The school I work at is based around an old 19th-century mansion, that acted as a hospital during World War 1, before eventually becoming a grammar school and then a comprehensive. Understandably there is a lot of history around the place. As part of a Y
ear 7 History scheme of work, students had to look at the school building and design a guide / tour of all the different parts, from the old to the new.
Instead of doing this in a more traditional manner, I wanted the students to ‘look again’ at the building that they walk through every day and create a ‘Virtual Tour’ that could be viewed by others. I stumbled across the Google App ‘Photosphere‘ which lets you create 360 Degree images of a place and upload them to Google Maps.
The results were great, the students really paid attention to the building and the features. From a Geography point of view, it further emphasised the ideas of ‘Space’ and ‘Place’.
After they were added to Google maps. I asked the students to write a script for an accompanying audio tour of the school using their Photo Spheres.
I think that it could really help with field trip write ups. If students could be virtually transported back to the moment that they undertook the work!
There are obvious disclaimers; from a safeguarding point of view, don’t have images of students on the Photospheres, and vet them all before anything is uploaded.
Some example Photospheres: The School Garden, Outside my classroom
