Google Earth has teamed up with National Geographic to take students on “Voyages”
A revamped version of Google Earth has been released a few months ago, which brought a few new features and options. One of the new features that have been added to the application is “Voyager,” which is actually a special section that has been made for classroom use that is offering some interactive guided tours.
We have to mention that Google claimed that these tours have been built by “the world’s leading storytellers, scientists, and nonprofits,” which clearly means that they have been done a pretty good job. This is surely a fun and information way to explore a specific location via a range of exclusive media provided from partners such as BBC Earth or NASA.
During the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference that has taken place in San Antonia, Texas on June 26, the company has announced the new content that has been included in Voyager modules from PBS Education and National Geographic. To make things even better, the developers have also talked about a new material from science-based HHMI Biointeractive and ocean-focused Mission Blue, all helping on increasing the subject matter offered by the Voyager feature.
We also have to mention that Google is expanding the Expeditions, another of its initiatives, which will give students and teachers more options in the classroom. We remind you that the Expeditions has been announced back in 2015 and it is actually a virtual reality (VR) tool that is allowing students to view locations right from the classroom.
Google also said that it is planning to launch a “self-guided mode” feature for Expeditions, allowing anyone to access more than 600 virtual field trips on their own, such as: Great Wall of China, Great Barrier Reef and many more.
What are your thoughts about Google Earth and Expeditions? Have you ever used these two tools to “visit” places from our world?