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  • BEN SCHROM: Hello, everyone.

  • Thanks for spending some time with us this afternoon.

  • I'm Ben Schrom.

  • I'm a product manager on the Google Expeditions team.

  • And I'm really excited to be joined here by Jen and Rob,

  • two of my colleagues.

  • We're really just a part, though,

  • of a small community of really, really passionate people

  • here at Google who think technology can really

  • change education.

  • And if it's not obvious already by virtue of the session,

  • we're especially excited about the role

  • VR can play in education.

  • So we've just returned, a little exhausted,

  • but super-encouraged, from a year-long trip

  • that we've taken.

  • And that trip has been to try to bring VR

  • to as many teachers and students around the world as we could.

  • And as Clay announced yesterday, we've

  • managed to bring expeditions to over a million students

  • since last year.

  • It's a number we're really, really proud of.

  • And it's been an amazing journey.

  • But so much of the credit for what follows actually

  • goes to the amazing group of teachers and students

  • who joined us along the way.

  • We've encountered so much enthusiasm.

  • We've received so much amazing feedback from them.

  • And we're really, really grateful to everyone

  • who has participated and who continues to participate.

  • So I'm going to start with some thoughts about why

  • VR and education are a really good match.

  • And then Jen's going to talk a little bit

  • about Google Expeditions and our Pioneer Program.

  • And then Rob's going to talk about the future of VR

  • in education as we see it.

  • So let's start with the why.

  • Like, why did we originally create Google Expeditions?

  • And why do we think VR platforms like Daydream

  • will offer so much potential for educators and learners?

  • Why should developers like yourselves

  • be interested in developing educational apps for VR?

  • So let's start with a quick show of hands.

  • How many of you remember studying really, really hard

  • for a test in school?

  • How many?

  • Most of you.

  • How many of you forgot everything

  • that you studied the second after the test?

  • Exactly the same number, right?

  • How many of you think you could do well in that test

  • again right now?

  • Not a lot.

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • So how many of you remember a trip

  • that you've taken to an interesting place, a country,

  • a museum, something like that?

  • About the same number.

  • How many of you can recall details about that trip?

  • A lot of you, right?

  • So therein lies one of the reasons

  • why we find the emergence of widely accessible VR technology

  • so exciting for education.

  • Google I/O is no place to temper one's enthusiasm.

  • So I'll make a bold claim that many of us who

  • think about educational technology, VR

  • is the thing we've been waiting for,

  • because it allows us to address one of the most important,

  • but neglected areas of learning.

  • And I want to spend a few minutes digging into why.

  • So to start with, let's take a really, really big step back.

  • Historically, most of the technology

  • that we've developed to aid learning

  • has been aimed to enable access to information--

  • facts, details, other observations about the world.

  • And for most of human history, a smart person

  • has basically been someone who knew a lot of facts.

  • And fact retention is what a lot of the technology that we've

  • built directly supports.

  • I'm talking about things like the book, right?

  • Or libraries of books, a catalog that lets you easily

  • access tons and tons of information quickly.

  • Search engines, like one you might recognize here,

  • have only served to make this kind of fact retrieval

  • breathtakingly fast, comprehensive, and easy.

  • Even the rapid growth of technology like laptops,

  • and tablets, and smartphones in schools

  • has only really served to help you assimilate information

  • and then turn around and evaluate

  • how well you did in absorbing it and recalling it.

  • But while information is super, super important,

  • it's not even close to the full story

  • when it comes to learning.

  • Let me give you one example of this.

  • Here is a math problem.

  • "There are 26 goats and 10 sheep on a boat.

  • How old is the captain of the boat?"

  • So a study done in the US to a bunch

  • of fifth graders in the '90s asked this question.

  • And three-fourths of those students

  • produced a numerical answer to this question.

  • The most common answer was 36.

  • There were some 16s.

  • And amazingly, there was one 260.

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • A quote from one of the students who answered 36 said, "Well,

  • for this type of problem, you need to add, or subtract,

  • or multiply.

  • And for this one, it seemed it was best to add."

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • Right?

  • And the important point, these kids are not stupid at all.

  • These are smart kids.

  • But they're kids for whom the traditional approaches

  • to teaching mathematics are failing.

  • Let me give you one little bit more complicated example.

  • A study done in the '90s found that when students were taught

  • geography in a traditional way by memorizing all the states

  • and where they go and the state capitals with a worksheet

  • like this, they were largely incapable of naming or placing

  • those same states in the correct places

  • when the borders were removed like that.

  • They were basically clueless the second the map changed.

  • But the study found that another group of students

  • who had spent some time discussing concepts

  • like why rivers and mountain ranges are natural

  • borders-- they were much more capable of placing states

  • in the right spots.

  • And the reason that's important is that simple techniques

  • that literally, in this case, ground information about which

  • states are where serve students to understand

  • the important concepts of why-- like,

  • why are the borders where they are.

  • And learning this way is powerful,

  • because it allows for much more improved knowledge transfer.

  • It allows you to apply the same thing you learned there

  • somewhere else.

