Teacher and Student Usage
Teachers are able to choose various trips (expeditions) to take a class through a virtual field trip. By using a teacher tablet and prompts in Expeditions, they address specific points of interest along the way via arrows and teacher prompts, while tracking where students are viewing via smiley faces. Additional features include pausing the trip to gain students’ attention, playing ambient sounds for a more realistic experience, and free time for students to explore.
All Expedition Virtual Reality field trips are a compilation of 360 degree photo spheres, annotated with details, points of interest, and questions that make it easy to integrate into a school’s curriculum. Partners involved in creation include NASA, PBS, the American Museum of Natural History, David Attenborough with Alchemy VR, and many other museums of the Google Cultural Institute. Students can take virtual field trips that were never before possible to them including the coral reef, the space station, and foreign countries.
Professional Development
For those who are new to the subject of Virtual Reality, there is Professional Development available for 20 participants at a time, onsite. Google Expeditions can bring the world to the classroom; immersing students in media-rich, global explorations that build global competencies and understandings. The Professional Development workshop will introduce teachers to the Google Expeditions kit and show them how to set up and use it. Participants will investigate the many Expeditions that are available to integrate with curricular goals and activities. The training will include the exploration of lesson plans to promote collaboration, innovation, and integration strategies for using Expeditions within the classroom to support global learning.