Virtual Tours

A virtual tour is a stimulation of an existing location that uses video clips, sound effects, narration, and text. I think virtual tours would be very helpful at the beginning of a unit to help students preview the unit. For example, in my future classroom if I do a unit on a particular country, say China, I would make or find a virtual tour about the area of China we were going to be studying so that students could get a brief overview of that area and see what it looked like in person. I think a pro of virtual tours is that they feel like you are actually there in the place. Another pro is that they allow students to see how that area is in a variety of ways. Another pro is that you can visit a place without actually going there. A con is that if you can't find an already made virtual tour then it make take a lot of time to make your own. Another con is that a virtual tour can't show you every part of a particular place, it just gives you a brief overview.