VR Kit and 360 Learning

In early 2021, Google stopped the support and production of Google Expeditions. As a school district, we have three classroom sets of VR headsets that were previously used for Google Expeditions. While the Google Expeditions app may no longer be usable, there are ways we can take advantage of the hardware we have to support learning. In case you never experienced the Google Expeditions app and virtual reality learning, the following two videos can give you some ideas about why these are used in classrooms.

Expeditions Pro (Beta)

One option that recreates the experience of the Google Expeditions app is achieved by using the Expeditions Pro app. This app is in Beta and we have access to test it out in classrooms. They have brought over some of the virtual reality experiences from the Expeditions app while also developing new ones for classroom learning. The app allows you to lead a virtual reality tour of various locations and gives you the same abilities found in the Expeditions app previously: able to see where each student is looking, included notes to help explain what students are seeing, the ability to annotate the images or to create an arrow on the student screens to direct them to a point of interest.
One currently missing feature to Expeditions Pro is a public facing directory of their virtual reality experiences. This document: Expeditions Pro listing (you will need to zoom in to read the text), will show you what their directory page looks like. If you have questions about any of the experiences on their directory, email Carrie or Patrick for more information.
If you are wanting to use the Expeditions Pro app and kits in your classroom, Carrie or Patrick and come in to help set you up with the account and get ready for your classes.

Google Arts and Culture

Google has pushed the vast majority of their Expeditions virtual reality experiences to the Google Arts and Culture site/app. The site and app have the same tours and other experiences, except for a few that can take advantage of the camera while using the Android app on the Chromebook.
The former Expedition tours can be found on this site. You can also find a large collection of 360 videos and tours which helps you explore Space Shuttle in VR, meet a prehistoric sea dragon, visit Carnegie Hall, visit Richmond Castle, and many more experiences. You do not have the teacher controls found in the Expeditions app of the past but you can give students direct link to the experiences so they can easily get to the learning areas you want.
You will find lots of learning opportunities on the Google Arts and Culture page, including high-res images of many, many works of art from around the world. You can even play around with art and sound in the Arts and Culture Experiments area. The Play area has many games where students can create melodies with the help of maestro composers, use blobs to sing an opera, paint with music, and many more.
You can find some ideas about how to use the Arts and Culture page in your class for a web based virtual reality experience a blog post by Tom Mullaney.

Creating 360 Images

While students have multiple ways to consume virtual reality and 360 images, students can also use the tools we have to create their own. We can use either the Android phones in the VR kits or the Theta 306 cameras to record a 360 image. These images can be uploaded to various tools in order for students to create their own virtual tours.
Story Spheres - upload your 360 image and then add text or audio to your image. You can then embed your new image onto a site of your choice or give people a direct link to it.

Youtube 360 Videos

YouTube has a large collection of 360 degree videos where you can move around and look in all directions while watching a video. This creates an immersive experience where the student has access to more than just a visual image. Students can explore the ocean depths, watch a volcano erupt, or even fly with a sky diver. These videos can be viewed on any device but you can also use the headsets to watch them in virtual reality. When on a laptop, you can click and drag the video to view in other directions. With a headset, you would just need to move your head around.
For example, you can see the video below where you can experience the northern lights on the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

Other Resources

Richard Byrne has a great blog post with some other ideas for Alternatives to Google Expeditions and Tour Builder.

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