All good things must come to an end, they say. This is exactly what happened to Google Expeditions. For years, we were able to transport learners from the classroom to Antarctica, the Roman Colosseum, under the sea, AND to outer space. Those possibilities no longer exist in an easy to access and deliver way. Many tours were moved to Google Arts and Culture, but being about to provide guided tours using VR headsets are a thing of the past. Sure, they can explore on their own, but we lost the ability to guide students through the exploration and discuss what they were seeing. With Expeditions we could also see that our students were with us using the targets and seeing all of the student icons in the target area. If you know, you know.
In my role as a creator of content, I am perhaps the most sad about the loss of the Tour Creator application that allowed teachers to create custom guided expeditions and learning experiences for students. An added benefit to this was that STUDENTS could also create those tours to show learning. It was a multi-faceted creation tool and was accessible for them! With the loss of Tour Creator, we lost an opportunity for students to move from consuming virtual reality content to creating it. With COVID-19 limiting in person virtual reality experiences due to shared equipment and some students lacking face-to-face access, the need for virtual travel has changed, yet in some ways, it has become more important than ever! Sure, there are 360 videos at YouTube - and it would be great to use those. BUT the YouTube app for iPads which would allow for viewing in a headset viewer, is 17+ in the app store. That means it is a big NOPE for our schools. Then there are the recent changes with age restrictions for YouTube videos and third party apps, so it is possible students wouldn’t be able to even view them if they did have access to the app. The struggle is real. The obstacles are always changing - just when you think you have one figured out, another gets thrown in your path. Well, not today! Currently, I am exploring VR creation tools for teachers to use - I have not found any robust ones for students - available for free - and that makes me sad. I put together THIS list. Here I documented tour creation tools for teachers that detail what each tool allows the creator to add. I covered Google Arts & Culture and YouTube for places to go to find and use ready made items (consume), but my focus in my October professional learning offering was on creation! I shared the following tools: Panoform, StorySpheres, 360schools, and Thinglink - whichis my absolute favorite! Granted, there are other tools such as Round Me that I like for creating 360° tours. However, in my current district, they have deemed the site risky since it is communicating with Russian servers. I can get to the site https://roundme.com/ but can’t log in. So the list above only contains sites that are accessible within our district’s filters. Here is my recent presentation on 360° of Engagement - Consuming & Creating 360° Experiences for Learners. Included in the Create section are links to samples created to demonstrate what each tool can do, So while Google may have dropped Expeditions, our journey has not ended. As with any good journey, we have to see obstacles as a chance to try something new. On to the next adventure!
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AuthorJeannie Timken Archives
March 2023
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