As educators, we want to ensure that all students in our classes feel stimulated and enjoy their learning. Accordingly, there is a wealth of engaging material available for educators today featuring novel ways to engage students. One such website is Google Expeditions.
Google Expeditions is quite similar to Google Maps, as the platform allows users to explore the world virtually. Teachers can use the images available to create their own virtual reality tours on the platform or use pre-prepared expeditions (available here). The experience is incredibly immersive and engaging, suitable for a variety of subject areas. One can do a tour of Paris, visit Buckingham Palace or even outer space.
To use this in class, students should have devices to connect them to the platform, such as a phone or a tablet. However, my classroom didn’t have these resources so I created my own “virtual tour” and accompanying worksheet for students to work on for their homework. Various worksheets can be found on TES by searching #GoogleExpeditions. Google Expeditions has also partnered with institutions such as National Geographic and Guggenheim, who have developed more than one thousand tours for students to use.
As a French teacher, I created my own virtual tour of Paris. Students really enjoyed this and I was astounded that some students didn’t know that Google Maps even existed!
Here is a virtual tour of the High Line:
What are you waiting for? Get exploring the world without leaving the classroom!