TIS Cohort 2018
Volume 6, Issue 20
TIS and That and A Happy Summer! Summer Adventures From Home Google Expeditions It’s almost here! After 10 months of hard work everybody is ready for a fun filled summer vacation. We dream of places to go, things to do, but then reality of money and distance often smacks us right in the face. However, due to Google Expeditions, you can visit these places and take family and students on adventures throughout the world! Google Expeditions is a virtual-reality teaching tool. You can swim with sharks, visit outer space, walk through a museum, and more without leaving the classroom. There are close to 500 expeditions available and more being created each day. Students can now take virtual tours using just a few of Google’s apps and products. Google Expeditions is built to work with Google Cardboard, which is a cardboard frame engineered to fit common mobile devices. Students can then look at their device through eyeholes that give a VR experience. Your classroom can take a field trip on Google Expeditions with as little as a class set of mobile devices and an Internet connection. If your classroom is one-to-one, you can simply download the app and lead expeditions without the VR . The expeditions can begin with the teacher as a guide and students as participants. Students can view the expedition in full-screen mode without a VR viewer. However, the real fun begins with the virtual reality, which requires the Google Cardboard viewer. Google Cardboard costs about $15 per device, though other compatible options exist. Google Expeditions provides helpful supplements, like annotated facts and sites for the teacher to reference. Individual expeditions do not have to take a long time, and can serve to boost engagement and understanding .
Choose Your Own Adventure: Using Google Slides As a child, I couldn’t get enough of choose your own adventures books. I excitedly pondered, should I cross through the forest or not? What kind of adventure awaits me? To tap into our students creativity a summer learning idea could be to create your own adventure using Google Slides. The steps are really quite simple and can lead to a lot of adventure, learning and fun. Steps : 1) Create your title slide using Google slides blank presentation and import title images. 2) Create your starting scenario slide. 3) In two separate text boxes (or with two separate pictures), provide options for the next step. 4) Create 2 new slides – these are the possible next steps from the scenario choices. 5) Back on the starting slide, click on one of the text boxes or images within a text box. 6) Use the hyperlink button (or Ctrl+k) to link to the appropriate slide. 7) Repeat the process for the other option. 8) Continue to add steps that branch off of those 2 options .
Tips for implementing VR in classrooms: 1. Be selective 2. Focus on experiences vs. content 3. View it as an engagement tool 4. Limit VR to shorter experiences