All Teachers and Students Should Experience Google Cardboard!

If you are old enough to remember the View Master kits of the 1970’s and early 80’s,  then you have some idea what Google Cardboard can do.  Instead of using a small, removable slide reel that displays two duplicate images, Google Cardboard uses an application on a smart phone to display a three-dimensional virtual reality world.

So, what can you do with this?  Imagine taking your students to the middle of the ocean,  allowing them to go beneath the waves in order to catch a glance at a great white shark, up close and personal. Yes, that is what it can do!  It brings the world to your students in the form of a box!  Since what you will see is a 360-degree view, by simply looking up, down or side-to-side will allow you to see an entire location in real time.  Students may even try to touch what they believe is in front of them, as they are totally drawn into the world that they perceive is all around them.

Ok, how does it work?  First, you need a smart phone for the Google Cardboard application, and a viewer.  There are many companies that sell the cardboard viewers, however, over time they will wear down.  Mattel has teamed up with Google to create their own plastic viewer, that will hold almost any type of smart phone securely.  Once the app and viewer are set, you can begin your virtual reality experience!

Mattel's New View Master for Virtual Reality

Google also has an Expeditions program, where they will come out with viewers, smartphones and applications to demonstrate and show students different Expeditions from around the world.   Getting on the waiting list may be a challenge, but it is well worth the effort of signing up!  It really is quite impressive, and the excitement and dialogue the students share is amazing! 

Original Google Cardboard viewer

There is even an application that will allow students (and teachers too) to create their own expeditions, called Google Street View.  You will be guided to take a series of pictures, (try no to move too much) and then you will be asked to “publish” them to a public view.  Please be aware of what you photographed, since it is public.  Google will stitch all of your images together, to create a 360-degree experience that can be loaded onto the Google Cardboard application.  When you no longer wish to use the images, simply trash them, taking them from public view.  Think for a moment how students could create virtual worlds and experiences that demonstrate some of the great knowledge and skills they learned in the classroom!  For Social Studies, students could recreate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and for Science students can recreate the Mars Rover, making its way over the Red Planet.  The possibilities are, in fact, endless!

For more information on these FREE applications, click here.