Every year I try to take my students on a field trip to a local art museum, but due to circumstances out of my control we weren't able to do that last year. Determined to still provide my students with an art world beyond our classroom, we instead visited other venues via Skype. We had a great time using Skype to take our own personal tour of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, visited Yellowstone National Park to talk with a park ranger about the art of Thomas Moran and visited another art class in the Chicago area to see what other young artists were making.
Although these were wonderful opportunities to explore and interact with others in the global setting and we also learned a great deal, the logistics, such as scheduling exact times for the Skype sessions to take place limited the experiences to just a handful of my classes and for only brief amounts of time. Thus, I decided this past summer to explore more options for our students to go beyond our classroom. Thankfully, near the same time I bought a Nexus 5 which is the first phone that Google Cardboard, Googles's do-it-yourself virtual reality kit, was designed to be paired with. After getting both combined and the Cardboard app downloaded, I was immediately impressed by the immersive interactivity and could see the wonderful opportunities this technology could provide for my student's learning. It was like stepping into another world and an exciting way of learning.
We began using virtual reality (vr) with the standard apps and videos that were available at the beginning of the year, and students loved it. For the first time they were able to get a sense of just how big the Great Pyramids of Giza are by virtually standing next to them, what shining suits of medieval armor look like up close and explore the Renaissance masterpieces without leaving our class. It's safe to say that we've only scratched the surface of what can be done with this wonderful tool.
Now I've started creating my own content to be used with the vr set including virtual field trips. Students from every class can now take trips across the world to explore ancient monuments, famous museums, natural wonders and so much more according to our schedule and at our pace. I'll be sharing in upcoming posts about the construction of the vr set, modifications that I made to make it more student friendly and some tips to help others use it with their students- so stay tuned!
Wil Codilla is a professional artist, public educator and speaker. @WilCodilla
Although these were wonderful opportunities to explore and interact with others in the global setting and we also learned a great deal, the logistics, such as scheduling exact times for the Skype sessions to take place limited the experiences to just a handful of my classes and for only brief amounts of time. Thus, I decided this past summer to explore more options for our students to go beyond our classroom. Thankfully, near the same time I bought a Nexus 5 which is the first phone that Google Cardboard, Googles's do-it-yourself virtual reality kit, was designed to be paired with. After getting both combined and the Cardboard app downloaded, I was immediately impressed by the immersive interactivity and could see the wonderful opportunities this technology could provide for my student's learning. It was like stepping into another world and an exciting way of learning.
We began using virtual reality (vr) with the standard apps and videos that were available at the beginning of the year, and students loved it. For the first time they were able to get a sense of just how big the Great Pyramids of Giza are by virtually standing next to them, what shining suits of medieval armor look like up close and explore the Renaissance masterpieces without leaving our class. It's safe to say that we've only scratched the surface of what can be done with this wonderful tool.
Now I've started creating my own content to be used with the vr set including virtual field trips. Students from every class can now take trips across the world to explore ancient monuments, famous museums, natural wonders and so much more according to our schedule and at our pace. I'll be sharing in upcoming posts about the construction of the vr set, modifications that I made to make it more student friendly and some tips to help others use it with their students- so stay tuned!
Wil Codilla is a professional artist, public educator and speaker. @WilCodilla