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Dominguez Elementary Welcomes Google Expedition
- Updated: November 20, 2015
Dominguez Elementary 6th graders would like to thank South Texas Google Educator Group Leader Efren Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez offered a free Google workshop and gave out a free Google Cardboard door prize that lead Mrs. Colson to investigate and apply to the Google Expedition Pioneer Program.
Google Expedition is a virtual reality platform that helps immerse students into a lesson. Using a tablet, the teacher guides the field trip by pointing out highlights while referring to editable background information. Teachers control what the students do and do not see and can press the pause button which freezes the student screen to help grab the students attention so that they can focus on what the teacher was saying. Right now, teachers can choose from a library of 100+ virtual trips comprised of virtual reality panoramas.
Involvement in the Pioneer Program allowed Dominguez teachers and students to peek into the future of education as Google Expedition will not be available to the public until next year. There is no charge or cost involved to be part of the program.
On Friday Nov. 6th, Dominguez Elementary 6th graders participated in the Google Expedition Pioneer Program. Google Expedition Leader Clarissa brought “kits” containing everything the teachers needed to run the virtual trips for the day: ASUS smartphones, a tablet for the teacher to direct the tour, a router that allows Expeditions to run without an Internet connection, and Google Cardboard viewers that turn phones into virtual reality headsets.
Expedition Leader Clarissa showed the 6th grade science and world history teachers how Expeditions works and helped them set it up before class.
The 6th grade science students have covered the space exploration science standard by going “To the Moon with the Google Lunar XPR” and Mars with “Spirit: The Life of a Robot.”
The 6th grade world history classes went to “Ypres” and “Sites Along the Thames River” among other places to help cover their standards. Amid “oohs” and “aahhs,” the students shouted out details they noticed and shot up their hands up to answer teacher questions.
The Google Expedition Pioneer Program brought the lessons to life.
