Zilla Parishad school teacher connects with students from 22 nations on ‘virtual field trips’

One of the ‘virtual field trips’, conducted by Ranjitsinh Disale, is on the topic of dinosaurs

In the last couple of months, Ranjitsinh Disale, a Zilla Parishad school teacher from Solapur, has taken students from more than 22 countries on an educational, and virtual, tour that covered topics as diverse as dinosaurs and textiles.  Disale, a teacher from Solapur’s Madha taluka, is the first one from India to register for three ‘virtual field trips’ on Microsoft’s education platform.

A ‘virtual field trip’ is a way to educate students by taking them on various adventures through a virtual platform. Using Skype, the educator connects to classrooms across the world and takes students on a live tour to various points of interest around the world. The programme gives students a chance to meet museum tour guides, explorers, marine biologists, zoologists, and scientists, without leaving their classrooms, through a live virtual platform.

“I was chosen for the innovative educator programme, where the virtual field trip was a project. The basic idea is to make students move away from bookish knowledge and give them practical experience of various subjects, history, scientific concepts and so on… it is an extremely engaging activity… as teachers, we first get our field trips registered,” said Disale.

Explaining how the virtual tour works, he said, “In Solapur, we have a science and technology centre, and I took permission from the district administration and education department to use it. On that basis, I developed three field trips, on scientific experiments, dinosaurs and the history of the textile industry in Solapur”.

Once Disale has registered the field trips, schools from all over the world can visit the education platform and send in requests for their students to be part of these experiences. A schedule is prepared, and on a mutually decided time and day, Disale connects live with school authorities and students through Skype from the science centre in Solapur.

“… For younger students, we have the dinosaur trip, where I would show them exhibits of dinosaurs at the science centre and explain their evolution… there are also some fun elements… there are more than 150 science experiments which can be performed live, and the schools have to choose five experiments, which can be done in one session. I would be conduct them live from the science centre and take questions from students. The third is the session on textile history, as we have a textile museum here and this session is meant for older students. So, the students are paying a virtual visit to these centres, but it is not a pre-recorded video… the process is live, so it is more engaging and interactive,” added Disale.