Tag Archives: virtual reality

by | November 8, 2023 · 4:36 pm

Embodied Learning: physical engagement and digital tech integration

“Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.”

(Montessori, )

Physical movement in learning has been widely researched and written about. In the early 1930’s, Dr. Montessori understood that learning relied on how our physical bodies interacted with the environment. For her, the environment was physical. Today, we are able to consider the role of digital technologies, spaces, objects and experiences in the context of embodied learning.

Embodied, for our purposes, means that the learner has initiated a physical gesture or movement that is well-mapped or linked to the content to be learned. This might include place-based learning experiences, in-class hands-on engagement, learning labs, games and also includes the possibilities afforded through immersive technologies.

Immersive technologies, including Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), have the potential to enhance or even redefine learning (Puentedura, 2013). VR offers potentially emotionally charged, immersive experiences, where the user is ‘within’ the virtual environment, while AR overlays digital content on the real world. Research by Johnson-Glenberg MC (2018) emphasizes the levels of embodiment in education—ranging from basic gestures to full-body movement—to deepen learning experiences.

This emotional engagement, can lead to increased behavioural and, ultimately, cognitive engagement (Dubovi & Tabak, 2021). As teachers, integrating embodied learning means actively engaging students physically in the learning process. Digital and other technologies offer a spectrum of physical engagement levels for a more immersive and effective approach to teaching science. We can move from simple gesture to full body movement.

At the lower end of the embodiment spectrum would be the use of 360 video or other gesture based media (such as the Shakespeare folio we explored in our visit to UBC’s Emerging Media Lab – links to external UBC site). 360 video would be another good example. With equipment becoming less expensive and more accessible, you might try shooting your own video (or take still images using Google Streetview).

The following is an example 360 video a friend and I shot in Pacific Spirit Park. It shows my mentor, Lynn Pollard, a long-time Surrey teacher, environmental activities and naturalist educator. (Special thanks to Sharon Hu)

Now imagine the potential engagement and immersion if we could also smell the forest while learning about the carbon cycle! I actually tried this out using simple ‘scent boxes’ that students held while interacting with the video (one with moss, others with cedar, fir, leaves). While this video doesn’t allow for ‘smellivision’, it does allow a greater level of immersion than a static image or standard video. I have used this as ‘prep’ for heading outdoors with students and as a ‘replay’ to re-immerse ourselves upon return and before we do some art or writing activities related to our field experience. It could also be used as a replacement to an outdoor experience (depending on context, objectives).

student wearing VR goggles and holding controllers in front of screen showing stanley park immersive experience

Student ‘immersed’ in VR

Levelling up a bit on the embodiment spectrum would be opportunities that allow for full body movement and gesture. This might include fully immersive VR of the kind explored on a recent visit to UBC’s Emerging Media Lab (EML).(links to external/UBC based site) Of course, while some schools have invested in this digital tech, access may not be possible in the average k12 school today. We were fortunate in our visit to the EML to try out a few different options (see table below for resource links).

Using the rather ubiquitous smartphone, we can view a variety of 3D images using a google search and engage with them as AR images in the environment.

Person gesturing towards a virtual AR image of a tiger in the classroom

Dr. Khan virtually pats a tiger!

Imagine our surprise when a tiger joined the class (or when the full circulatory system model wandered by!). In order to view these 3D images, we need to move around them physically and gesture to adjust size; allowing a somewhat ’embodied’ experience.

student holds merge smart phone in front of a merge cube AR block. Phone shows an AR beating heart.

Holding a beating heart in her hand!

We might also use a Merge Cube to view AR models. Again, not super high tech, but thought provoking when we think about the difference between a static model of the heart and a larger than life sized beating organ suspended in the room in front of us!

 

Embracing embodied learning empowers students to not just learn about science or the world around them, but to tangibly experience and internalize it. It’s about creating educational experiences that transcend the traditional confines of a classroom, fostering a deeper and, hopefully, more lasting connection between physical engagement and knowledge acquisition.