  • So you could logically apply these same lessons

  • to a map of Europe or whatever.

  • Let me give you another very different example.

  • We've long known that we have really, really

  • powerful and innate spatial memories,

  • even if we didn't understand the mechanisms.

  • This is the reason why most of you guys can remember the trips

  • and none of us can remember the test.

  • And here's actually a medieval representation

  • of the brain that tried to understand it

  • as actually a series of spaces where

  • you crammed memories and facts, like an attic or something.

  • They actually weren't that far off.

  • It's the same insight that has given rise

  • to that mnemonic device called a memory palace,

  • or a mind palace.

  • For those of you who don't know what that is,

  • it basically involves using our memory

  • of a place, or better spatial memory, the rooms

  • in a familiar building like your house or your street,

  • as a structure in which to place the arbitrary facts that you

  • remember, say, in this picture, like a large number

  • of amphibious species.

  • So each thing that you want to remember

  • gets associated with the physical space

  • that you already know.

  • And then when you want to recall them,

  • you visualize that space you know.

  • And you use them as a trigger for that set of arbitrary

  • facts.

  • And we've known that this works for a long time.

  • Cicero used it to remember long, long speeches.

  • But it's a capability that traditional academics

  • rarely, rarely tap.

  • It's one that's easy to see VR making use of them.

  • It's only recently that we've really

  • begun to understand why this works that way,

  • at least scientifically.

  • The last 30 or so years have seen a revolution

  • in the study of cognition, and especially

  • in the study of the science of learning.

  • For one, we understand that learning actually

  • changes the physiology of the brain.

  • And we can actually look for that

  • when we're studying learning.

  • We also know-- we have scientific evidence

  • that being smart is not about being informed.

  • For instance, studies have shown that very young children

  • with very little information quickly

  • understand fundamental concepts of numbers, physics, and logic.

  • And they can learn these really quickly.

  • So it turns out that kids like my 8-month-old

  • are in fact very smart, very ignorant little experts

  • in learning.

  • And this one remains a novice in sleeping.

  • And now that we have all supercomputers in our pockets,

  • the notion of smartness really needs to change, right?

  • Because being smart isn't about being

  • able to repeat and remember information.

  • Technology does an amazing job of doing that for us.

  • Being smart is being able to effectively use information

  • and locate it within concepts.

  • So as Herbert Simon says here, the new smart

  • is being able to sort out what's deserving of our attention.

  • And given that most of us have jobs today that didn't even

  • exist when we were born, the ability to learn

  • is more important than ever.

  • OK, I'm sure you're all surprised that I'm not

  • a cognitive scientist given my 30 second recap of 30

  • years of nuanced study.

  • But the thing that I'm excited to take away from this

  • is that it confirms what great educators have long

  • known-- that the days that people learn best,

  • that the teachers who inspire their students the best,

  • that the days when school is the most effective

  • are the ones that put learners in the position

  • to discover for themselves, to organize

  • those facts into concepts, to turn misconceptions

  • into metacognition, or these moments where you're

  • aware of your own learning and you can actually

  • think and reflect on it.

  • And even if we haven't had the science

  • to prove it until recently, we've

  • known about this for a really, really long time.

  • It almost seems trite when you read it,

  • but Aristotle is actually being sort of profoundly insightful

  • when he claims that we learn by doing things.

  • It's all the more profound when you go into schools,

  • and you see how little learning actually happens by doing.

  • Even more contemporary people like one

  • of the great thinkers of pedagogy, John Dewey,

  • was telling us 100 years ago that if we

  • want to foster learning, we have to give students something

  • to do, not something to learn.

  • And this is when ed tech was like books on a chalkboard,

  • right?

  • One of our most influential current thinkers

  • about educational technology, Seymour Papert-- he

  • was the guy that created the first programming

  • language for kids-- noted that teachers

  • should concern themselves with creating

  • the conditions for learning rather than providing

  • information.

  • And that's one of the reasons why

  • he was so passionate about the freedom of expression kids

  • get by learning how to write software.

  • But even though we've long had these intuitions,

  • we've had experts telling us this,

  • and now we have science confirming this,

  • we don't really have the technology to scale this stuff.

  • Think about it.

  • The technology that we use is amazing.

  • My favorite days that I remember as a student

  • were in science labs, being able to look at things up close,

  • not being able to predict the outcome.

  • These are amazing moments.

  • But this technology is really hard to scale.

  • It's expensive.

  • It breaks.

  • And it's constrained by time and safety considerations.

  • In many, many countries and places,

  • these moments just don't happen.

  • And even more recently, we've seen this explosion

  • of really, really cool robots and stuff

  • in schools that help you learn how to code and help you

  • do logic.

  • Again, though, these things are expensive.

  • They're hard to scale.

  • And they're relatively limited in the number of things

  • that they can do.

  • Even the classic technology of this big yellow bus

  • that takes us on field trips, again, amazing moments.

  • It's really expensive.

  • And it's super-limited by time and space.

