Wednesday 25 November 2015

Google Cardboard




Yesterday we had a fabulous experience with Google Expeditions.
Each child had a mind bending opportunity to travel all over the world being frightened by snakes, impressed by gorillas and fascinated by fossils and insects.
The most exciting thing for me as the teacher was watching the childrens' faces - it was Christmas for 30, 8 year olds.

On a Google Expedition the teacher controls the environment and is able to direct the students' viewing and thinking with directional arrows on their screen and focus points.  Each expedition comes with teaching notes and points to further develop knowledge of what the students are experiencing.

As this was our first expedition and excitement was always going to win, we refrained from asking too many questions or teaching too many finer points.

The highlight expeditions were

  • "Hide N Seek" in the Amazon
  • Scaling the Burj Khalifa
  • Diving with sharks
  • Frolicking with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands
A point of interest was that the children were so keen to collaborate and share that they would lift their own Cardboard up to their friend's eyes saying "look, look!" As much as Cardboard is an "Individual Sport", I think children who are raised in such a collaborative environment will continue to want to share and experience such fun together. 

Is there a way we can make Google Expeditions more collaborative?

We want to start creating these ourselves. Consuming the content was fun, creating the content will be powerful.