Making and Leading Virtual Tours With Expeditions Pro
Many of us lamented the loss of Google Expeditions because it was a great tool for leading students on virtual reality tours of all kinds of interesting places around the world. Similarly, many of us were disappointed when Google shuttered Tour Creator because it was a great tool for students to use to create their […]
How to Create Your Own Virtual Reality Tours
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about and gave a video demonstration of how to lead students on virtual reality tours with Expeditions Pro. In that video I mentioned that Expeditions Pro can also be used to create your own virtual reality tours. This morning I recorded a video about how do that. Watch […]
Expeditions Pro – Guide Students on Virtual Reality Tours
Last year many of us were disappointed when Google announced the closure of their Expeditions program. Shortly after that announcement a new company popped-up to offer an alternative to Google Expeditions. That alternative is called Expeditions Pro. It launched in beta last June and is now available for anyone to install on iOS and Android […]
Tour the Great Wall of China – A New Google Arts & Culture Experience
After Google announced the closure of Google Expeditions earlier this year Google Arts & Culture became the place to go to find much of the virtual imagery that was available in Expeditions. The library of imagery and stories in Google Arts & Culture has steadily grown throughout the year. The latest big addition to that library […]
How to Find Sharks and More in VR
The closure of Google Expeditions at the end of June was a real disappointment for many teachers. Google has pushed Google Arts & Culture as the alternative to Expeditions, but it’s just not the same. That’s left a lot of people to look for more alternatives. YouTube’s VR imagery is one alternative that I’ve mentioned […]
A Handful of Alternatives to Google Expeditions
As I mentioned on Friday, Google is shutting down Tour Creator at the end of June. They’re also shutting down Google Expeditions at the end of June. For some teachers that is the bigger loss. And while I haven’t yet found any alternatives that have the same capability as Expeditions for teachers to guide students […]
Tour Creator is Closing – Here Are Some Alternatives
Like thousands of other people, this week Google sent me a reminder that Tour Creator is shutting down at the end of June. I’ve enjoyed making virtual reality tours with it since the first day it was available. I’m disappointed that Google is shutting it down, but there’s no sense crying over spilled milk so […]
An Easy Way to Find 360 Videos to Use VR Headsets
Last week Google announced that June 2021 would be the end of the Google Expeditions app. I published a short list of alternatives to Google Expeditions. One of those alternatives was to simply use YouTube’s search refinement tool to find 360 videos to view in your Google Cardboard or other virtual reality headsets. If you’re […]
How to Move Google Tour Builder Files Into Google Earth
Last week Google announced that support for Google Expeditions and Google Tour Builder would end in July 2021. I’ve already published a preliminary list of alternatives to Google Expeditions. If you’re looking for alternatives to Google Tour Builder you don’t need to look much further than to Google Earth. Google Tour Builder includes two options […]
Alternatives to Google Expeditions
Last week’s announcement from Google that Google Expeditions will be discontinued in 2021 was disappointing news for many of us. Since then I’ve answered a handful of questions from people who are looking for alternatives to using the Google Expeditions app. Here’s a summary of what I’ve been saying and suggesting to those looking for […]
Expedition Everest – 360 Video from National Geographic
National Geographic has one of my favorite YouTube channels. I’ve been fascinated with Mount Everest for as long as I can remember That’s why I was excited yesterday when Nat Geo published a new 360 video about a scientific expedition to Mount Everest. Expedition Everest: The Mission is a five minute overview and introduction to […]
Ten Ideas for Building Virtual Tours With Google’s Tour Creator
Google’s VR Tour Creator makes it possible for anyone who has a Google account and a computer to create their own virtual reality tours to view and share in Google Expeditions. Depending upon how in-depth you want to make your tours you can include many points of interest, narration, and ambient audio. It’s a tool […]
Now You Can Share a Link to Jump to a Scene in Google Expeditions
In a Tweet yesterday afternoon Google announced a neat little addition to Google Expeditions. You can now share a link to a specific scene within an Expedition. Previously if you wanted to get all of your students onto the same scene at the same time you had to guide them through the whole Expedition. Now […]
My Top 5 Google Tools for Social Studies Teachers and Students
As longtime readers of this blog know, my background is largely in social studies with a smattering of special education and corporate training thrown in for good measure. It’s teaching social studies that will always be my first professional love. That’s why I always get excited when readers send me questions like the one I […]
Expeditions, Search, and 202 Miles on a Bike – The Week in Review
Good afternoon from Maine where today I’m recuperating after riding my bike for 202 miles yesterday. The ride was part of a fundraiser for the Fast Freddie Foundation that gives bicycles and safety equipment to underprivileged kids all over the United States. Fast Freddie Rodriguez (pictured with me) is a retired professional cyclist whose record […]
Virtual Reality Smells
Virtual reality tours like those available through Google Expeditions (check out an exciting update) provide students with the opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of far away places that they may never visit. But there is one thing missing from virtual reality tours. That thing is smell. No one has figured out how to […]
Google Expeditions is Now Available on Chromebooks!
