Investigating the role of virtual reality in geography via Google Expeditions

Tilling, Steve; Tudor, Ana-Despina; Kitchen, Becky and Minocha, Shailey (2017). Investigating the role of virtual reality in geography via Google Expeditions. In: Geographical Association Annual Conference 2017, 20-22 Apr 2017, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.

Abstract

This workshop-session explored the use of Google Expeditions (GEs), virtual reality-based field trips, to support and encourage outdoor fieldwork and facilitate visualisation of processes and locations. Participants had the opportunity to trial GEs and were invited to discuss and evaluate the outcomes (particularly the educator’s perspective) of a project investigating the role of virtual reality in geography education.

We first showed several Expeditions to the educators, such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo or Borneo Rainforest: Plant Adaptations. We then invited participants to share their experience on teaching geography with a focus on inquiry-based learning.

We asked educators to discuss:

a) their inquiry-based learning (IBL) practices in geography lessons and how they would use virtual reality for IBL in lessons;

b) discuss their IBL practices before, during and after a field trip and how they would use virtual reality to practice IBL for fieldwork.

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• Item ORO ID
• 42340
• Item Type
• Conference or Workshop Item
• Project Funding Details

• Funded Project Name	Project ID	Funding Body
  Virtual Reality Research Award: Pedagogical and usability evaluations of Google Expeditions	Not Set	The Open University (OU) and Google

• Keywords
• 3D virtual environments; 3D virtual worlds; Google Expeditions; mobile virtual reality; technology-enabled learning; virtual field trips; VFTs; virtual reality
• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) > Computing and Communications
  Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
• Research Group
• Centre for Research in Computing (CRC)
  ?? hwpra ??
• Copyright Holders
• © 2017 The Authors
• Related URLs
• • http://oro.open.ac.uk/48118/(Publication)
  • http://oro.open.ac.uk/48070/(Publication)
  • http://www.shaileyminocha.info/google-ex...(Research Group)
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadespinatu...(Author Website)
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-tillin...(Author Website)
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaileyminoc...(Author Website)
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-kitc...(Author Website)
  • http://www.shaileyminocha.info/blog/2017...(Research Group)
  • https://vr.google.com/cardboard/(Research Group)
  • https://edu.google.co.uk/expeditions/(Research Group)
  • http://geography.org.uk/cpdevents/annual...(Other)
• Depositing User
• Shailey Minocha