Global Learning with Dr. Riya Nathrani

Join Jessica and Georgia for an episode with Dr. Riya Nathrani for a discussion about virtual field trips and global learning.

Resources

Nearpod

Google Maps

Ditch That Textbook

Adobe Express

Air Pano

Tour the White House in 360 Degrees

Transcript

Dr. Riya Nathrani and Global Education

Georgia Terlaje: [00:00:00] It's time for The Edge, a podcast brought to you by ITSD and ASCD community leaders.

Whether you're a teacher, an administrator, or someone who simply loves education, fasten your seatbelts, because this podcast is tailor made for you. Join us as we dive into the world of education, sharing inspiring tales of innovation, passion, and change directly Start again. Join us as we dive into the world of education, sharing inspiring tales of innovation, passion and change directly from those on the front lines.

In the episodes to come, we'll highlight the incredible dedication and creativity that drive transformation in the field of learning. Buckle up, brace yourself for an adventure. Coming up today, we are talking about global education. I'm one of your community leader hosts, Georgia Trilahi. I'm a former TK5 instructional coach and an educator of 36 years. And I'm here with my always favorite partner in crime, Ms. Jessica Pack.

Jessica Pack: Thank you, [00:01:00] Georgia. I always love spending time together here on the edge. I'm Jessica Pack, a middle school teacher and an ISTE author, and some exciting news is that ISTE and ASCD community leaders are once again organizing the Global Impact Virtual Conference on April 5th. Last year's speakers were so incredible, and I can't wait to attend this year's online event.

Everyone can register at bit. ly slash 2025 dash global dash impact, or if it's easier for you, just check out our show notes for the link. Now, on today's episode, we're going to take a deep dive into what it means to bring the world into your classroom. Here to discuss global education is Dr. Rhea Nathrani.

Rhea, welcome to The Edge. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Could you introduce yourself for our 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: listeners, please? Sure. So my name is Ria Nathrani and I'm an Instructional Technology Coach in the Northern Mariana Islands which is a U. S. [00:02:00] territory. We're located near Guam and I live on Saipan, which is actually the most populated island in our archipelago.

And so I started my educational journey as a third grade teacher. I spent two years on that before I transitioned to teaching seventh grade computer literacy for four years. And now as a technology coach, I support a K 12 public school educators in my district and provide them with professional development.

With technology tools and strategies, and I work with students helping them learn digital skills ranging from cyberbullying to digital citizenship to media balance, online safety, and even coding with Spheros. 

Georgia Terlaje: Well, thank you so much for joining us today all the way from Saipan. We appreciate that.

Could you give us a little insight into how you became active in ITSD or ASCD and the CL program? We always like to talk about our guests origin stories. 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: [00:03:00] Yeah, for sure. So ISTE is well known in my district and many people have attended the conferences throughout the years. But attending conferences in the mainland U.

S. isn't always easy for us because it takes like about 24 hours of travel time. But last year was my first time to attend the ISTE conference and it was completely mesmerizing to like really witness the energy in person and really get a sense of the community that is at the conference with teaching and learning all of these wonderful tools.

And so it really helped reignite that passion in me to share these tools with my educators back home so that they could also benefit from these advancements. And then last year I was selected as a ISTE 20 to watch award winner. We were recognized during the conference. And I really wanted to continue being a part of the community, so I signed up to be a CL member, and then I go on Connect to learn about what other educators are [00:04:00] doing joined groups about AI and equity and digital citizenship and so I Also applied to be or I submitted proposal to present at isti conference this year.

So I was able to get approved for two of those. One is on educating students on online safety, and the other one is on assessments through gamification. 

Jessica Pack: Oh, congratulations on your accepted proposals. I'm so excited that we'll be in the same place this year and we could meet face to face. Yeah. Ria, I know that you are an advocate for virtual field trips, and I'm wondering what are some of the most impactful ways that you've seen virtual field trips enhance student learning?

