Thing 11: DIY...my adventures with Google Expeditions and other related stuff
Over the weekend, I had the chance to play with Google Cardboard and ViewMaster viewers, and go on a couple of Google Expeditions, and it was a lot of fun! It was a little frustrating to get the hang of at first (full disclosure here in a minute), but once I did, my mind began to whir with how I could share this tool with my fellow WSWHE librarians and how they, in turn, could bring some amazing virtual field trips to students.
Okay. Full disclosure. When Google Expeditions was first introduced to me, I couldn't get it to work. I tried all kinds of things...I rebooted the phone...uninstalled and reinstalled the app... went online to look for troubleshooting and FAQs to figure out what was going on...and then I asked to peek at a colleague's Expedition so I could see what it looked like. I figured, maybe I'm just fighting too hard with the wifi (my phone was constantly disconnecting from it). No biggie. I figured I'd deal with it when I got home. I brought home a Cardboard and a ViewMaster so I could do a little homework (and see what would happen when my software engineering husband got hold of it).
I think Google Cardboard and ViewMaster spent about 30 seconds in the box once I came through the door, which didn't surprise me; hubby immediately wanted to investigate and see what these devices could do, paired with their apps. (We've had an Oculus Rift since it came out as a kickstarter... our house is a big hit with our teenagers and their friends when they want to ride a simulated roller coaster or play with other new gadgets. Kids in our house have learned how to build a small trebuchet and used it to launch toys across the room, figured their way out of situations in Scribblenauts, made all kinds of chemistry-related goo, printed objects on a 3D printer, and played with extended-exposure photography, among other things over the years. But I digress.) Immediately hubby was hooked, and as I started to describe to him how I couldn't get Google Expeditions to work with my phone earlier, I showed him how it wasn't working...and he started laughing. This is what I get for not really reading the directions thoroughly, and for being a lefty...I was turning my phone in the wrong direction to make the view master view show up. I'm usually decently tech saavy and good about troubleshooting, but apparently I have a blind spot for arrows, and I'm notorious for doing things backwards due to my leftyness. The arrow on the screen looks exactly the way "page back" arrows look, so I didn't think that the arrow had another purpose until hubby was rolling on the floor. Doh! Flashbacks to Kindergarten, when I kept putting the bunny rabbit template on the open side of the folded paper, rather than on the fold, and kept ending up with two half bunnies...
On the positive side, I'll probably never have a student or teacher give up in frustration because they can't get their Google Expedition to orient correctly, because it will definitely be on my radar to look at how they are holding their device. :)
After that mystery was finally solved, I had the chance to enjoy Google Expeditions (when the apparatus weren't hijacked by kid #2 and Captain Unix). There is so much potential there! The Expedition that was tested out on my group over the weekend involved visiting the Pyramids of Giza, and it reminded me of an inquiry project that third graders in my former district had explored last year involving world landmarks. They wrote their own inquiry questions and researched world landmarks that they thought were fascinating, and wrote a children's book about their findings. They were so excited to read and watch videos as they researched, because they were genuinely curious about famous landmarks in other parts of the world. I thought, if they could go on a Google Expedition to SEE what they were researching...that would be AMAZING. Later, my daughter and I looked at Northern Lights (which looked way more colorful than the one time I spied Northern Lights late at night in Potsdam, nearly 30 years ago), and I looked all around at a coral reef as well.
When my kids were in elementary school, they went on a couple of "virtual field trips" that were cute, and they involved watching videos on a Smartboard, or interacting with a "field guide" via Skype who could help them take apart a toy and put it back together as they discussed simple machines. This would be like that, to eleven. There are so many students in our communities who have not yet had the chance to venture beyond the region, so to give them the opportunity to "see" another part of the world, or space, or the bottom of the ocean...priceless.
Okay. Full disclosure. When Google Expeditions was first introduced to me, I couldn't get it to work. I tried all kinds of things...I rebooted the phone...uninstalled and reinstalled the app... went online to look for troubleshooting and FAQs to figure out what was going on...and then I asked to peek at a colleague's Expedition so I could see what it looked like. I figured, maybe I'm just fighting too hard with the wifi (my phone was constantly disconnecting from it). No biggie. I figured I'd deal with it when I got home. I brought home a Cardboard and a ViewMaster so I could do a little homework (and see what would happen when my software engineering husband got hold of it).
I think Google Cardboard and ViewMaster spent about 30 seconds in the box once I came through the door, which didn't surprise me; hubby immediately wanted to investigate and see what these devices could do, paired with their apps. (We've had an Oculus Rift since it came out as a kickstarter... our house is a big hit with our teenagers and their friends when they want to ride a simulated roller coaster or play with other new gadgets. Kids in our house have learned how to build a small trebuchet and used it to launch toys across the room, figured their way out of situations in Scribblenauts, made all kinds of chemistry-related goo, printed objects on a 3D printer, and played with extended-exposure photography, among other things over the years. But I digress.) Immediately hubby was hooked, and as I started to describe to him how I couldn't get Google Expeditions to work with my phone earlier, I showed him how it wasn't working...and he started laughing. This is what I get for not really reading the directions thoroughly, and for being a lefty...I was turning my phone in the wrong direction to make the view master view show up. I'm usually decently tech saavy and good about troubleshooting, but apparently I have a blind spot for arrows, and I'm notorious for doing things backwards due to my leftyness. The arrow on the screen looks exactly the way "page back" arrows look, so I didn't think that the arrow had another purpose until hubby was rolling on the floor. Doh! Flashbacks to Kindergarten, when I kept putting the bunny rabbit template on the open side of the folded paper, rather than on the fold, and kept ending up with two half bunnies...
On the positive side, I'll probably never have a student or teacher give up in frustration because they can't get their Google Expedition to orient correctly, because it will definitely be on my radar to look at how they are holding their device. :)
After that mystery was finally solved, I had the chance to enjoy Google Expeditions (when the apparatus weren't hijacked by kid #2 and Captain Unix). There is so much potential there! The Expedition that was tested out on my group over the weekend involved visiting the Pyramids of Giza, and it reminded me of an inquiry project that third graders in my former district had explored last year involving world landmarks. They wrote their own inquiry questions and researched world landmarks that they thought were fascinating, and wrote a children's book about their findings. They were so excited to read and watch videos as they researched, because they were genuinely curious about famous landmarks in other parts of the world. I thought, if they could go on a Google Expedition to SEE what they were researching...that would be AMAZING. Later, my daughter and I looked at Northern Lights (which looked way more colorful than the one time I spied Northern Lights late at night in Potsdam, nearly 30 years ago), and I looked all around at a coral reef as well.
When my kids were in elementary school, they went on a couple of "virtual field trips" that were cute, and they involved watching videos on a Smartboard, or interacting with a "field guide" via Skype who could help them take apart a toy and put it back together as they discussed simple machines. This would be like that, to eleven. There are so many students in our communities who have not yet had the chance to venture beyond the region, so to give them the opportunity to "see" another part of the world, or space, or the bottom of the ocean...priceless.
I'd played with google expeditions on my own before, testing it out for last year's rville workshop. But it was so much more fun being guided through it the way we were on Saturday. So much potential in school. And yes, pretty funny about your directional mixup. :)
ReplyDelete