Treading prehistoric footsteps
By Chris Simon

Photo by Chris Simon Goodfellow Public School Kindergarten students participated in a video conference with staff at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta last week. The students were able to interact with museum staff and ask about dinosaurs.

Kindergarten students were hunting for dinosaur answers at Goodfellow Public School last week.

The school hosted at virtual field trip to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, journeying through its galleries and exhibitions and talking with a paleontologist. The paleontologist, through video conferencing technology, answered student questions and showcased several of the fossils in the museum's possession.

It was the first time the kindergarten classes had used the conferencing technology.

"All kids learn differently, and if you try to teach only in one way, you're not reaching all the kids," said teacher Nicola Strachan. "Kids are so enthralled by technology these days, if you can teach them using technology, you're able to reach the majority of your class."

For the past four weeks, the students have been studying dinosaurs, centering math, reading, writing and oral language activities around the prehistoric animals.

Students are fascinated by dinosaurs for several reasons, said teacher Sarah Sportun.

"We've been doing a lot of work teaching the kids about media; computers and things like that. But this really gives them a change to talk to somebody far away and what a computer can really do," she said. "The kids are really being exposed now, versus 10 years ago, to a lot more technology type activities. They loved it because it was so interactive. They could talk to (a paleontologist) and he could answer their questions, so they knew it was happening right in that moment."

During the video conference, students learned about various dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brachiosaurus and Triceratops. They also learned about fossil preservation, the various sizes of dinosaurs and the number of teeth each had.

"It's their size and that they're not around anymore (which is so fascinating to students)," said Sportun. "It's this unknown thing that they'll never get to see or meet, but everybody knows about them."

Simcoe County District School Board information and computer technology teacher Jim Carleton says students across the region are beginning to take advantage of new video conferencing technology, which has allowed them to interact with experts and other students across the world.

"We've just started doing this with the different conference providers," he said. "It's a growing area. With open heart or knee surgery, the kids can be talking to the doctors live in the operating room. I've seen another one with divers in the Great Barrier Reef (in Australia). You were able to zoom in on coral and sharks and talk to the divers in the dive. The people who are putting these on have an educational background. They're very engaging and entertaining."

All board secondary schools already have video conferencing equipment, while elementary facilities use laptop technology. By September, the state-of-theart secondary school equipment will be available to all board elementary schools, he said.

"It's got great potential," he said. "We've got one of those systems in every single high school, and we're rolling out, in September, another 22 units that will be shared amongst the elementary schools. It's designed much better for classroom use (than the laptops)."

Goodfellow principal David Brownlee says the technology allows students to learn in a cost effective, exciting and interactive environment.

"This trip will gave our students the opportunity to visit the museum without having to leave their own classroom," he said.

"This is an exciting way to bring learning opportunities into our classrooms and to extend the learning of our students."