8 ways to mark World Tourism Day in school

World Tourism Day 2015 is on Sunday 27th September: providing you with a topic to use around this time. It is an opportunity to highlight the key messages the event promotes in an enjoyable way for students.

‘1 billion tourists, 1 billion opportunities’

The day aims to emphasise the importance of tourism and its value across the world. It also seeks to address challenges outlined in United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

No matter what ages you work with, this is such a versatile topic. It opens up a whole host of fun ideas for the classroom.

When I was reminded by a tweet this morning that the day was coming up, I thought I'd have a think about it and came up with 8 ways to mark it in school.

1. Virtual tourism: Skype or Google Earth
   
   It's an excellent way to help your students learn about other countries and cultures plus share their own experience too. There are some brilliant ideas out there on the most creative ways to do this.
   
   Skype Education is easy to navigate around and helps you find the best match for you and your class. I’ve seen so many teachers share things about the sessions they’ve had – so if you haven’t already, give it a try! Mystery Skype is a big branch of this. Invented by teachers, the general idea is that one class has to guess the location of the other class, all through Skype!
   
   There’s also some great ideas on using Google Earth to explore the world too – whether you have desktops or tablets, there’s a way to get your students virtually touring!
   
   
2. Organise a trip somewhere
   
   It's almost definitely something you've done before, and probably more hassle than a virtual trip, but it's so worth it. Seeing your students enlightened by the prospect - then reality - of visiting somewhere they’ve never been or experienced before, is wonderful.
   
   It can be a different continent (wow!), a different country, a different town or even a local site they’ve never been; whatever it is, starting planning now brings it that bit closer.
   
   
3.  Have a ‘try another culture’ day
   
   How this works depend on a few things – your role, how big your school or class is or even the enthusiasm of colleagues. It can be a schoolwide event, or just your class, but this can be a great way for students to experience other foods, languages, customs and character.
   
   It could mean simply bringing in a few different types of snack-type food and your class guessing which country it originates from, or it could be students bringing in things themselves. Get a class on Skype from the country you focus on, or perhaps invite in a speaker from there!
   
   
4. Get students sharing their own experiences of tourism
   
   They could write a review, newspaper article, blog post (if you have a school blog) or even design a leaflet for tourists. This doesn’t mean they need to have been somewhere far away or expensive – it could be where your school is, it could be on a place they visited at the weekend or where they went on a school trip.
   
   You could ask them to do it about somewhere they want to go, then they’ll have to do lots of research!
   
   
5. Run a SOLE session
   
   If you haven’t heard about Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs), read about them here. In short, they are “when educators and/or parents encourage kids to work in groups that they form, and are free to change, to answer big, open questions by using the internet” (SOLE toolkit).
   
   How about making the big question something tourism related? An example could be “What is the best country to visit in the world?", "What defines a tourist?" or anything you think.
   
   
6. Have a look on Global Dimension’s website
   
   Browse through the ‘tourism’ educational activities for lesson plans, resources and teacher packs.
   
   
7. Try one of our resources
   

   

   A slip from the Glenda mystery

   
   We have a range of collaborative learning activities. If you’d like a PDF ‘mystery’ on why Glenda, someone running a beachside hotel, may be cooking breakfast for the last time (more details here), comment ‘NTD Glenda’ at Let Us Know and I’ll email it to you.
   
   If you’d prefer to try an iPad app, take a look at our Geography mysteries (see our website) and comment ‘NTD’ at Let Us Know followed by the name of the app you want to try, and I’ll email you a free code to download it!
   
   
8. Get involved on social media
   
   Take a look at the social media pages of World Tourism Day and share your views.
   
   
   • Website here
   • Twitter @UNWTO with #WTD2015 and/or #1billiontourists
   • Instagram /untwo
   • Vimeo /untwo
   • Facebook /WorldTourismOrganization

If you have any ideas or have planned something already, please do comment or let us know on Twitter (@refthinking).

Thanks,

Natalie

Beaming teachers into SOLEs (Self-Organised Learning Environments)

As part of the School in the Cloud research team, I went along to Newcastle University’s launch of SOLE Central - a hub of research into SOLEs.

It was a great evening, but two things stood out in particular that made me consider what the future classroom may contain.

Following excellent talks from Sugata and others involved in the project, there were some technology demos by Newcastle University researchers. While none of the gadgets were new to me, the presence of two rather contrasting technologies at the same time and place got me thinking about different paths for future classrooms.

Technology One: BeamPro

Among the highlights was ‘beaming-in’ Suneeta Kulkarni, Research Director of the School in The Cloud from India. By 'beaming-in', I mean using a computer on wheels that enabled Suneeta to move around the space, using the screen and camera to interact with people. Suneeta, with this ‘remote presence’ robot was not only able to give an engaging 10 minute speech on the podium (click to see pic), but also mingle around freely with the attendees getting involved in different discussions.

The only bit she missed out on was the sweets! It is safe to say that she was the star of the event.

Suneeta watching a presentation
by one of the researchers

The question on everyone’s mind at such an event on the ‘School in the Cloud’ was ‘when can we beam-in teachers to classes?’ Part of the school in the cloud experience is the ‘Skype Grannies’ - e-mediators who interact with children in the SOLE centres via Skype. Beaming the granny means they don’t have to be this 2D person trapped on a static computer display. Instead, they materialise into a more tangible, mobile ‘person-bot’.

So to put this into a general teaching context; if the teacher can’t make it into the classroom, it’s possible to beam them in. This tech is still in its early stages, but a more interactive, human-like robot is not too far into the future.

Technology Two: Oculus Rift

On the other side of the tech spectrum was a virtual reality kit called Oculus Rift which Facebook recently bought for $2bn.

People had told me about trying a roller coaster ride using this amazing virtual reality system, but as much as they said how real it feels, I couldn’t believe it until I tried myself. While I was sitting on a stationary chair, I actually had all the suspense and emotions I would have when riding a real roller coaster. It turned out that it’s all in the brain and the actual physical movement only plays a trivial part in the whole experience.

With a virtual world that can feel so real, what about virtual classrooms that students and teachers attend and interact with from the comfort of their homes? What if a student in a remote village can attend a prestigious university on a different continent as if it was real?

Instead of beaming in a teacher to a real class, the whole class could be turned, with its students, into a virtual environment. The classroom can then turn into a fully immersive learning environment that plays a role in learning rather than just being the place for it. Set the scene: what if instead of studying about dinosaurs in a classroom, students have a session in which they’re walking with dinosaurs?

Future

Whether either of these technologies take off in education is difficult to say now, but they definitely demonstrate two contradicting views of how the future classroom can look. Will it still be a physical place with a mix of real humans and human controlled robots, or will it begin to turn into a virtual world completely? I feel lucky that I am in the middle of all this where I can witness some of the early prototypes of the future classroom and the school in the cloud, whichever way things go.