References:

Dubovi I, Tabak I. Interactions between emotional and cognitive engagement with science on YouTube. Public Underst Sci. 2021 Aug;30(6):759-776. doi: 10.1177/0963662521990848. Epub 2021 Feb 5. PMID: 33546572; PMCID: PMC8314998.

Johnson-Glenberg MC. Immersive VR and Education: Embodied Design Principles That Include Gesture and Hand Controls. Front Robot AI. 2018 Jul 24;5:81. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00081. PMID: 33500960; PMCID: PMC7805662. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7805662/

Montessori, Maria. The Secret of Childhood. Orient Longman, 1966.

Puentedura, R. R. (2013, May 29). SAMR: Moving from enhancement to transformation [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/000095.html

Resources from our Session (Oct 2023)

I recently had the opportunity to work with UBC Faculty, grad students and members of the team at the Emerging Media Lab on the Vancouver Campus on some interactive and ’embodied’ stations to allow students to experiment and consider the levels of embodiment afforded with Augmented and Virtual Reality tools. Below are some resources from our session. It is important to note that we did not offer these AR and VR options as alternatives to ‘real world embodied learning’ but as enhancements to the learning environment.

EML offers weekly drop-ins and opportunities to collaborate on projects, co-plan and co-teach! https://eml.ubc.ca/

Station/Activity Level of Embodiment  Resource notes/Links
VR immersive exploration (Stanley Park Simulation EML Project) immersive VR, interactive controllers, gesture, movement, sound https://eml.ubc.ca/projects/geography-vr/
Holo brain (using Hololens) gesture-based augmented reality https://eml.ubc.ca/projects/holobrain/
Smartphone Google Search AR gesture-based AR with some body movement Link to ios/android instructions and full list of available 3D images – Google link.
Star Walk AR gesture-based AR with some large body movement Requires smartphone, ipad, tablet. Star viewing apps allow you to view celestial objects/night sky in real time and across space and time. Link to Star Viewing Apps SS Blog post.
Merge Cube AR gesture-based AR Requires handheld/smart phone or ipad. Link to Merge Cube blog post in Scarfe Sandbox. 
Shakespeare XR Interactive gesture-based AR A table top virtual Shakespeare text, turn the pages with gesture. https://eml.ubc.ca/projects/shakespeare-xr/

 

Planning for ‘Tech-enhanced Embodied Learning’

I created the following ‘solution tree’ of considerations when electing to incorporate these tools (note this tree is a first draft… I’m hoping to make a more effective diagram for a future edit of this post – please comment on this post if you have feedback)

  • Is the experience you wish to offer POSSIBLE in the real world? Can you/your students visit the place or hold the object
  • if yes, then…
    • Consider incorporating the digitally enabled tools as supplement or enhancement to real world experiences and labs. For example, pre- or post- labs; allowing students to pre-play and re-play content or experiences using digital tools including 360 media can enhance their reflections on the experience, can supplement and even deepen connections to learning.
    • if yes, then:
      • Think about: your learning objectives and the ‘level of embodiment’ you’d like to offer your students as you choose the tools.
      • Ask:
        • are any students going to be excluded (due to health and safety or access issues?
        • if no, then… 
          • GO! Try to make it happen. Advocate for it!
        • if yes, then…
          • plan or consider alternative experiences. For example: if a student has vestibular or other health or safety concerns and may not be able to use a VR headset, is there an AR experience you can offer that is more comfortable for that student (Consider Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in your planning and you’ll see that having an alternative will likely be necessary for some and of benefit to many!)
  • Is the experience you wish to offer IMPOSSIBLE in the real world (perhaps unsafe or inaccessible to some/all of your students)
  • if yes, then…
    • consider incorporating the digitally enabled tools as the main/central experience in the lesson or unit or lab.
    • if yes, then:
      • Think about:
        • your learning objectives and the ‘level of embodiment’ you’d like to offer your students as you choose the tools.
        • how you will ensure access and engagement (if you have access to only one device, what will students do when it is not their ‘turn’? are there stations you can set up for students for more active engagement and to lessen ‘wait time’; what role do students have who are not ‘immersed’ in the activity?
        • how will students reflect upon their experience?
      • Ask: Are any of my students going to be left out of this experience?
      • if no, then… 
        • GO! Try to make it happen. Advocate for it!
      • if yes, then…
        • plan or consider alternative experiences. For example: if a student has vestibular or other health or safety concerns and may not be able to use a VR headset, is there an AR experience you can offer that is more comfortable for that student (Consider Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in your planning and you’ll see that having an alternative will likely be necessary for some and of benefit to many!)

