Creating our own VR with CoSpaces!

Embracing Social Media as a teacher has completely transformed my teaching. In fact, it has taken my career on a path I never dreamed possible. I love how many ideas I pick up from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. This is one app I spotted recently:

@HelenCaldwel @ICT_MrP @SchPrehistory @DoInkTweets @WulfgarTheBard CoSpaces for VR Stone Age monuments. Video walk through for green screen😎 pic.twitter.com/jqY9p7oy4b

— Ms Weston's Class (@vweston8) February 17, 2017

I have been wanted to find a way to create my own VR for a while and CoSpaces seems to be a great tool for this.

The website and app both allow you to create your own VR environment. It is free to use and just needs an email and password to get going. This week my digital leaders gave it a whirl and they absolutely loved it.

To begin with they were given some tinkering time. I gave them 15 minutes to simply play, experiment and discover the app and the way it works.

We then looked at focusing on using the tool to create something with a purpose. The website gives some suggestions, such as:

• Storytelling - Using the tool to retell a story or create their own story. The app allows you to add different scenes, objects, characters and even a voice recording for children to narrate their creations. 
• Virtual Exhibitions - The app can be used to exhibit different pictures, which can be linked to a range of different curriculum areas. A timeline, an artist's portfolio or sporting greats. 
• Creative Play - Using the app to build and create pretty much anything! Just being creative!
• Infographics - Using the program to present information and data in a more immersive way.
• Modelling - Building 3D models to explain and demonstrate different concepts in subjects like science.

It was amazing to see the children jump straight into the app and create something. The collaboration, discussion and engagement was very impressive. My head was full of other ways to use this app across the curriculum. So watch this space!

As far as what the children created, here are a couple of examples. Once the children had created a project, they were given the chance to view their creations using a Google cardboard headset:

This first example is the retelling of the classic story, Little Red Riding Hood. If you have a VR headset, give it a view in 3D:

This next example is of a Haunted House, accompanied by a spooky soundtrack composed by the pupils using the app, Launchpad.

As stated before, watch this space for some more examples of how we use this great tool to enhance learning across the curriculum. Please share any other examples of how you use it via Facebook and Twitter.