Google Cardboard

Just bought myself a Google Cardboard viewer. If you've never heard of Google Cardboard then basically it's a relatively cheap and simple way for a user to experience virtual reality. The viewer was purchased on Amazon for £10.99 and took me about 5 mins to assemble. The duck tape is you can see in the photos is just there to strengthen some areas. You download the Google Cardboard app to your smartphone, calibrate it to the viewer via a QR code and it's ready to use. Your smartphone is inserted into the back of the viewer, and the display is split into two images (one for each eye). The result is a stereoscopic 3D image. It reminds me a little of the ViewMaster toy I loved as a child! But Google Cardboard brings that idea up to date, allowing you to take your own 360 degree images. Move your head to the left or right, or turn around to see the whole scene. I've been taking 360 degree photos via my Android smartphone for some time, and viewed through this they become very immersive. The Google Cardboard Camera app also allows you to quickly take a 360 degree panorama which can then be viewed through this.

Educational uses? Well I've only had it for a couple of hours but I could imagine visiting some historic buildings and taking a 360 panorama with the Cardboard Camera and reliving the visit back in the classroom. What can you see around you? The app also records the sound too. Viewing Google Street View through the viewer looks great. Could be helpful with your studies on the locality, or a contrasting locality. I've just viewed the area around the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the northern lights in Finland!

Comments

Digital Literacy: The Context for Wales & Definitions

At a time when England have introduced digital literacy elements to their new Computing PoS, and with the recommendations from the ICT Steering Group report for a digital literacy framework alongside the new subject of Computing, I’ve been attempting to look closely into what exactly is meant by the term ‘digital literacy’, and ultimately what this could mean for primary and secondary schools in Wales. I intend to put together a series of blogs on the topic, mainly as a way to help me with my understanding around some of the current thinking in this field, but hopefully it will still be of interest to teachers and others. I'd welcome any of your thoughts or comments on this topic. The Context In June 2012, Leighton Andrews, the then Minister for Education and Skills, announced “an additional £3m of funding over the next three years to support a range of measures to improve computer science, digital literacy and ICT in schools and colleges across Wales.” This announcement came

Defining Digital Competence

In a couple of previous posts I looked at what was meant by the term digital literacy and what this could mean in the Welsh education context. These were written in response to a recommendation from the ICT Steering Group report , proposing a new statutory Digital Literacy Framework for schools. I attempted to define what digital literacy meant using definitions from groups such as The Royal Society, Becta, Futurelab , Jisc and Common Sense Media. It was very difficult to pin down exactly what it meant but there were certainly commonalities between all of them. This week however, Prof. Graham Donaldson published his report on the curriculum and assessment in Wales, "Successful Futures" , and in it referred not to digital literacy , but to digital competence (which is a term I'm far happier using). I therefore feel it's important for me to try in this post to understand what is meant by this term, look at some definitions and find out if there are any differences

The Digital Learning Den

Gareth Morgan Consultancy has now been going for nearly 7 years, providing advice, support and training to primary schools across Wales. Where did that time go? Throughout those years, I've always had an ICT skills ladder that I've offered to schools. It's been updated continually throughout those years with quite a change in focus when the Digital Competence Framework (DCF) was introduced and with the ubiquitous use of Hwb and its related cloud based applications and digital resources. Initially this skills ladder was paper based and at one stage I had four versions of it as the example activities were focused around specific applications e.g., Google for Education / Purple Mash or Microsoft 365 / Just2easy. The problem I found was keeping these documents up to date. Applications would change or I would have new ideas or web-links would die or change. So a couple years ago I moved everything online and created The Digital Den. Schools could buy into the platform for a ye

Head in the Cloud

Search This Blog