Virtual Tour

1. What is a virtual tour?
- A virtual tour is a video or picture tour of a facility or area shown through technological means. Often these tours are on the Internet and give viewers a first had look at houses, schools, classrooms, apartments, construction areas, and even sports facilities.

2. How can you use virtual tours in your classroom?
- A teacher could use a virtual tour for parents to see the environment that their children learn in. Teachers could also create a tour for student assignments involving mapping and room outlines. Many times a school will create a virtual tour of their classrooms, cafeteria, and maybe athletic facilities for prospective students and new families to the area. These tours are geared to give the parents a clear idea of where and how their child will be interacting with in the school, along with the schools new means of technology and learning.

3. Positives and negatives of using virtual tours.
- One obvious positive of using virtual tours is that it allows the viewer to physically see and observe and area without actually having to be there. Through virtual tours students can also prepare for field trips by watching a virtual tour prior to physically being there to familiarize themselves with the new setting. For new students a virtual tour of the school they will be attending is largely beneficial due to the ease of comfort that it offers prior to the student embarking on that first day adventure.
- One negative that can arise from virtual tours would be schools relying too much on them. In some cases a school board may choose for their students to not physically travel to museums or educationally informative buildings due to them having virtual tours. This would be much more inexpensive, however it would not actually allow the students to interact with the information they are receiving. Virtual tours may also only cover the positives of a facility. Many times these tours leave out any negatives or sub par areas due to the poor reflection it will leave with the viewers.