Tour Creator -- the piece that was missing!

As I've used Google Expeditions and the VR Headset, I've found some components that I have really liked, and some that I wish could be expanded. As time has passed, Google has added some nice touches to the Expeditions resources, and I've also begun to use 360 Videos on YouTube so the students could see some virtual reality videos, in addition to the still pictures that Expeditions provides.

But, the one piece that was missing was the ability for the students to (easily) create their own tours.  And, finally, late last school year, Google granted my wish, by launching Tour Creator.  Tour Creator allows students to make their own virtual reality tours, either by shooting their own 360 videos, or by finding 360 videos online.

How could we use it? 

There are many ways students could use Tour Creator in the classroom setting:

• To create narrative stories, in which the students can record their voice while the  audience follows the narrative in a 360 view. 
• To create expository stories in which the student tells the story of a historical event, or scientific phenomena 
• To create tours of locations that other students might need to see, like a tour of of the school for incoming students, or a tour of a field trip that they went on, or a tour of a historical location. 
• To create explanatory tours, that show skills that other students might need to do, like sports skills.  

And that's just a few of the possibilities!

Overview of how to use it. 

You can see directions with more details on this playlist. 

Resources: 

Using Tour Builder is really very simple, and basically just drag and drop, but here are a few resources that will help you get started with Tour Creator

• How to Use Google's New Tour Creator. 
• Introducing Tour Creator
• How to Use Google's Tour Creator with Students

Virtual Reality - Lots of Possibilities!

Now that our school has Google Expeditions permanently housed in the LMC, I'd like to give a little bit more information about how it has an could be used.  Starting last year, we were able to use Google Expeditions with the teacher as the guide. The list of expeditions is endless, with practically every subject matter covered.

But this year, we have had some new additions to the VR Headsets. First, Google Expeditions has updated, so that kids can lead each each other through the expeditions (it does not have to be a teacher leading it on a tablet.). We have already had students doing this as a power hour activity, but I see the potential for students to lead other students on expeditions as an extension or enrichment in the core classes as well.

In addition to Google Expeditions, we have also added to "video based" VR apps to the headsets.  Discovery Science has lots of Virtual Reality based videos where the students follow through an experience through the headsets, which gives it a 360 degree point of view. There's everything there from shark week to asteroids!

Like Discovery Science, the New York Times has created a Virtual Reality App  that brings students "virtually" in to many different news stories through the world.  This app too provides movie like experiences. The quality of the video and photography in many of these experiences are second to none, and/but the content is rather high level.

Ideally, we want the students to be creating, not just absorbing, so another app that was added is Google Street View.  With this app, students are able to create their own Virtual Reality of different experiences.  They could make a tour of the school, show examples of the 5 themes of geography, or bring the phone with while going on a field trip and make a virtual reality review of what they learned on the field trip and share it with others. The possibilities are endless!