Without a doubt one of the most stunning educational virtual reality experiences is Google Earth VR. This free app is a great way to contextualise geographical learning by letting students teleport around the globe and explore our planet first hand. You can be stood next to the Christ The Redeemer statue in Brazil as the sun sets then with the click of a button be flying along the River Thames. You can stand atop the Eiffel Tower and observe the layout of Paris. You can stand

One of the teachers I work with recently asked me to look for some mobile AR/VR content on the theme of Natural Disasters which her students were studying after the Christmas break. My first port of call was YouTube where I curated an appropriate set of 360 videos about volcanoes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. This has become a go-to move for me as I can navigate the content quickly and produce staff a sheet of QR codes that students can scan to directly access the

Just before I went away in the summer, I stumbled across a link to the Greenpeace Virtual Explorer kits. Currently only available in the UK, these cardboard VR kits are essentially free as long as you make a small donation to Greenpeace. Since I was going to be in the UK over the summer, I decided to order one and check it out. Here’s a clip of my daughter and I unboxing the kit: The headset (which is made from recycled materials by the way) will obviously work with any app b

Guest post by Ronan McNicholl Google Earth VR demonstrates the immersive and experiential power of virtual reality in education. How can this be used in the classroom? Naturally, Google Earth VR is a perfect fit for geography teachers as it can help bring the subject to life. Students can access a vast array of topics related to physical and human geography. For example, pupils could explore active volcanoes, visit urban environments or possibly learn about glacial and coas

I have my wife to thank for this one. You see every year at JESS Dubai the school hosts an International Day and this year's event is right around the corner. We have over 40 nationalities represented at the school and the whole community comes together to celebrate diversity, culture and heritage from these countries. Different countries will set up a stall and give students the chance to enjoy food, complete activities and learn about the country from JESS parents. This yea

Recently I caught wind of an augmented reality company based in China called Neobear. What struck me about their AR products was that they were purely educational and aimed squarely at younger learners. This week I was fortunate enough to get my hands on three items from the NeoBear range – the AR Globe, The AR Pop-up Zoo flashcards and the NeoBear’s World Tour Pop-up AR Paintings book set. Each product comes with access to a free app (iOS or Android) which brings the content

YouTube has a wealth of free educational 360 videos that can enrich and transform learning. Of course it also has a lot of other content to wade through (360 and otherwise.) I've spent some time trawling through YouTube looking for the best channels for educational 360 videos. First though, a few tips and tricks for using 360/VR content from YouTube: - Once the video is playing look for the VR headset icon in the bottom right corner to switch to stereoscopic VR mode and view

In November 2014 I got my first VR headset from a company in the USA. It was a foam build variation on the Google Cardboard and I was immediately in awe of the possibilities it offered. It was a great little headset (even though I had to wedge in my iPhone 4 with some blutack) and I still have it in my office today. A couple of months after this I integrated it into the classroom for the first time. Working with some Year 2 classes on a World Explorers project, I harnessed Th