 

Blog post by Yvonne Dawydiak, Learning Design Manager, Teacher Education Oct 2023

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by | November 19, 2019 · 2:42 pm

Setting Our Sights on Virtual Reality

Virtual realities (VR) are computer-created environments in which people can interact with what has been programmed or, when linked to some kind of network or on-line access, with each other.

Typically, users wear some kind of headset or goggles to facilitate their sensory experience, which is primarily visual (sometimes fully 360°) and perhaps aural and/or tactile. Environments might be fictional or non-fictional, and interaction passive or active (Moreno & Mayer, 2007).

Although we might consider any back-and-forth communication between two or more people as inter-activity, only a meaningful connection that helps one or more than one of them learn something is interactive learning (Moreno & Mayer, 2007). Moreno and Mayer (2007) are careful to clarify further that interactivity does not “cause” but rather helps “promote” learning (p. 321) although perhaps their conclusion does not fully account for the effects of the hidden curriculum.

Therefore, when planning lessons, teachers should avoid the temptation to try VR for its own sake, which can produce a more gimmicky effect. Instead, they might consider exactly how interactive learning can help enrich their students’ experiences, not only by appealing directly to students’ senses but by directly confronting their capabilities: “… students’ areas of expertise can become the ‘real’ of real-world applications, and students’ knowledge can successively alter curricular outcomes” (Schneider et al., 2014, p. 562).

Create, Make, Innovate: Getting Hands-on with Learning Design

Recap of the session held in the Scarfe Foyer Fall 2019:

At this week’s Create, Make, Innovate! activity session, on Tuesday, November 19th, 2019, teacher candidates had the chance to learn about creating VR experiences for the classroom using Google Tour Creator.

“Today’s media-savvy students compose and read texts that include alphabetic- and character-based print, still images, video, and sound. They listen to podcasts, watch animations on the Internet, film their own videos, and compose visual arguments on paper and online. These rich, multilayered texts demand multimodal literacy skills of their readers, who must navigate the different, intersecting media.” (Gardner, 2007, p. 93)

Cardboard Goggles (Image by WikimediaImages from Pixabay)

Google offers a suite of VR apps, branded as Google Cardboard on account of the homemade goggles that you can make yourself. While the goggles are novel and can be fun to try on, they are not necessary in order to use the apps, which range from the amusing to the cinematic.

The Education Library in Scarfe has several sets of goggles available for loan. However, if you do take on making some goggles, as an initial project, they can actually lend a more cozy feel to watching later on since those goggles are thanks to your own hard work!

Resources

Check out the Scarfe Digital Sandbox for other interactive VR apps, such as Discovery VR, and also Merge Cube, which is an Augmented Reality (AR) tool.

“The virtual worlds we have designed have strong visual elements that are historically and culturally related to specific literary texts…. They can incorporate sound and video files to create museum and role-play environments.” (Arver, 2007, p. 37)

Related to VR is MOO, which also functions as a multi-user on-line network but in a text-based rather than a sensory-based format. MOO systems find their origins in the role-playing adventure game, Dungeons & Dragons, in which players adopt roles and interact as protagonists during an imaginary adventure, usually while sitting together around a table. MOO systems take that experience on-line.

