Derek Gonzales
I will record as much video as I can and take as many pictures as a I can in order to add it to my digital apps.
This is a difficult question to answer as learning is best achieved through direct experience. How will I pass on my experience to my students when they themselves have not experienced what I have? The vast majority of my students have never traveled to India or Nepal. How can they benefit from my trip? I've been teaching about the history and culture of ancient India for many years, but I've never visited India, so my main goal it to take in as much of what I see and hear as I can, meet as many people as possible and have as many conversations with locals as I can, and use this experience to teach my students about the true culture of India based on my experience, not on a book we read in class. Like many of the others in this program, I'm sure several pictures will be taken and many souvenirs will be bought. These artifacts could be shared with my class. Another idea is to keep a video journal of my trip. I've seen some documentary filmmakers use this technique where they record their thoughts and feelings about places during the journey. I think this would be a powerful way of sharing my experience with students. I could use Explain Everything, FlipGrid, and ThingLink to upload images and videos during the trip and have students map out my journey in class. I could ask other educators on the trip to collaborate on this project.
I need to read as much as possible. I plan to read some of the recommended books on the list. I need to make sure I have a reliable camera. It would also be helpful to set up a virtual map in one of the apps I mentioned in the other question based on our itinerary, and then have it ready to go.