Google Expeditions was a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

(VR) platform developed by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and designed for

educational institution An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments a ...

s. Using

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as mult ...

, the companion

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

and

head-mounted display A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet (see helmet-mounted display for aviation applications), that has a small display optic in front of one (monocular HMD) or each eye (binocular vision, bi ...

s such as

Google Cardboard Google Cardboard is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform developed by Google. Named for its fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, the platform was intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and developm ...

Daydream View Daydream is a discontinued virtual reality (VR) platform which was developed by Google, primarily for use with a Virtual reality headset, headset into which a smartphone is inserted. It is available for select phones running the Android (operat ...

, students (or other users) could take virtual trips to various destinations. Well-known partners included the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

, WWF and the

National Museum of Korea The National Museum of Korea () is the flagship museum of Korean history and Korean art, art in South Korea. Since its establishment in 1945, the museum has been committed to various studies and research activities in the fields of archaeology ...

. The platform was discontinued on June 30, 2021, and was merged into

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

Functionality and offerings

The Google Expeditions app offered a variety of virtual excursions. These included trips to natural landscapes; tours of cultural institutions such as museums; and explorations of historical, futuristic, and distant sights (such as

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

or the

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

). Students could look and move around freely. The program included

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expa ...

recordings and "AirPanos" (

panoramic A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word ...

captures taken from the air). Each school class kit contained 30 synchronized Google Cardboards with smartphones and a tablet for the teacher. Over 600 tours were available. Teachers, acting as expedition leaders, could highlight specific details to the class within each scene. Smiley icons informed the expedition leader where individual students were looking. The app also included recommendations for discussion questions and learning exercises. Students could also complete expeditions alone, meaning that teachers could assign these virtual tours as homework. Expedition kits could be purchased in full or assembled from individual purchases.

History

After Google Cardboard was announced in 2014, the product showed immediate promise within the education sector. Google Expeditions was presented for the first time at

Google I/O Google I/O, or simply I/O, is an annual developer conference held by Google in Mountain View, California. The name "I/O" is taken from the number googol, with the "I" representing the first digit "1" in a googol and the "O" representing the s ...

2015, with a launch date of September 2015. Since May 2016, over a million students have taken part in a virtual tour via the program. In July 2017, Google began a training initiative for the program based in Munich. Expedition trainers visit schools across Germany, bringing with them complete Expeditions kits. The

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

Stiftung Lesen Stiftung Lesen (Reading Foundation) is a non-profit organization based in Mainz, Germany under the patronage of Joachim Gauck. Stiftung Lesen acts as a stakeholder for reading promotion on a national and international level. It contributes to rea ...

supports the use of Google Expeditions in schools and libraries. Managing Director Sabine Uehlein views Expeditions not as a threat to reading as a whole, but as a bridge to the written word as a medium. Google also planned to add augmented reality to the program under the title ''Google Expeditions AR'' using its

Tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

platform. This project was scheduled to start in Autumn 2017.

Reception

CNET described Cardboard as the first virtual reality platform aimed at children. VRODO made comments about the platform, expressing a belief in the future of immersive learning and describing virtual reality as an aid to the memorization process.

Der Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunificati ...

remarked that Expeditions can give students a new perspective on subject matter while studying. The technology-focused website Chip Online observed that subjects such as geography, history, and biology are ideal for a program such as Expeditions, and gave the app a favorable rating. However, Chip Online criticized the cost of assembling a full Expeditions kit, noting that not every student owns a smartphone. Sigrid Driver from

noted that content on the platform must be exciting in order to arouse the curiosity of students, and to ensure students engage meaningfully with topics at hand.

References

External links

* {{Google LLC Educational technology

Expeditions Expedition may refer to: * An exploration, journey, or voyage undertaken by a group of people especially for discovery and scientific research Places * Expedition Island, a park in Green River, Wyoming, US * Expedition Range, a mountain range ...

Virtual reality Virtual reality organizations