Typically, each MOO user is able to contribute to its programming, which affects everyone else’s experience. In the classroom, a teacher might create a VR or MOO experience that corresponds to a novel study, such as Lord of the Flies (Arver, 2007) or Brave New World (Rozema, 2003), and let students “interact as additional characters, discuss and solve problems based on the circumstances of the story, and complete classroom assignments within a virtual environment” (Arver, 2007, p. 37).

“The best way of thinking about a literary MOO, then, may be as an electronic book club that meets within the story world of the book itself and invites all to participate on equal footing.” (Rozema, 2003, p. 38)

Clarify Your Intentions, Justify Your Lessons

Author and scientist, Jaron Lanier, has been credited with creating and even coining the name “virtual reality.” While his original motivation for VR stemmed from empathy, to connect with other people and their perceptions of things, Lanier has since critiqued proponents of VR. A “machine-supremacy approach” to technology in general, he says, has “made the world of information ever more dominant” (Kahn, 2011).

However, he still credits VR for its medical and counselling applications (Adams, 2017). With that said, maybe it’s not a stretch to suggest that the concept of VR – if not the technology per se – has other origins: theatre and dramatic stage performance. After all, theatre has long been appreciated for offering a cathartic effect to its audiences.

Photo by mentatdgt on Pexels

On that basis, VR could be of interest to Arts and Humanities teachers on account of its potential to emphasise literary elements such as setting (time and place) and point-of-view (1st-person, 2nd-person, or 3rd-person). In fact, these two elements of literature undergo a perplexing conflation when considered in light of VR, just as they do for people who find themselves “stuck in the middle of a tale” (Rozema, 2003, p. 33) while reading a novel, and especially for audiences of live theatre performance.

For instance, as we take in a play from our vantage in the audience, we willingly accept the make-believe conceit that the actors on stage portray characters in a drama that unfolds somewhere in or perhaps beyond our own world. What we recognise before the lights dim as a stage, a proscenium, curtains, rigging, PAR lights, and so forth, we readily accept as time-and-place unique to the story being told. VR asks no less of us and simultaneously attempts to challenge our senses more directly since we now occupy the protagonist’s first-person point-of-view. Indeed, there are many works of literature in which setting can be considered a character.

Weighed against Jaron Lanier’s critique, endorsements of classroom VR can seem somewhat rhapsodic (Adams, 2009). Nonetheless, VR makes its own worthwhile case as a way for teachers to create meaningful interactive learning.

Acknowledgement: post author, Scott Robertson; editor, Yvonne Dawydiak

Interdisciplinarity, collaboration, hands-on learning – that’s the spirit of Create, Make, Innovate! We want to promote enthusiasm for sharing and learning across age groups and across subject disciplines.

Make, Create, Innovate sessions took place during the Fall 2019 in the foyer of the Neville B. Scarfe building and were hosted by Scott Robertson, a project assistant on a small TLEF grant with Dr. Lorrie Miller, Dr. Marina-Milner Bolotin and Yvonne Dawydiak, Teacher Education.

If you have an idea or an inspiration for a resource or future session, please let us know! scarfe.sandbox@ubc.ca

References

Adams, M. G. (2009, July). Engaging 21st-century adolescents: Video games in the Reading classroom. The English Journal, 98(6), 56–59.

Adams, T. (2017, November 12). Jaron Lanier: ‘The solution is to double down on being human’. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/12/jaron-lanier-book-dawn-new-everything-interview-virtual-reality

Arver, C. (2007). Are You Willing to Have Your Students Join Ralph, Jack, and Piggy? The English Journal, 97(1), 37–42.

Gardner, T. (2007, July). Bold books for teenagers: Internet literature for media-savvy students. The English Journal, 96(6), 93–96.

Kahn, J. (2011, July 11, 18). The visionary: A digital pioneer questions what technology has wrought. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/07/11/the-visionary

Moreno, R. & Mayer, R. (2007). Interactive multimodal learning environments: Special issue on interactive learning environments: Contemporary issues and trends. Educational Psychology Review, 19(3), 309–326.

