Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Google Expeditions works together with a mobile device/tablet and a viewer, and allows teachers to share 360 virtual reality experience with a whole classroom of students at the same time. The teacher’s device is the “guide,” and the other devices that are connected are the “explorers.” The explorers can see all the images for a large collection of prepared expeditions, which also include written details of the images being shown. A quick tip from the app: “On the guide’s device, the teacher can see where all of the students are currently directing their attention. The teacher, or guide, can direct students’ attention to a specific part of the image by holding their finger on that spot. Students will then see an arrow in their viewer indicating the direction they should look.”

Level: Elementary +
Platform: iOS | Android
Cost: FREE

This review from Common Sense Education includes feedback from teachers as well as lessons ideas to use with the app. Or check out this review from an educator who writes about his experience trying out the app in his classroom!