Google Expeditions

Virtual Reality in the Classroom

Paul Zimmerman

Technology Director

Blaine County School District

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pzimmerman@blaineschools.org

@paulkzimm

What is Virtual Reality in education?

It’s a tool that removes the obstacle of walls in the classroom and allows students to be anywhere and experience anything.

In education this gives the opportunity to experience things first hand and make their lessons more tangible. Studying Mars? Let’s visit Mars. Oceans can be seen up close and we can even take students on the Magic School Bus into the human body or inside plant cells.

100%

Engaging, amazing, inspiring, educational

AND REAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MQ9yG_QfDA

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How far has VR and AR come?

Correcting the perceptions

Problems with consumer VR

• Singular experience - only a one person experience
• Largely game focused - lack of educational content
• Cumbersome - large viewers & cords
• Expensive - Not education budget friendly
• Not classroom friendly - Not portable

What about premade Google Expeditions kits?

Is it the best solution?

Best Buy Education

• 30 student kit AR/VR
• 20 student kit VR only
• Carrying case
• Wireless router
• 30 Homido viewers

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$10,000 AR/VR

$7,299 VR only

Why doesn’t this work?

• Not durable - Plastic viewers
• Not easy to store - LARGE and needs a cart
• Expensive - $7,299 or $10,000
• No ownership by teacher - Just another tech thing
• Due to cost, only 1 kit per district
• Homido viewers are limited in device choice due to size

How engaging is Google Expeditions?

Google Photos and School Board presentation links in the notes below

Four Emerging Teaching Models

• Innovator led
• Teacher and Innovator Partnership
• Teacher Led
• Inspiring other teachers
• Student Led

Hardware

• DodoCase SmartVR - $40
• Any wireless router
• Any phone iPhone 5s or newer
• Any Android within 4 years
• This approach is scalable
• 3 phones to 30 phones

Some Hardware Advantages

• SmartVR is versatile
• The clip design means any phone will work so long term usage is possible with the same hardware
• Easy to store and is very portable with folding design
• Versus cardboard viewers, SmartVR’s are metal and durable

• Using any wireless router keeps costs down
• Smaller hardware means easy to pack and move from classroom to classroom
• SCALABLE - Kit can be 5 devices or 30
• Use tablets or iPads already in place!

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Why does DIY matter?

• It’s good for the environment
• Phones can be had from parents who have upgraded
• Teachers have ownership of Expeditions kit
• Wireless router can be found at thrift store
• Any inexpensive router will work
• SmartVR is $28 each - but can work with ANY phone, all phones fit
• Grants?
• Kit of 30 can be made for $1000 versus $10,000

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Google Expeditions App

• App allows for a controlled VR experience as a group
• All students see the same thing together
• Educational prompts in the app
• Can point out landmarks via the app for the students to find
• 1000+ unique Expeditions are available
• Google Augmented Reality was launched in May 2018 with 400 AR

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BCSD Timeline

• October 2016 - 11 Viewers
• May 2017 - 24 Viewers - all through donations and grants
• January 2018 - 30 viewer in kit #1, 14 in kit #2
• September 2018 - 3 complete kits total
• Hosted 550+ Expeditions
• Currently running phone drive

Future uses for VR and AR

• Once VR kit hardware is in place, now projects with YouTube360 can be accomplished.
• Kit becomes more versatile based on teacher ideas
• Augmented Reality is here and will is the next evolutionary step for virtual reality hardware.
• Some kits are already capable of running augmented reality and mixed reality.
• As the technology matures, educators will have the tools already in place
• Google Expeditions Tour Creator
• https://vr.google.com/tourcreator/

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Google Expeditions Tour Creator

• This allows students/staff to create your own VR tours
• Very similar to creating a Google Slide
• Adds ownership to the VR
• Can be embedded on a website (school tours, lesson creation, etc)
• Viewable on a computer or mobile device with Chrome.

Google Expeditions AR

State of Idaho Google AR Tour

• Google Pioneer Program and BCSD partnered up to bring the AR experience to Idaho
• Statewide tour including 49 schools around the state
• Lasted from late March 2018 to early June 2018
• 10,000+ students experienced AR for the first time

KMVT News

Quiver Edu AR

• This app makes it possible to color a picture and have it come to life
• http://www.quivervision.com/apps/quiver-education/

Try AR anytime

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• App is called 1600
• Scan a dollar bill

Computer Coding in VR

• Computer coding is beginning to blend with VR
• https://www.blocksmithxr.com/
• This tool allows coding in 3D space then viewing in virtual reality viewers on existing school equipment
• Comes with animated curriculum
• Similar to TinkerCAD

Expeditions VR List

900+ locations and counting!

Expeditions AR List

900+ locations and counting!

Paul Zimmerman

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pzimmerman@blaineschools.org

@paulkzimm

Google Expeditions Tour Creator

Virtual Reality Creation

Paul Zimmerman

Technology Director

Blaine County School District

pzimmerman@blaineschools.org

@paulkzimm

What does Tour Creator bring to VR in the Classroom?

With the advent of Google Expeditions, VR became accessible to all classrooms across the globe. The consumption of content would be changed forever. However, this is simply passively consuming content.

Google Tour Creator allows students to actively create content in the Expeditions platform. Also, experiences that are created can be shared to others via a link.

BCSD Tour Creator - KMVT News

What will you need?

• 360 degree camera
• RICOH Theta
• Web browser with access to https://arvr.google.com/tourcreator/
• Google account
• An idea!

Tour Builder Website

Things to know about Tour Creator Website

• Very similar to Google Slides
• Pictures from 360 degree camera can be used
• Google street view can also be used
• Can create new tours
• Can be made via templates
• Each tour has a cover photo and title
• ‘Add scene’ is along the bottom of the screen
• The equivalent in Google Slides is along the left hand side

How to make a scene?

After an image is uploaded or Street View selected

• Scene title
• Description
• Point of Interest
• This is an area of focus with additional text
• Ambient audio
• Record scene narration

Publish

• When published, you can choose visibility
• A link is provided to share

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Demo!