity to bring lessons to life in more ways than one. Getting students to document their findings as they wonder the galleries for information using notes is a great way to give student agency in deciding what is important and map out their thoughts on what is important and why it is so. And the Notes app, they can easily do just that.
Preparation and Flow
I think it is important to show students how the Notes App can be organised and used, assuming it is new to them.
Show them how to create new notes, add # to organise them, and if they want, create folders as well to do this.
Show them also key functions like
- adding text,
- drawing with the various tools like brush,
- scanning text
- scanning documents (and photos)
- adding voice notes
(Pro tip, the scanning documents option actually captures great images especially those that are locked away behind a glass cover. And yes it works for images as well.)
Next, make sure we give students a focus on the task. We do not need to spell it out like a worksheet per se since the goal is also about digital literacy on how they can use devices smartly to get things done.
Decide how you want to sequence the time. It would of course be good to pair students up and give clear time and place indicators to meet up when they are done with say 5 exhibits and return to do a check-in.
I would begin with a simple task focus like "find out how art has depicted political upheavals in various countries."
This creates a bit of ambiguity that they need to work through in discerning what is required followed by how it is related.
Gather the students at midpoint and do a check in to see how they are on task. If needed, do walk through an example with those who may have difficulty working on their own.
Finally, gather students' work, you can have them export to PDF if need be (note this removes multimedia elements)
Possible Extension
The field trip is but one activity that part of the process in discovering how students can engage with the subject/topic. Creating this diversity and linking them up is all part of developing the craft of the trade e.g. historian's craft, social scientist lens etc.
And remember, digital artefacts can morph into more forms. See if students would like to take this further by creating new content in the form of a podcast of short clip.
From the LearnGrowCreate Team.
Main author: Thomas
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.