Google cardboard is an interactive pair of goggles that you can put on and it takes you to a virtual reality. You will need the google cardboard glasses which you can buy from the website or make your own cardboard goggles. You will need cardboard, velcro, and lenses. There are instructions you can download from the website. (https://vr.google.com/cardboard/) You will need to buy the apps to use the goggles from the app store which is about 15 dollars. (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-cardboard/id987962261?mt=8). There are various videos available online to make your own and assemble the ones they send you. One possible problem you might encounter is that the goggles are google based so there aren’t as many apps on IOS. Another downfall is that they are single user devices. You can ask for donations to classroom use in small group or centers. The uses for google cardboard in the classroom include you can go on virtual field trips. You can go basically anywhere around the world. This is great for students who haven’t been many places like the beach or somewhere you might discuss in class. It lets them experience what others have in a way. Some apps include Expeditions (Google Play), Discovery VR, and Guided Tour. In a video the group played they asked students where they would like to go and one student mentioned they would like to go to their homeland. The teachers mentioned letting the students experience the world outside their small community. It shows the students talking about The Great Wall of China in a lesson and then the students could visualize and follow along better with what the teacher was talking about by using the virtual reality goggles. She used the Expeditions app to do this. The goggles would also be great if you had a student from overseas and the other students could see where they came from and experience that. You can take a walk down any street or go to any mountain or ocean using the google maps. YouTube had their own page for 360 videos the students can watch or anyone that wants to experience it. The group mentioned experiencing the rain forest in 360. The camera can create your own 360 videos. You can narrate your videos. Another use is virtual simulations and exhibitions. You can explore 360 degree artifacts. For example, if you have a lesson of artifacts from the revolutionary war you can view those artifacts in 360. You can view organs and inside the human body in 360 like you are on Mrs. Frizzles magic school bus. You can have students design their own virtual reality. You can login to the google app and have them upload their own videos and pictures. Virtual reality can help students with autism or social skill problems. Students with autism have trouble communicating and they don’t receive information like we do. You can implement social stories in the virtual reality world. For example, you can have a video on talking to someone and practice looking people in the eye when carrying on a conversation in one video, you can practice asking the librarian for a book and making eye contact. They also can watch virtual reality videos to improve knowing the difference in an aggressive conversation and a friendly conversation. Researchers did a case study on two autistic students and the student that practiced using the virtual reality made more improvement on their social skills. The app is called Second Life.
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