Tech Review 1

Google Cardboard.

The cheapest V.R headset money can buy; Google cardboard brings the V.R medium to smartphones by using a simple cardboard designed headset which holds the mobile device in place whilst enabling v.r movement sensors in the smartphone. This technology has many apps including google earth v.r allowing a v.r perspective of google earth adding weight and depth to the google street view app. This app would suit education by being able to host virtual field trips (Miller 2016) and explore historic places such as a statue of Napoléon allowing students to get into a new environment rather then looking at a static 2d image. Google Cardboard is very suitable for primary schools as it cuts out the costly aspect of school trips and the ethical and safety forms attached with said trips and also is more affordable (Unimersiv 2017) to those students from low income backgrounds but also means that places inaccessible to students normally such as outer space are now accessible via Google Cardboard.  Google themselves has pushed the aspect of having v.r in classrooms via their expeditions programme allowing students to explore the deep sea and swim with sharks, the teacher can also monitor where their eyes move using tracking technology showing small faces  indicating a students current point of interest allowing the learning to seamlessly flow with the children leading the exercise and direction of learning similar to Heathcote’s (1991) mantle of the expert style of putting the children as the driver in the discovery process and feeding back to the teacher what they learn and comprehend. Cardboard seems to be more aimed towards the primary school age group with the students in their age range having more whimsical and wide-eyed reactions to the experience, that’s not to say however that it cannot be used in secondary schools. Secondary schools can find use in this technology via the science expeditions learning biology from seeing a human body working without the blood and gore of dissections and the accuracy of high definition viewing. Google Cardboard ethically doesn’t have the risks as other open software as the main applications can be managed and the phones are secured within the headset and cannot be used for other purposes by students as they will enter the classroom pre-set to the task. Boal (1979) has a huge emphasis on the idea of play within a child’s education and development and therefore the development of such technologies of virtual reality, it plays with the children’s imagination and feeds their curiosity in a way that leads the imagination rather than replacing it. Google Cardboard however cannot be a replacement altogether but rather should be used in combination with other mediums to create lessons. Using google cardboard to examine a shark and then asking students to write a trait that has helped it adapt to its environment is great for science lessons being able to have easy visual aids that can be changed and adapted to suit purpose. This swiss army knife versatility of the google cardboard means schools can save money on buying visual models of digestive systems, removes the need for dissections with health and safety concerns and increases the variety of creatures that can be compared. The cardboard also has been supported by other educational platforms and places such as a Toti submarine experience (Museoscienza 2019) with audio and visual cues to help learners see inside of a submarine in Italy, if more institutions started to do programmes like this then students from around the world can unlock the world and get up close and personal with some amazing opportunities that can also be done at home, this can be done for homework along with a written booklet to ensure the student has used the application rather then procrastinating. However, practitioners need to ensure access is available to all students so cardboard sets need to be available at the school in order to have the homework completed as despite figures not all children can have their own smartphone that can run the programme. So, to conclude google cardboard is a cheap way of introducing virtual reality with an established google pedigree and a great way to get students engaged and active within lessons with some cost saving.