Make your next field trip paper-free and integrated with these apps and platforms
GroupMe
This mobile messaging app is the perfect way to connect everyone in your group and share real-time information about your class trip as the schedule is altered or plans are changed. Users can quickly form accounts by entering a phone number and password, Facebook credentials or Twitter account information. The app syncs contacts, allowing users to set up groups. Images, documents and videos can easily be attached and accessed by everyone in the group. The app has proven popular with educators because they can share supplementary lesson materials and trip schedule documents, and if you have breakouts of smaller groups when exploring an attraction, chaperones and group members can be divided into smaller chats to keep track of each other.
GroupCollect
The antiquated days of teachers creating unwieldly spreadsheets to keep track of who has paid for the class trip are in the past with this app. Specifically crafted for student tours, GroupCollect allows educators to create and track customized payment plans linked to individual students and classes. Teachers can track who is behind on their payments, adjust fundraising goals and distribute refunds if participants drop out. Using the same technology implemented by successful companies such as WorldStrides and EF Tours, you can plan your visit with the speed and efficiency of a national operator.
QR Code
Short for “Quick Response Code,” you’ve surely seen these black and white at restaurants or hotels. This more sophisticated version of a barcode that allow customers to take pictures with their smartphones and be directed to a website or app. Before you leave on your class trip, instruct any students with smartphones how to scan these codes and best practices for browsing the websites they are linked to. These codes can be used to check allergy information on menus, cleaning protocols for your lodging and wait times at theme parks, and you can also apply them to printed lesson plans to provide website information if you are outside or don’t have a large television display.
Group Travel Videos
This media-sharing app allows students can take and share photos, educators to keep track of their pupils’ using GPS and parents back home can experience their child’s adventure from the comfort of home. All members of a school group can take, share and store keepsake photos and videos using their mobile devices, and after the trip, they will receive a keepsake storytelling DVD that compiles the best images of the student’s vacation that can also be streamed on the app or website. A passenger list allows planners to keep track of group members on the platform, and a documents storage folder can secure itineraries, lesson plans and other digital assets from an administrator’s mobile device without the use of a laptop or desktop computer.
Tripcast
Designed for young people going on their first extended trip away from home, this social platform is perfect for middle and high school students to share their experience outside of larger social media sites. Group members are invited to the app and can post photos, videos and screenshots of their class trip to share only with other members of the group, so teachers and chaperones can moderate the content. Once the trip is over, participants can edit albums and video compilations to share on other platforms, and an interactive “photo map” allows students to pit photos and videos to the specific location it was taken.