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, so virtual field trips really helped my students who, you know, are living so far in the middle of the ocean really bringing that learning to life. [00:05:00] So with my third grade students we would take field trips. To like the white house and it's pretty interesting because when you take a virtual tour You can basically go through the different rooms Because some rooms are limited on the actual tour You can click on the different panels and see what the artwork is for or what the different rooms are for and then with my seventh graders, I was able to introduce things like visiting land famous landmarks in the world, like the great wall of China and even museums that I've personally been to, but I could never take my students on due to travel costs.

And of course the liability. So the ways that I've seen virtual field trips really enhance learning is making them see the bigger picture in the world and how they can be involved in that story and really giving them that confidence to be involved globally because there's just so much out there.

Georgia Terlaje: I love that so [00:06:00] much. I, I used to teach third grade and fifth grade and was very Very passionate about opening the world up to my students because I think it's so important no matter where you are, whether you're in the middle of the ocean or the middle of California, just knowing there are other opportunities out there and and, you know, the world's your oyster.

So don't let things stop you. So I think I love the work that you're doing. So what are some of the most effective platforms and tools for organizing these virtual field trips? Are there any kind of hidden gems that educators should explore? Explore if they're going to start this work. 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, for sure. So I have introduced few to colleagues or educators where I live when I do my professional development trainings.

And I just actually had one last week in Rota which is a neighboring island. So one of these. platforms is Nearpod. They have VR or virtual reality field trips where you can search the location and you can embed it in a lesson. And then we also have [00:07:00] something called Street View in Google Maps.

And I feel like it's really cool to be able to use the little orange pegman to you know, drag it to the place where you want to go. And students can Interact with the picture or feel trip when they can go forward, backward, left and right. So they can be immersed in that experience. Another tool I like to use.

It's from Matt Miller from ditch that textbook. He has a page on different types of Field trips on national parks space museums. And the link is ditch dot link slash VFD. He actually created a shortened link for easier access. And then there's websites like airpanel. com or 360 cities. And these are Uploaded by people and people get to basically navigate through the different locations.

So there's a lot out there. And my one of my personal favorites is the White House in 360 degrees. Because again, I have, [00:08:00] even though I've been able to go, a lot of my students might not be able to and so they just. Really get an eye opener of like the what's in the White House, you know, like they hear about it They see it in textbooks, but they're not sure what's inside and it's really cool to be able to bring them with that experience 

Jessica Pack: I love that you're recommending tools that are already approved by many ETS departments like Nearpod and Google Streetview, that's such a great place to start passive viewing in that type of tool can sometimes limit engagement and for students who just aren't as, you know, quick to start.

What are some strategies teachers could use to make those virtual field trips a little more interactive and immersive and have that accountability component? 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, for sure. It's very important to make sure they're engaging in the entire experience and not just, you know, looking up their house on the virtual field trip, which is something that kids [00:09:00] often do.

And of course, that's totally okay. But to make the virtual field trip more engaging or interactive, I would suggest incorporating more interaction from student to student so they can ask each other questions and ask questions to the whole class and also do research to find answers to those questions.

Because not all virtual field trips will have that little panel that tell them more information, so they can always use their search engines. I also suggest gamifying the experience through like a digital scavenger hunt or having like key facts and then they have to find answers throughout the virtual field trip so that there's intention behind it.

They can also Talk in small groups and discuss what they learned, their key takeaways, or teachers can have them create like a collaborative task. So I actually teach an online Japanese class and one thing I have my students do is create a brochure of places that they [00:10:00] would recommend visiting in Japan.

So they would choose like three to five places and Write a description of why someone should go there. So kind of like putting themselves in the shoes of like a marketing team and really making them the owner of that project so that they have the choice to select the places instead of the teacher having that that say, and then I would also have students connect.

their field trip experience to a real world application. So for example, how does this place relate to their daily life or a future career they might be interested in? And you can use things like Padlet to really bring together the discussion online and kind of have a place for them to put those thoughts down.

Georgia Terlaje: Do you, do you have some kind of like aha stories from students doing this work that inspired them maybe to like go farther or travel somewhere [00:11:00] or maybe make a career decision because of what you kind of set them up for? 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, for sure. So when I was teaching seventh grade, I we, this was during the pandemic.

So I would allocate time for students to explore STEM careers because I was teaching a CTE course. And they don't really have much exposure to that on. So I used Nearpod and I found different sites where engineers or scientists or researchers and other STEM careers might be at. And so my first batch of middle school students actually graduated last year.

And one of my students reached out to me. For a letter of recommendation because he wants to apply to for a summer internship that involves ocean research. So that was pretty cool. He so we were also part of this environmental club that I ran. And so he said he was inspired by those experiences and being able to see kind [00:12:00] of like the underwater world inspired him to take it further and And do a an internship during the summer.

So now that he's in college, he's actually majoring in marine biology. So that was pretty cool 

Georgia Terlaje: that that's so exciting because I think this kind of work you may not know right then that it's going to be something in the future, but you definitely are a link in the chain of these students lives. And so I just I applaud you for doing that and opening things up because it's just it's such important work.

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, for sure. Like you said, you don't see it in the moment. But these experiences really have a big impact on students. And actually when I was in elementary school, that's when I went on, I think the most physical field trips in my life. My third grade teacher would take us on about like three or four field trips per year, but it's like something that I remember so well, like maybe I didn't remember what I learned in the textbook the next day, but I remembered the experience I had.

During the actual field [00:13:00] trip and with, you know, virtual field trips were basically unlimited with what we can show our students. 

Jessica Pack: I love that so much. It's it's the emotional tags that we form with those experiences that really mean something to us on a broader, deeper level that's personal. And I love hearing you talk about that.

With sort of the advent of A. I. and the continued development of A. R. and V. R. And as you look ahead, how do you see the role of virtual field trips evolving in education? And are there any emerging trends or innovations that excite you? 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, for sure. So with the advancement of technology, there are definitely going to be more tools being developed.

I personally haven't used VR goggles with students, but I feel like as we further technology and education, we'll be able to see hopefully more access to these tools. And You know, with having virtual field trips on a device [00:14:00] like a laptop or Chromebook or iPad or tablet It's a great experience But I think being able to use the vr goggles is another kind of experience where they're fully immersed in it So hopefully we'll be able to see more access to that and some emerging trends that I look forward to seeing is that there will be more access to actual virtual field trip sites So one thing I was looking forward to seeing when I did this presentation in Rota was that some of the teachers asked like, oh, can I go to this site on the island and then turn it into a 360 Picture or video so that I can show it to my students because even though it's on the same island, like transportation and costs and supervision and all that can be, you know, a logistical issue.

So they, when they asked about this, I was like, okay, let me look into this. And I believe three 60 cities. net does allow you to upload images. And I'm sure there'll be other sites as well where [00:15:00] teachers can. Create their own virtual field trips. So I'm excited for that because I want to definitely see more resources and that way we can share, you know, different parts of the world with each other.

Georgia Terlaje: So if it's educators can worry about, you know, technical aspects of these things, especially if you're not super tech savvy. I know a lot of in the world are, but maybe listeners beyond that aren't as tech savvy. How. How would they? What would you suggest they do to start so they're not overwhelmed?

You know, talking about VR goggles and all of this. Some people may tap out right away. How? How would you have someone start? That was a little skittish about technology. 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, that's a great question. And it's very important to consider different audiences and levels of use. So what I would say is that in this subject area that you teach in, whether it's E.

L. A. Or math or science, think of A way that you can use virtual field trips in and it doesn't have to be like [00:16:00] one for every subject every day Of course, it's if it's intentional, it'll be more effective so for like ela you can have your students visit the setting of the book or story that you're reading in class or a library, somewhere in the world or even use a virtual field trip to come up with like a creative writing prompt For math, they can do some calculations of like distances between two places and Google Maps has a measurement tool that actually lets students measure distances for science, they could visit zoos, aquariums and space for history, historical sites.

So my advice would be to just look at where it could be useful in the subject you teach. And you can just do a simple search on virtual field trips for that. And then for art, you know, you can visit visit art museums, architectural buildings, and Google Arts and Culture also has a lot of great virtual field [00:17:00] trips that are great to start with if you're not sure where to begin.

