Getting out of the classroom and into the world has never been easier, at least virtually. Technologies have improved rapidly to bring immersive imagery and live video into reach for schools. Whether you want to visit a city, a mountaintop, a watering hole, or a space station, there is a virtual field trip out there waiting for you to explore it. These days, getting there is the easy part, the challenging part is structuring the inquiry around it to make the experience powerful for your learners. Leave a comment if you have any great ideas for supporting inquiry with these experiences.
Check out these great sites for virtual experiences.
Check out these great sites for virtual experiences.
Virtual Field Trips
Structured Interactive Tours- Google Street View
Google can take you almost anywhere, street or no street. These structured tours are great for open-ended explorations and are practically inexhaustible. - London Virtual Tour - visitlondon.com
Visit key sites in London and learn about the importance of each to Britain's history. - Discovery VR | A new way to see your world
This site uses interactive video to tour different points of interest around the world. As the video plays, click around the video to pan and zoom in a 360° view. The ads can be a little annoying, but you can skip through them.
- Thing Link - Train like an astronaut with Samantha Cristoforetti
Thing link is not so "panoramic", but has other videos and links embedded in an image to learn more about what you are looking at, much like a museum display might have. - India Virtual Reality Tours
Uses anchors built into the 360° tour to illuminate key areas of important historical sites in India. Look for the little red pins to find the next point of interest.
- Your Zoo View | The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Great timing for India as Australia is 5 1/2 hours ahead. Catch feeding times and other interactive moments if you plan ahead. The cameras allow users to even pan and zoom in on a live zoo or aquarium installation. - Wild Animal and Zoo Live Webcams on LiveAnimals.tv
This service shows animals in the wild through a variety of webcams. There is no guarantee of seeing anything on some of the cams, much like a real safari, but with persistence the rewards can be thrilling. Also, keep time differences in mind when planning with your class.
- Webcams - Dublin Zoo, Ireland.
Elephants, wolves, penguins, and African savannah webcams at decent times for india and in English. - Snow Monkeys Live
Though this site leads to a zoo in Edinborough where they feed the monkeys every day at 11:30 am, you could easily have your students find webcams of their favorite spots in their home countries.
- Mountainpanoramas - Home - Mountain Panoramas from Around the World
Surreal 360° views from the top of many different mountains. Think through the pros and cons of this kind of field trip! - Google Maps - Photo Shpere
Simpler than Google Street View, Photo sphere offers mildly interactive panoramas of almost anywhere. You can use Google images and maps to go anywhere! - Best Panoramas | | 360° Aerial Panoramas, 3D Virtual Tours Around the World
Some of the most amazing and striking panoramas on the web. Go stand on the rim of a volcanic in Russia or visit the new 7 wonders of the world. These are not live, but they are impressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment