360 Degree Awareness

November 15, 2017

Today was the first time I'd tried 360 videos with my students.  It received very mixed reviews; about half of my students complained about feeling "dizzy".  However, the video itself was about child refugees and students could use their laptop mouses' to scan around as the children's story was being told.  For instance, they could see the destroyed school room in which one of the refugee children was standing. I think that it was successful in creating an immersive experience for my students in which they really grasped the desperation of a refugee's life.

It was particularly important for me to impress this upon them as the majority of our students come from extremely affluent homes and are not exposed to the realities of poverty.  I felt the 360 videos was much more successful at conveying the information than the usual 2D format traditionally used. I will definitely be accessing this technology more in my classes.  I'd also like to play with our school's 3D camera in order to give students the opportunity to create their own 3D videos. I think they would find this particularly engaging.