Field trip in the classroom
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 7, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/PHYLLIS MOORE
Tenth and eleventh-grade students at Wayne Country Day School go on a 3-D virtual reality field trip on Friday using Google technology. WCDS, which became a "Google school" earlier this year, converting to a more paperless model, was recently chosen as one of 100 schools in the world to test the Google Expedition model.
"Where do you want to go now?" Michael Taylor asked his 12th grade students gathered in the Wayne Country Day School Library.
"World War II," came back the response.
Tablet in hand, Taylor worked the controls to take them there.
Sixth-graders in an adjacent room, meanwhile, were making a similar decision, with teacher Rebecca Barnes navigating on her own iPad.
The group had started out with a virtual trek to learn more about the history of jazz, before deciding to explore a few other hot spots.
"We went to the Great Wall of China. We've gone to Africa," Mrs. Barnes said, enjoying taking her students to places that are pertinent to future lesson plans. "I'm going to take them to the moon now."
"They were having a blast," Lorre Gifford, STEM teacher, said of the object lesson. "They were just squealing."
Calling it "virtual reality in 3-D," Ms. Gifford, along with teacher Dona Briggs, wrote the application for the Google Expedition. Wayne Country Day was already positioned for the additional technology, she said.
"We became a Google school the first of the year," she said, explaining that the school is converting to Google apps, documents and spreadshots as it moves toward becoming a paperless school.
"It's total immersion so the opportunities for education are without end," she said. "Imagine what students can do with this!"
The school was recently notified that it was one of 100 schools worldwide to be part of the Google Expedition, said Headmaster Todd Anderson.
"This is like Viewmaster on steroids," he joked. "It's just the neatest thing."
An updated jacked-up version of Viewmaster, the Google Cardboard viewer allows anyone with a smartphone to experience virtual reality. In contrast to the childhood toy that gave the user a slide show, this version features a panorama of 3-D images and video, where the viewer is transported to the place.
The new Google product allows teachers to take their students on virtual field trips. Everything they need to make the trip is at their fingertips -- a tablet for the teacher and cardboard viewers for each student. The teacher selects a destination and they all embark on the journey together.
"It's like awesome," said Grace Alan Potts, a sixth-grader. "I have been able to go across the world and see things I wouldn't be able to go and vacation to. It's like a whole other world."
"It was so exciting to see the volcano and just how live it was," said classmate Lily McKay.
She praised the vivid graphics and said the experience was so exciting, it was difficult to sit still.
"You have to move. You just want to be there," Lily said.
But don't move much, cautioned Patrick, the Google representative. It could be dizzying.
"You can stand up. You can turn around, but try not to walk around," he said.
"It's very realistic," said sixth-grader Nathan Taylor. "You're there. You can see it, everything is there."
Even the teachers enjoyed the ride, they said.
"I went to 10 different places in the world," said Sarah Perlungher. "For a Spanish teacher, that's pretty cool."
The Google representative asked for student feedback on the app, which is still in production. Photos were taken from Google maps, he told the students, with hundreds melded together to create a sphere.
When it is released in December, he said it will feature full audio and video.
Lily said she liked the live feeds but suggested taking it a step further.
"Maybe if you can see current events like if it was New Year's Eve, you could see Times Square," she said.