Fun applications and potential to expand into ELA Classrooms!
Community Review for Google Cardboard
My Take
It would serve my students better if the viewers came premade. I know there are places one can purchase assembled VR Viewers, but my school chose to get a version that required assembly. The 7th grade students had a really hard time assembling them and finally we just used the 5 that we got together that worked and shared them. Ideally, I'd love to have a class set so students could all be working in VR is that was their choice for the day.
Another problem is access to devices. Students needed to pre-download the applications into their own devices. Schools are more focused than ever on acquiring devices like tablet and netbooks/laptops, but not smaller devices like iPods.
If all the stars aligned, I would use this as often as I could to explore setting in novels and short stories students are reading for class. I could also use this with students who are researching topics that can be explored using VR. It would provide some students with another mode of learning , after traditional and digital modes, the virtual world is one that students could really engage in and learn a lot through.
How I Use It
There are great applications that take students to places like the Solar System VR. The New York Times VR is great for teaching about current world events giving them the ability to witness what is occurring first hand in other countries. These experiences extend their knowledge and have the ability to create empathy for what others are experiencing. FlashcardVR is powered by Quizlet, an online flashcard website my students use quite often. This would be a great way to extend their digital vocabulary experiences, however, I did find this application to crash quite often.