Rozema, R. A. (2003, September). Falling into story: Teaching reading with the literary MOO. The English Journal, 93(1), 33–38.

Schneider, J. J., Kozdras, D., Wolkenhauer, N., & Arias, L. (2014, March). Environmental e-books and green goals: Changing places, flipping spaces, and real-izing the curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(7), 549–564.

 

Feature Photo Credit: Stella Jacob on Unsplash

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by | May 1, 2019 · 6:20 pm

VR Tours & Literacy

NOTE: As of June 2021, Google Tour Creator is being discontinued (and this post and accompanying video resources will be archived/removed)

Have you considered how 360° video, images, Augmented and Virtual Reality might help spark your students’ creativity and, perhaps, engage them in the ‘place’ or setting of a novel? In the past, such technologies were out of reach for the average individual or school… today, smartphones, ipads and laptop computers afford the capacity to create!

In May 2019, I had the pleasure of collaborating, co-planning, and co-teaching with a Grade 5/6 classroom teacher in Surrey to re-imagine how information learned from novel studies could be shared using Virtual Reality. We had a common goal to push the students’ (and our!) boundaries by rethinking the traditional book report and decided to use Google Tour Creator and Google Expeditions. (For some short ‘how to videos’ and links to VR content, visit this post)

To help guide the students we selected some BIG QUESTIONS for them to consider throughout this project:

  1. How do the author’s choose settings and how does this affect the plot of a story?
  2. How can we SELECT SETTINGS and EXPLAIN how they are significant to the novel we are reading?

Here’s how we wanted students to demonstrate their learning:

    • Use Google Tour Creator to find real-world settings that are close to our imagined settings.
    • Explain the significance of the settings by describing the location we selected and why it matters to the story we/they read.
    • Add additional detail to a setting by overlaying points of interest, relevant images, appropriate sound effects or audio, and include a narration of the scene for individuals who are unable to see it (creating accessibility).

Want to try this?

To help our students get started and to help scaffold their learning process we made video tutorials, provided links to additional resources, and a launch button to always bring them back to their tours.

First, we created a website to host everything students would need for this project. It contains tutorial videos and links to creative common images, sound effects, and music to help set the scenes and make them more immersive. You are welcome to use it! NOTE: due to Tour Creator requiring google login, we set up google accounts for each group of students to use so that they were not providing their own personal information. Further, we shared with students the importance of protecting their data and privacy through ‘just in time’ lessons and information. Fore more on protecting student data privacy, visit this blog post. You may require parent consents and/or specific school admin or district permission depending on your school district’s protocols and privacy policies.

We also have shared our resources from this project so that other educators may use this process with their own students. Below are links to each resource with a brief explanation of how and why it was created.

  • Scenes from a Novel AR-VR Unit Overview
    • This overview was co-created and includes inquiry questions to guide the teachers which differ slightly from the inquiry questions for the students.
  • VR Planning Page
    • This was the planning page used by students to capture what they imagined the scenes would look like. We wanted to help students narrow their focus by selecting valuable scenes and sketching them before heading into the vast virtual world.
  • Core Competencies Predictions
    • Students used this page to predict what core competency they would use the most through this project. They then used the sheet to self-reflect at the end of the project and write comments about whether they agreed or disagreed with their prediction.
  • Single-Point-Rubric-VR Tour
    • These were co-created with the class. The teachers introduced ideas and explained the process of using the rubric so that the class could decide on what merited a “passable” project. We also discussed what moved the project into the “extending” territory.
    • We had rich discussions about considering everyone in the class and that the goal was to create an immersive project so we had to decide on objectives that were within reach of every student. Many things were decided democratically where students voted on topics. For example, we decided on what the appropriate amount of scenes should be in a tour by displaying the number on our fingers.
    • Students then used the rubric to self-assess their project a week before submission. They marked down areas that needed improvement and areas where they went beyond expectations, then used this sheet to keep track of what they needed to work on. In the end, they submitted their project with their rubric.

