Next-gen edtech and virtual reality are both high-stakes platforms that have quite a bit of potential when it comes to defining our near-future. The marriage of the platforms may be far from ready for primetime, but there is a lot of flirtation happening in the space right now thanks to some major players.
Today, Google for Education announced that it will be adding integration of Google Expeditions and Google Classrooms with TES, a service that millions of teachers have used to find digital assets and lesson plans to use in their classes.
Now, teachers that are interested in the education training services and lessons that Google offers can take a look and easily download free content from the Google portal within TES.
The Google Expeditions initiative has been giving kids more immersive experiences with their lesson content via 360 media content viewed on the Google Cardboard platform. Students are able to dive into environments and get a clearer image of topics than 2D textbooks can offer.
“We’re excited to launch this integration with tes.com. The new portal offers TES users a seamless experience with Google’s suite of tools,” Emma Fish of Education Partnerships for Google for Education said in a statement. “Teachers can now find lesson plans compatible with Google Apps for Education, share those lesson plans using Classroom, access free training on Google tools, and even take their classes on immersive virtual journeys to bring their lessons to life with Google Expeditions and the TES portal.”
With this partnership, Google is inserting its services into a more accessible vein of online education portals. The issues related to teachers adopting new tech often has just about as much to do with accessibility as it does with relevancy. VR has a long way to go in proving itself a worthy integration, for now it’s mostly about jogging imaginations, but soon high-powered tech may give students the ability to discover their own takeaways inside environments a bit more dynamic than a room with desks and chairs.