The next VR content creators are teachers and students using Google Tour Creator By Bebette Ryan Google recently launched an opportunity for students to become Virtual Reality Tour developers through a program called “Google Tour Creator”. Instead of taking a virtual field-trip using the successful Google Expeditions program that Google offers, students can now build their own excursion to share with the world. Creating a VR experience for anyone is easy. Using a computer is one of the best ways to develop this experience. Tour Creator allows you to upload a 360-degree images or choose a location in Street View 360-degree images. If you are lucky, some of these Street View images are inside of buildings as well as outside of them. Students and teachers can add text and voice-over to a scene to enhance meaning to their tour experience Students or teachers can also determine exact “Points of Interest” that are important in the tour which
will help their visitor focus on something intriguing to ponder or highlight. This can also be enhanced by adding 2D images onto each scene. Once you publish your tour it is hosted on Google Poly and can be seen on Google Daydream or Cardboard VR headsets. Tour Creator was first tested in Beta for student and teachers around the world to make their own expedition. They were encouraged to use the theme “Love Where You Live” so they can be a tour guide of their community to other schools participating in the program. One school in Lancaster PA , used Tour Creator to showcase their view of their world. This tool also provides teachers with different ways to assess student learning, improve their motivation in a subject or just provide enriching experience to any lesson. We can just imagine in the near future when a student is expected to report what they know about a subject, place, idea or experience, instead of a written report, project board or document they will instead say “I shared it with you through virtual reality”.
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