 

We presented our learning journey and that of our students’ at the Surrey Teacher Association Professional Development Day in May 2019. You can view the slides below. We also presented at UBC’s Investigating Our Practices Conference, and the BCTESOL Conference.

*parent permission and informed consent provided

*student permission granted

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by | October 11, 2018 · 5:34 pm

Tech Integration for Secondary Science (EDCP 467 – Junior Science)

Walking away from this afternoon’s session working with Secondary Jr. Science Methods TCs and their instructor Leslie Johnstone, I realized I hadn’t taken a single photo to help capture the engagement in the classroom. Ah, well, the moment will live in my brain at least ;D. Below are some promised links and notes about our session. 

We utilized one of the Scarfe Teaching and Learning Studios (Scarfe 1007) to provide a stations based approach allowing some student movement and choice (and to be sure students know that these ‘student priority’ spaces are available for them to use!). After a brief introduction in Prezi to five themes of technology integration, students had 10 minute opportunities to dip their toes into each theme at facilitated and self-directed stations.

Remember, in a Secondary Science classroom, especially if students are new to cooperative learning, I would advise creating groupings in advance of class. The groupings might be homogeneous or heterogeneous and based on any number of factors including ability or interest  depending on the objectives of the teacher and the needs of the students. Sometimes, randomized groupings can be used and have the added benefit of introducing students to opportunities to interact with many different members of the class. There are many online options. GroupMind, a lovely little App developed by Louai Rahal an Education PHD student & instructor I met a few years ago, is free and open for you to use with no sign up required. For more on groupings, this article by Beatrice A. Ward (1987) is worth a read.

Our themes:

  1. Whole class student response – We discussed the value of incorporating approaches including digital technologies that move beyond ‘teacher asks question’, ‘students raise hands and respond one at a time’. Students had the opportunity to put their ‘teaching hats on’ and explore Padlet or Kahoot. Some might have seen this station as a wee bit off task as students became pretty engaged in playing ‘Halloween’ Kahoot… Still, with a little prompting, students were also considering issues including
    • Student privacy (Kahoot and Padlet do not require students to login or give personal info!)
    • What constitutes an effective question?
    • How might gaming and competition impact student learning and how might it be leveraged or tempered…?
  2.  Video and Simulations in the Science classroom – afford the opportunity for students to try experiments that might be otherwise impossible or, perhaps, just inaccurate if done hands-on. Sims and video can also support varied learners including ELLs in pre-playing or re-playing hands-on experiments. Check out PHET for some free, open access sims.  For some amazing video experiments, see: Olympian vs. Toaster and Evolution of Bacteria on a Megaplate
  3. Google Tour Creator – Sharon Hu, Learning Design Strategist, shared the possibilities of creating a 360° VR environment that offers an immersive experience learners can explore on their own. Students found out how to use existing templates (ranging from human anatomy to the solar system) and how a group of learners can customize and annotate the template and use it as a collaborative storytelling tool.
  4. Teachers and students can create their own videos, digital stories and multimedia presentations using a variety of freely available tools including (but not limited to) Viva Video and Sway. *As UBC students, faculty and staff, we have access to some robust proprietary applications including:
    • Camtasia (we’ll look at this one in another workshop!)
    • VideoScribe (the animated hand we tried out today)<
    • UBC Students, staff and faculty can download these and other applications either through ‘Canvas’ (click on Help  and select ‘Software Distribution’) or through UBContheHub.
  5. Augmented Reality – How might this emerging technology increase learning through rich media experiences and ‘hands’-on access to otherwise unaccessible objects or media? Does it go beyond toy?
    1. Theodore Gray’s Elements – interact with the periodic tables on a handheld device (this one is a paid app but very powerful and worth chatting with your school librarian about!)
    2. Science 360 – an app and website that houses a large database of science videos and content
    3. Leslie had fun sharing Curioscope Virtual-i-tee – a very cool AR T-shirt & accompanying App that allows students to peer inside the human body
    4. Merge Cube – this $15 AR spongy cube & accompanying free apps allow students to hold the the beating human heart, lungs, the earth and even the entire solar system in their hands! The ‘hologram’ that appears in your VR headset, ipad or smartphone is interactive to an extent (you can see different sides of an object by turning the cube or with a swipe or tap, adjust the view, see annotations, or even look inside of the object)
    5. StarWalk – allows you to see the night sky ‘in real time’ at any given place or time. Hold it up to view the horizon or sky above you; hold it down to the floor and see through to the southern hemisphere. This app is transformative in that without such an app, students really have a difficult time visualizing the movement of the celestial sphere (and we definitely can’t show them this during the school day!).