Google Expeditions is probably the most popular virtual reality app for use in classrooms today. One of the things that has kept it out of some classrooms is that it requires the use of a compatible phone or tablet. That is going to change this summer. As announced at the ISTE conference, Google is adding […]
7 Good Apps for Getting Started With AR & VR
One of the components of this year’s Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp (a few seats still available) is time to explore how augmented reality and virtual reality can be used in a variety of classroom settings. The following is by no means a comprehensive list of AR and VR apps that can be used in classrooms. […]
Ten Great Tech Tools for Social Studies Lessons
Over the last decade I’ve written about a lot of excellent resources for social studies lessons. Over time some of those tools have faded away and others have moved to the forefront of my top recommendations. Here’s my current list of ten top tools for social studies lessons. Timeline JS Timeline projects as as old […]
5 Tips for New Google Expeditions Users
Image copyright: Richard Byrne Google Expeditions is often the first educational virtual reality tool that I introduce to teachers who come to one of my workshops. Here are five tips that I frequently pass along to teachers who are preparing to use Google Expeditions for the first time. If you have never used Expeditions, you […]
Five Resources for Teaching & Learning About Mount Everest
April and May is the peak of the climbing season in the Himalaya Mountains. In May many mountaineers will be making their summit attempts on Mount Everest. Long-time readers of this blog may recall, one of my bucket list items is seeing Mount Everest in person. Until then I have to entertain myself with books, […]
Six G Suite Updates You Might Have Missed in March
Every month Google rolls out new features for G Suite and many of their other products. Some of those updates are irrelevant for teachers and students while others can have a direct impact on how teachers and students use their favorite Google products. If you want to see every update that Google makes to G […]
Now You Can Use Your Own VR Tours in Google Expeditions on iOS
A couple of weeks ago I published a video about how to use your own virtual reality tours in the Android version of Google Expeditions. In that video I mentioned that support for doing the same in the iOS version of Expeditions was coming soon. As of today the wait is over. As Google announced […]
How to Use Your Own VR Tours in Google Expeditions
Google’s VR Tour Creator is probably my favorite new tool of the last year. I love being able to make my own virtual reality tours and share them with others. Recently, Google added support for VR Tour Creator tours to the Android version of Google Expeditions. This means that you can create your own VR […]
Students Can Create Their Own Tours to Share in Google Expeditions
Googles’ Tour Creator launched last spring and since then has become one of my favorite tools for history and geography classes. One of my few complaints about it was that while students could easily build virtual reality tours, it wasn’t always easy to share those tours with their teachers and classmates. That is about to […]
Introduction to Using Google Expeditions in Your Classroom
Google Expeditions is one of my favorite virtual reality apps for students and teachers. The app provides hundreds of virtual reality experiences for students. There are VR experiences that can be used in social studies, science, and art classes. The guide mode in Expeditions is fantastic for pacing activities inside of the app. Rather than […]
A Spreadsheet of Phones That Do and Don’t Support Google Expeditions
Yesterday, I answered an email from a participant in my recent Intro to VR & AR webinar. She was having trouble getting Google Expeditions to work on one of her phones. I did a little research and found that the phone she was trying to use Expeditions on didn’t have a gyroscope. The absence of […]
Google Expeditions Updated With New Augmented Reality Content
Since its launch Google’s Expeditions app has been a hit in many schools. What started out as a somewhat canned teacher-led virtual reality experience has morphed into a tool that students can use to explore and discover new things on their own. Last summer Google added the option for students to explore the VR expeditions […]
Create Your Own Google Expeditions
To coincide with the BETT Show Google announced a new beta program that will enable schools to create their own Google Expeditions. The latest iteration of the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program will provide schools with all of the equipment required to capture 360 images and to create their own immersive Google Expeditions. The announcement didn’t […]
Virtual Tours of Ancient and Modern Greece
Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Expeditions all provide good ways for students to see the sites of Greece. But if you would like your students to find a bit more detail about those sites, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has an excellent resource for you. The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens […]
Students Can Now Guide Themselves In Google Expeditions
On Wednesday Google released an update to Google Expeditions that allows students and others to guide themselves on Google Expeditions. Expeditions are Google’s Virtual Reality experiences that can be viewed through the Expeditions app on phones placed in Google Cardboard Viewers. The new “solo” mode in Expeditions (currently only for Android) lets students view Google’s […]
Explore National Parks for Free In Person or Online
Entry to national parks in the United States is free each of the next two weekends. If there is a national park near you, go out and explore. Bring your phone to take some pictures. Otherwise put it down and take in the experience. Better yet, skip the phone all together and use a good […]
Don’t Forget the Greater Context on Your VR Trip
During last week’s Practical Ed Tech Live episode (join me this Thursday at 4pm EDT) I was asked about virtual reality, specifically Google Expeditions. The point that I tried to emphasize in my response was that it’s important that we don’t lost the greater physical geographic context when we take students on virtual reality trips. […]
Google Expeditions Will Soon Be Available to iPad Users
Last week Google released another round of updates to their Expeditions program. Expeditions is the virtual reality program that lets students experience immersive views of more than 200 places including the International Space Station, coral reefs, the Taj Mahal, and the White House. Currently, to experience Expeditions you must have a Google Cardboard viewer and […]
Tour Buckingham Palace In Virtual Reality
Last week Google opened up a beta program for schools that want to use Google Expeditions on Android devices. If you get into that program or if you already have Google Cardboard viewers, you might want to take a look at the latest addition to the line-up of virtual reality expeditions. Students can now tour […]
Test the New Google Expeditions Android App
Two of my favorite new Google products of the last nine months are Google Expeditions and the Cardboard Camera app. This week at BETT Jim Sill introduced me to the beta version of the new Google Expeditions Android app. The Expeditions Android app will bring much of the imagery and experience of Google Expeditions to […]