Google Expeditions’programme is currently visiting schools around the world, including Ireland, to pilot their new Expeditions Pioneer Program. Expeditions is a virtual reality platform built for the classroom.

Google have worked with teaches and content partners from around the world to create more than 100 engaging journeys such as the Taj Mahal, Buckingham Palace and the Great Barrier Reef, making it easy to immerse students in entirely new experiences.

Using a kit comprising Google Cardboard virtual reality viewers and smartphones, a tablet, a wireless router and an app, Google Expeditions enables teachers to take up to 50 students at a time on immersive virtual tours of places on Earth and beyond that they would otherwise be unlikely to be able to visit.

The app is loaded with panoramic images from 220 locations, taken with a 360-degree camera, which means the students can explore their surroundings as if they were actually there. Using a tablet, teaches can guide the viewers and control the images which they see. Notes are provided to the teachers to help them guide the pupils effectively.

Over these two weeks, Google Expeditions programme demonstrators are visiting schools in Dublin and Belfast, complete with a full demonstration kit, to train teachers how to use it and show students what it can do.

In a fortnight, the team will then hand over responsibility for control of the project in Ireland to ambassadors at Google Dublin.

Schools in Ireland that are interested in signing up for a visit from a Google Expeditions ambassador can do so here.

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