Google Expeditions
"Imagine exploring coral reefs or the surface of Mars in an afternoon. With Expeditions, teachers can take students on immersive, virtual journeys." (Google Expeditions, 2017). Google Expeditions is a tool that utilises VR to enable teachers to take students on virtual trips to places like museums, underwater, and outer space. These virtual trips include 360° panoramas and 3D images, combined with annotations and questions, to immerse the students in the environment and make them feel like they are actually there. Expeditions are usually done in groups, with a leader (teacher) taking the explorers (students) on the trip. Explorers require a mobile device of some kind (phone or tablet/iPad) that can run the expeditions app. as well as a headset or google cardboard to fully immerse themselves in the trip (the headset/google cardboard is not required but are recommended). The leader chooses an expedition location such as Mount Everest or The International Space Station (example below) and the explorers connect to the trip and once they are in the leader can pinpoint certain points of interest and ask questions about the location.
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I believe Google Expeditions is a fantastic tool for use in the classroom; especially in geography, history or science classes. Examples of uses include:
If the cost and D.I.Y set up can be overcome Google Expeditions is a great tool for classroom use to get students engaged and excited about heir learning. For the SAMR model, it would fit into the redefinition category as it allows students to do things they previously were not able to do. As for the Bloom's taxonomy it would be in the evaluating category.
- Geography: Taking an expedition to a location students are doing an assignment on (eg. Mount Everest) and having them explore it and gain the information from the point of information in the expedition.
- History: Similar to the geography example, students can take expeditions to places such as Aztec and Mayan Ruins
- Science: There are expeditions even on human anatomy (respiratory system) and provide students with an interesting and different view of the content they would not get from just reading a book and looking at the images.
If the cost and D.I.Y set up can be overcome Google Expeditions is a great tool for classroom use to get students engaged and excited about heir learning. For the SAMR model, it would fit into the redefinition category as it allows students to do things they previously were not able to do. As for the Bloom's taxonomy it would be in the evaluating category.