Virtual field trips rely on interactive videoconferencing, the same technology that businesses have used for decades.
During school hours, the technology can be put to use for educational exchanges or virtual field trips.
But no fund-raisers or permission slips were needed, thanks to a growing phenomenon in classrooms: the virtual field trip.
THE VIRTUAL FIELD -- The computer-generated map of the field appears as a blue grid on the computers used.
Perhaps future generations might take a similar view of today's expanding community of naturalists linked via the web, digital photography and social media, forming virtual field clubs.
Proponents of virtual field trips also say that they allow the kind of human interaction that up to now has been impossible for average schoolchildren.
Visitors will also be able to take virtual field trips -- and follow up with real ones, if they happen to be geotourists.
While President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have heralded the educational possibilities of the Web, most of what has been labeled instruction in cyberspace is supplemental at best -- SAT training, college counseling and virtual field trips.
About 50 schools in the Westchester, Putnam and Rockland districts use the technology for virtual field trips, according to George Brady of the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center of the Southern Westchester Boces.
Many schools insist that virtual field trips are not a replacement for traditional methods, but rather an addition, one that can enrich an existing curriculum and even boost academic standing.
Gamers cannot customise consoles, but they can, and do, upgrade their PCs regularly with faster processors, graphics cards, extra memory, and anything else that will give them an edge over their opponents on the virtual field of honour.
