Google Cardboard may not be a high-octane experience like Oculus Rift, but there’s a special kind of magic behind the VR platform’s low-cost, accessible ways. One of the areas in which Cardboard hopes to make a mark is in education: Last September, Google launched the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program, a VR experience that allows teachers to guide students through tours of landmarks and other interesting locations. Today, Google announced its Expeditions program will be easier for schools to access: via a beta app for Android.
Using cheap cardboard headsets, Android phones, and a teacher-operated tablet, Google Expeditions lets students experience 360-degree views of places like Machu Picchu, outer space, and caves in Slovakia. Students are free to explore the immersive environments independently, but using a tablet screen as a guided tour interface, teachers can point out important things in each scene, add notes to the VR experience, and see an overlay that shows them where each student is looking.
Until now, the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program had been a limited-release thing---albeit a very popular one, as Google says more than half a million students have participated in the pilot already around the United States, Canada, and Sweden. Schools had to sign up for a visit from the Google Expeditions team and then wait.
But Google announced today that the Expeditions Program will be opening up beyond its current “sign up and wait for us to visit” status. Google will release a beta version of the Google Expeditions app for Android, so teachers and schools can download it to experience the virtual tours. Still, a little waiting is involved: Google says you can sign up to be a beta tester here, and it will let you know when you’re approved to download the app.
The company also announced that a couple of new Expeditions experiences have been added to the roster: A VR tour of the Great Barrier Reef developed in collaboration with Sir Richard Attenborough, as well as a VR field trip to Buckingham Palace.
To be sure, these guided VR tours are a great way to pique students’ interest in places they’ve only seen in flat 2D pictures. And although this initial wave of Google Expeditions experiences is geared at elementary-school students, there’s a lot of potential for this kind of platform to be used for advanced education, as well. Let’s just hope VR doesn’t replace real field trips altogether.
