This past school year, 16 high schools in North Carolina joined together to participate in a successful experiment in "flipping the field trip" — or using technology to give students more time outside the classroom to prepare for the in-class experience.

The high schools and the North Carolina Museum of Art joined together to create "Artists in Process." To begin, the museum worked with a tech company to create a social media website "stocked with images from its collections, video interviews with artists and discussion questions, all tied to one of three themes — identity, place, and storytelling," said The Hechinger Report.

Before actually entering the museum to check out the exhibits, participating students spent time on the website researching and collaborating to optimize the time spent in the actual museum.

"Prepping for field trips is nothing new, of course. But the focus on collaborative brainstorming as a foundation for creative work made this different," the article said.

And it's the technology aspect to the project that facilitated that difference. Students were able to use an online space to communicate with others across the state as a part of a larger community, building excitement and engagement toward a common goal.

The "virtual brainstorming" took place for several weeks before the students met to see the exhibits in-person at the museum.

In phase two of the project, "[t]he paired classes met at the museum. They were put into groups of three or four kids, based on their chosen themes, and left to explore the museum on their own for a few hours. Each group had a smartphone or tablet computer, to take pictures of art that spoke to their theme and to use Pinterest or Instagram to create a virtual exhibit they would present at the end of the day."

The final phase of the project occurred in the classroom, where students spent time working on the culminating final art project, which included uploading their snapped pictures to the sharing site for feedback and critique.

Not only did the students make the grade, many of them also had their work featured in the museums' "Teens, Inspired" exhibit.

Read the full article here and comment with your thoughts below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor