Virtual Field Trips

If you are looking for a way to thoroughly engage students and reach the modification and redefinition levels of the SAMR model, then check out some virtual field trip options. Virtual field trips can take many shapes and forms. There are lots of tools and resources out there for you and your students! Let’s talk about a few!

1. Nearpod: Nearpod is an app for the iPad and a website on your MacBook or PC. Once you go to the website to create an account, you can select free lessons and virtual field trips to share with your students. When you launch a lesson, you control what is on the students’ screens, so they will not see the next slide or photo until you switch to it. Some of the free virtual field trips offered at Nearpod are: Explore the World’s Tallest Building, Exploring Communities, Explore the Oceans, Caves, Native American Housing, Patriotic Landmarks, Mars, Ancient Egypt, and more. Once you as the teacher click to start the trip, students look at their iPad to view the scenes. They can spin around, look up and down, and zoom in and to really experience the sights. It is AWESOME and free!

2. Google Street View: This is a free app for the iPad and iPhone that allows students to visit places all over the world. While you change the view by tapping on the iPad screen instead of moving the iPad, you can still look behind you, up, down, and all around. You can even zoom in on images. The Google Street View app is free. In addition to viewing locations within the app, users can also create a 360 degree image. So, when you take that trip to Cancun, Mexico, you can create a virtual field trip for your students for free! Check out this link below for more information about Google Street View: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gnDzesRFyU.

3. 360 Panorama: This app is my favorite for creating your own virtual field trips. This is because the images you create can be uploaded to their website. This provides you with a link that can be shared with students. They do not need the app to view your 360 degree creation. Two other bonuses to using this app to create virtual field trips for your students are that you can put your link into a Nearpod lesson and you can embed it into an iBooks Author book! Now the virtual field trip truly is a part of your classroom materials and can be accessed again and again! Of course, you get what you pay for. This app costs $1.99, but it more than pays for itself in the experiences it provides!
Please let me know if you need help or are interested in more information on how to do this!!!! Check out this link to a 360 image of the NHS library . . . I did it in 5 minutes so it is a rough image but it will give you an idea of how it works. Click on the link and be sure to tap on the little circle in the left hand corner of the image to enable the gyroscope.

http://360.io/ZQ7jD3

Please let me know if you decide to use this app! We’d love to build a repository of images for virtual field trips for NWCS students by sharing our 360 photos in one place. :)