Google expeditions comes to clay, students help beta test product

Story by Mia Anderson

​​Shouts of excitement came from the room as the students ooed and awed over the new technology. The devices were glued to the students face as they were engrossed in the new atmosphere. Clay Middle School was chosen to help Google test out their new Virtual Reality devices. They began to test out the Google Cardboard devices on January 27 and everyone had their own experience with the devices.
 
“It was cool being able to see the whole picture,” Danny Rhoad, seventh grade, said. “It felt like I was really there.”
 
The Google devices are planned to be used in classrooms to create a more immersive lesson for the students.
 
“It works by two screens being shown on any device. Then you use lenses to look through and (the eyes) blend the two screens together to create one 3-D picture,” Giffin Hadley, seventh grade, said.
 
There were tons of different places the students went to, and with more on the way there are endless possibilities for where you can go.
 
“I went to the moon,” Hadley said. “I also went to the Taj mahal.”
 
Only seventh graders at Clay got the chance to beta test Google Expeditions, and all the students when to the Taj Mahal for their social studies class to learn more about the love story behind it.
 
While most students were impressed with the device, there were some issues.
 
“The pictures were kind of blurry, plus it made me dizzy,” Annie Surette, seventh grade, said. “I also wish I could move around while looking at the pictures.”
 
Since this product is in beta, Google will use Clay’s input to help fix any bugs.
 
Overall, Google Expeditions can be used in classrooms all over the world, and even though the devices are still in beta testing, this product has a very bright future. 

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