It was a pleasure working with the group of soon to become Educators! If you’d like to explore anything related to teaching, learning and digital technology further, please be in touch or click the ‘Ask a Question’ link in this blog. Look for Eric in the foyer on Wednesdays or visit Janis or Yvonne in a drop in or workshop sometime this winter! Schedule here.

Cheers!

Yvonne

 

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by | August 2, 2018 · 11:18 am

NYT VR

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NYT VR is an app that features over 200 free 360 videos.

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These 360 videos provides an immersive VR experience and cover a wide range of topics and experiences. The immersive nature of these 360-degree videos can promote a sense of empathy by allowing students to better understand other peoples’ experiences and curiosity by giving agency for students to explore and make meaning on their own.  Many of the videos are 2-3 minutes long so they can be used as a hook at the beginning of a lesson.  Here are some interesting ones we found:

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Download the NYT VR app on the phone and view videos with or without a VR headset. The app can also be downloaded on an Ipad which can be shared by a group of students.  The app is missing a search option which makes it difficult to find videos.  However, we found a playlist on YouTube with all the  NYT VR videos so it may be easier simply to sift through the playlist below. We recommend downloading the videos for offline viewing to avoid relying on internet access and to provide smoother playback.

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by | June 29, 2017 · 10:47 am

Google Street View: Explore natural wonders and world landmarks

whatisit.png

Google Street View is a fun way to create your own 360 panoramic pictures and to engage in a 360 experience of places shared by others.

 

Below is a live example:

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Google Street View can help students visualize and understand the world around them. By using Google Street view, students have the opportunity to explore, collaborate and share images around the world. Google Street View can be used by teachers to engage students during their geographic, historical or social science lectures. In addition, it can also be used as a unique way to tell a story.

Content is continually being added to Street View and may require some ‘sifting through’ for quality. Students can also be creators and work together to create their own 360° pictures and share them with the world. They can even add notes about their images. NOTE: as a google product, privacy and permissions are important considerations. See this blog post about FIPPA.

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To view:

  • Download the Google Street View app on your mobile device (your mobile phone, your iPad, or your Android tablet).
  • Log in with your Google account.
  • Click on “Explore” and search for the place you’re interested in. (You can expand the “results” at the bottom of the screen to see a full list of places available.)
  • Select the place.
  • Click on the panoramic icon (compass) to go into 360° view.
  • Click on the Google Cardboard icon and use your VR headset to view the image.

To share and contribute:

  • Click on the camera at the bottom right to create your image.
  • Choose the type of device you are using. Click on the last option, “camera,” if you’re using your phone/iPad camera.
  • To line up, make sure that the orange dot is inside of the white circle.
  • Turn around to take a 360 image.
  • Click on the “check mark” to save your image.
  • To publish your image, here are the steps:
    • Under “Private,” tap Select.
    • Choose a photo to publish.
    • If you have applied blurring, choose if you want to apply the blur to your published photo. Tap More More and then Apply blurring or Remove blurring .
    • Tap Upload .
    • Tap Publish. You’ll see your photo under “Profile”.
  • Now you can view your image on your own device or with the Google Cardboard/ VR headset, and also share your 360 image with your students/friends!