Jessica Pack: Do you have any suggestions for how teachers can support? diverse learning needs. When they're doing virtual field trips with students, I'm thinking here about like universal design and ensuring that everyone can access the task. 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, for sure. So virtual field trips really help cater to different learning styles in my experience, because the visual learners would benefit from images and videos.

Students who are more into auditory learning can. Listen to the narration guides that are available on many sites or even do like an expert talk viewing. And then kinesthetic learners would learn from the interactive, like, exploration where they can basically use their screen to move around.

And so I feel like students from different backgrounds are able to connect with the content and it really helps them to be excited about it even more. [00:18:00] And so. In my experience, I've seen virtual field trips that could cater towards all grade levels and subject areas and It's really interesting to see how things like, you know, ancient civilizations or ecosystems that we couldn't possibly visit, or, you know, maybe they're not there anymore, we could visit that through the virtual field trip.

Georgia Terlaje: So back when dinosaurs roamed the earth is when I started teaching, and we used to have pen pals, you know, in different states, different countries. Have you been able to kind of connect with educators in other geographic locations to maybe share some of your field trip creations, you know, classes sharing maybe their geographic location with their virtual field trip pen pal for lack of a better term.

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah. I personally haven't had that experience with sharing like, [00:19:00] virtual field trip with another class but I do share like the sites themselves with other educators. But I think that'd be a really great idea because seeing, you know, different buildings or architecture in different places would be really cool for students because the way that our houses or our buildings look here is way different from another part of the world.

So I think that'd be a really great, great project for students to get immersed in and having that connection with someone outside of their community could really expand their perspectives on life. So that's a really great idea. 

Georgia Terlaje: So that's our challenge to listeners. Find Dr. Nathrani at its day. I know.

Jessica and I will find her and we might be able to do some things in California, but let's make this happen because I think that would be a really cool project of students sharing their own geographic location as a virtual field trip to another. Group of students, especially, you know, like your students so far away.

So geographically [00:20:00] kind of isolated. I think sometimes people don't realize how isolating it is to be on an island in the middle of the Pacific that it just a great way to open up the world. 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: Yeah, for sure. And that actually reminds me of this activity I did on Google Maps when I was presenting at a conference, I had educators use the interactive map to pin the location they're from, and we could see, like, the, the diverse areas people were coming from, and it was really cool to see, you know those different locations, and I think for students, it would be even more powerful because they're still accessible.

Yeah. Coming, they're still getting used to looking at, you know, these different resources. So when they can see that being applied in a real way, it will be really helpful for them to see those concepts come to life. 

Jessica Pack: Oh, that's so great. I love just the, the theme of cultural awareness and global connections and opening up the doors to the world instead of just.

being in your [00:21:00] four, four walls at your school. So thank you. This has been such a great conversation, Rhea. Thank you again for being here today. We really appreciate your time and your message before we let you go. Where could listeners connect with you if they're interested in learning more? 

Dr. Riya Nathrani: For sure. I'd love to connect with our. listeners today. So you can find me at ISTE, but you can also connect with me through email. Unfortunately, I don't have a LinkedIn, but it's my first name, ria. nathrani. And then it's at cnmipss. org for my professional email. So I'd love to connect with your ideas on virtual field trips.

If you have a resource that you'd like to share with me, or if you'd like any of the resources that I shared today. I can totally provide that to you. So I really appreciate connecting with others and I look forward to seeing you all at ISTE, whether virtually or in person. 

Jessica Pack: Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Well, that wraps up this episode of The Edge [00:22:00] Podcast. We hope you had a great time. My name is Jessica and you can find me at Packwoman208 on Xthreads and Instagram. 

Georgia Terlaje: And I'm Georgia Terlahi, and you can find me at Georgia Terlahi on Blue Sky NX and both of us at StorytellingSavesTheWorld. com. 

Jessica Pack: On behalf of everyone at ISTE and ASCD's The Edge podcast, remember to keep exploring your passion, fostering your creativity, and continue taking risks, all things that can bring you to the edge.