Teacher Spotlight: I’ve been creating my own Google Expeditions with Metaverse

Words by: Jamie Averbeck. Instructional Technology Coordinator, Ashwaubenon School District @Averbecktech

With the introduction of Google Expeditions in early 2015, many educators were excited to harness the power of virtual reality in the classroom. After all, who can question the power of 5th grade students being able to experience the battlefields of Gettysburg? Or high school biology students being able to visit the Great Barrier Reef? VR Expeditions can help create memorable, visual impressions and exploration. To me, however, the biggest thing missing from Expeditions was the ability to create my own content, which seemed like the logical next step in classroom VR. Partnering with Jen Zurawski (@tweets2jen), WiscoVR.org was born.

Using a variety of 360-degree images and YouTube videos, we managed to piece together a workable VR experience for our students. While not as seamless as Expeditions, we were able to create a somewhat compelling experience. Unfortunately, it relied on a combination of multiple apps (Chrome, Google Maps/Street View, YouTube, etc.) and troubleshooting by the teacher to make sure students were in the right location and looking at the right content. At this point, I had resigned myself to thinking that this was the best we could do with WiscoVR, and then I discovered Metaverse.

Metaverse is a free platform for creating augmented reality experiences. As an educator, I strongly suggest following @metaverseapp on Twitter to see awesome examples of how fellow educators are using this amazing and user friendly tool in their classrooms, and how you can incorporate other teachers’ creations in your lessons for free simply by downloading the app. In the simplest terms, Metaverse Experiences are a series of scenes, or content, connected by blocks, or actions, all hosted in an Augmented Reality space. Ok, it’s simpler than that sounds!

What immediately caught my eye was the ability to host 360-degree images and YouTube videos in a single experience. Here is a screenshot example:

To see this experience, download the Metaverse app on your mobile device and go to: https://mtvrs.io/InstinctiveRebelSack

We created this experience as part of our Community Helpers Project, which is aligned to the kindergarten social studies standards. Using my Ricoh Theta V 360-degree camera and my iPhone, I traveled to the Green Bay Action Sports Organization (GBASO) Skatepark and recorded my content. Then using Metaverse I created a welcome scene, followed by an AR character scene with buttons that students could tap to experience the skatepark. Once in the classroom, we (the tech team) deploy the Metaverse app and a webclip to the experience URL. Simple! Metaverse is the perfect solution for an AR host of VR content. To see our additional WiscoVR.org content hosted in Metaverse, just go to ar.wiscovr.org

To continue the conversation on everything AR and VR, feel free to follow me, @Averbecktech, or follow my blog at gg.gg/teachingwithtech.