Feel free to use our lesson brief to introduce Google Street View to your students (click Google Streetview Lesson to download).

Follow the steps in this video to upload your 360 images:

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by | June 23, 2017 · 12:00 pm

Google Expeditions Pioneer Program

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cc Chris Betcher

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Imagine being able to take students on a field trip without leaving the classroom. With the Expeditions Pioneer Program, teachers lead a guided virtual reality tour of a range of places such as museums, wonders of the world, and even some otherwise inaccessible places like the deep sea or the surface of Mars!

With the following equipment, students can have an immersive learning experience with 360 video that enriches the day’s lesson. In a Google Expedition virtual tour, onscreen annotations help to provoke questions, point out details and provide further background information about the location/content.

  • Teacher tablet,
  • Google Cardboard or other VR goggles,
  • Smartphones  compatible with cardboard
  • *You may also need an inexpensive router to create a local area network within your school’s secure network so that students can connect their phones to your tablet. We’ve used the Aptus router with some success for small groups but more powerful routers may provide even better results!

Even without the formalized ‘expeditions’ provided by google, a a teacher could also easily ‘bring’ students to a relevant 360 video or  image and engage them in a tour/exploration with some guiding questions or prompts. Students can also interact with 360 videos or images using an ipad or by scrolling in their browser, although the experience is less immersive than with the goggles.

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Expeditions can be an engaging and interactive experience for students as they explore 360º space. The possibility of taking a virtual tour of faraway places in the blink of an eye can augment classroom learning in a way that wasn’t possible prior to the development of accessible digital technologies. While Virtual Reality should not replace real-life experiences, it can enhance and help uncover aspects of curricular studies through a ‘virtual’ place-based and experiential approach. Some places would be literally inaccessible without this kind of technology and, often, funding, logistical and transportation barriers can get in the way of students leaving the school grounds as frequently as we might like.

As with any digital technology, always keep in mind the value of the teacher as facilitator. Consider your purpose for exposing students to particular content and experiences. Be sure , also, that these virtual experiences don’t replace opportunities for students to engage in real world, f2f experiences by getting outdoors, in the school yard, the local community and even further afield. Such real world experiences nurture students in a way that digital tech cannot.

Further reading (articles available online in UBC Ed Lib):
Dutton, L. (2016). Google Expeditions. School Librarian, 64(3), 147.
Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2010).Virtual Expeditions: Google Earth, GIS, and Geovisualization Technologies in Teaching and Learning
 Teacher Librarian; Feb 2010; 37, 3; Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database

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  • Download Google Expeditions and install the app on your student devices. Android from the Play Store or get the app on iOS from the Apple Store.   Install IPAd, IPOD, Android or IOS phone devices.
  • Sign onto the same WIFI network. Must be one that allows peer to peer networking.
    Or you can also use a router. In most schools, you will need to set up a local network since the secure wifi network will not allow you to do peer to peer networking – you can do this with an inexpensive router. We have used low cost Aptus routers successfully in our workshop sessions but there are likely other possibilities.
  • Select an expedition and download the expedition. Each expedition consists of a series of scenes.
    On the teacher device, the teacher will select Leader and the students on their devices will select Follow.
  •  When on a tour, look for the smiley face icons on your teacher device. These show you where your students are.
  • Points of Interest. Each tour has a teacher script which is not something you just want to read aloud.  Read ahead of time and pick out the things that you think would be the most relevant for your students. When you select the script an arrow will appear for your students and it will point them to this target symbol.   Be prepared for questions from the explorers about things they see that are not on your script. Have your key questions about the Expedition ready.  Take time to let the students experience the Expedition before you dive in with additional information.
  • Google Expeditions kits are available in Canada through Best Buy. They include student devices, virtual reality viewers, a rapid charger, teacher device, router, case.  They come in kits for 10, 20 or 30 students, however, Google Cardboard can be cut out and assembled as a making project and there is some excellent open access content available online.

Learn more about Expeditions here: https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/

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