Mission, Texas- Students at Mission Jr. High School had a unique opportunity to visit the moon, Brazil, an underwater reef, New York City, Philadelphia, and many other locations from around the world today. It was a part of an immersive virtual reality program that Google is testing called Google Expeditions. Teams from Google are traveling the country through its Expedition Pioneer Program.
Through its participation in the Expedition Pioneer Program, Mission CISD (Consolidated Independent School District) was able to see the Expedition program in its own real-world setting, allowing for a more personal examination of what the program can do once Google rolls it out sometime next year.
“For us, this is like a test-drive,” explained Cris Valdez, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “Our own teachers and instructional staff were able to lead class lessons using the Expeditions. This gives us a good tool to use in determining how useful this might be for our student’s learning.”
Valdez said once district officials have feedback from the campus they can begin to more closely examine how a tool, like Expeditions, could be utilized and also begin to research the potential costs involved should the district decide this is something it wants to try and adopt.
Mission CISD officials are proud of the technology leadership through its Google Chromebook initiative and are always looking for ways to actively engage students through the use of technology.
Google Expeditions uses an immersive visual virtual reality system to take participants on virtual journeys. Students can explore on their own, or can be led through the tour by the teacher, who uses a tablet computer to guide students and presents them with their images. What the students see through the googles is best described as standing in the middle of a photo-bubble made from real pictures. It completely surrounds the student, virtually.
Pictured is one of the Mission Jr. High School teachers (holding the tablet) leading students on a Google Expedition during the test today. Other pictures are of students during their sessions and two video clips of students as they experienced different aspects of an expedition.
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