A Phenomenological Study of In-service Teachers: Alternative Method for Construction of Structurally Significant Virtual Tour Through Orders of Scale

Abstract:

This phenomenological study is composed of graduate students currently teaching mathematics or science while taking the course “Fundamentals of Field Methods” at The University of Texas at El Paso. This learning experience is innovative and unconventional because it uses the presentation medium Prezi^TM to create a virtual field trip using a web-based medium housed on an accurately geo-referenced background (or canvas) in order to construct a visually-spatially organized design or structurally significant design. The student-based end product accurately depicts the Franklin Mountains in El Paso TX in varying observational magnitudes of scale and can be navigated to any location and any level of scale with relative ease. This virtual tour incorporates various technologies such as Prezi^TM, Google Earth^TM and Gigapan^TM and has practical uses in pedagogy, data accumulation and interpretation. The virtual tour can be duplicated at any locale and the one relating to the Franklin Mountains is currently accessible at: http://prezi.com/ppifmprmx4jr/loop-375-virtual-tour-franklin-mtns/