  • VR gives us new-found powers to scale and make

  • experiential, dynamic, engaging learning a much, much

  • more regular occurrence.

  • And the economics of VR for schools

  • looks really different when a single device

  • can be your science lab-- can be your programmable robot-- can

  • give you access to museums, and can be your school bus.

  • The very cool thing that is happening

  • is that the same technological revolution that demands we all

  • get to be better learners is the same technology that's

  • going to help us scale that type of learning.

  • And to talk about our first project towards that goal,

  • I'd like to invite Jen.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • JENNIFER HOLLAND: Thanks, Ben, for the history lesson.

  • So I'm program manager on Google Expeditions.

  • And at Google I/O last year, we announced

  • Expeditions, a new virtual reality app for schools.

  • And instead of just releasing that app,

  • we actually piloted with hundreds of schools

  • all over the world to better understand how this could

  • be a powerful learning tool.

  • And it represents the first deployment of VR technology

  • in schools at scale.

  • And so for those of you that might not know what Expeditions

  • is, it combines three things.

  • One, it's software built alongside teachers

  • and students-- two, immersive virtual reality content--

  • and three, devices that are available to any school.

  • All you need is a smartphone, a VR viewer, and a tablet.

  • And you're able to teleport all over the world.

  • Actually, you can teleport all over the Universe

  • with Expeditions.

  • And you can laugh and learn like you're actually there.

  • And so the expeditions themselves

  • are comprised of virtual reality panoramas.

  • There are 360-degree photo spheres

  • that are annotated with descriptions and points

  • of interests, which make it really easy for the teacher

  • to actually incorporate it into their lesson.

  • And when a teacher points something out on their tablet,

  • an arrow pops up on the student device directing the students

  • to look in that particular direction.

  • And as Ben mentioned, we were able to bring over

  • 1 million students on an expedition in 11 countries.

  • And I want you to think about that number for a second.

  • Imagine Shoreline Amphitheater here

  • at Google I/O filled with students.

  • Every single seat is a student.

  • Now, multiply that by 150.

  • And that's how many students have actually

  • gone on an expedition this school year.

  • And it's still happening today.

  • If you were to pull out your phone and look on Twitter

  • and look at the hashtag #GoogleExpeditions,

  • you are going to see so many kids smiling and excited

  • about learning.

  • And I definitely encourage you to do it.

  • Just do it after our session.

  • And we're able to reach that many students because of how

  • accessible the hardware is.

  • You don't need all these cords and fancy headsets.

  • You just need devices that you can pull off the shelf.

  • So let's take a look at what one of those classrooms

  • is experiencing.

  • And we'll visit the school that's in Eagle Grove, Iowa.

  • If we can cue the video.

  • Actually, don't-- just kidding-- don't cue that.

  • Before we visited schools, we wanted the day

  • to feel really special.

  • And we wanted the kids to be excited

  • about their virtual field trip just like they

  • would a normal field trip.

  • And so we provided the students with the gear

  • that they would need to be able to go on this expedition.

  • Just like a normal physical field trip,

  • you've got to take notes, and write down your observations,

  • and be able to share them with your peers.

  • And so the same thing applied with Expeditions.

  • And that feedback has been amazing.

  • And so now we'll actually cue the video.

  • [VIDEO PLAYBACK]

  • -My name is Lance Teasley.

  • I'm in middle school in Eagle Grove, Iowa.

  • Eagle Grove is not a very tall place.

  • It's actually very flat.

  • This is the tallest building on Main Street.

  • It is about 50-feet tall.

  • When I grow up, I want to be an architect and design

  • skyscrapers.

  • Yesterday at school, we went on a class trip.

  • But this is was not a normal trip with buses.

  • This is something very different.

  • The very first expedition we went on

  • was to the Burj Khalifa.

  • -Go ahead and grab with two hands.

  • And put them up to your face.

  • -It's so tall.

  • -OK, we're going to go to the 153rd floor.

  • -Yeah!

  • -Yeah!

  • [CHILDREN EXCLAIMING]

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • [END PLAYBACK]

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • JENNIFER HOLLAND: The best part of my job

  • throughout this whole year has actually

  • been able to go and visit these schools-- visit

  • students like Lance.

  • So initially, when we thought about Expeditions,

  • we thought it would be about taking kids

  • to the most majestic places all over the world.

  • We thought it was like taking students to the Taj Mahal.

  • We thought it might be about exploring the Great Barrier

  • Reef or Mt.

  • Everest, or even Mars.

  • But what we quickly found out was that Expeditions

  • is so much more than that.

  • It's actually about enabling kids

  • to visit places that might be nearby,

  • but they might not be able to get to.

  • So this picture is actually a picture

  • from a middle school, Pryor Middle School, in Montana.

  • And many of the students are of Crow descent.

  • And every August, there's this huge powwow and celebration

  • of the Crow tribe that happens in Montana.

  • And many of these students who live three hours away

  • from where the celebration is weren't actually able to go.

  • So we took our Odyssey rig-- Google's Jump camera

  • with GoPro, and we brought it.

  • And we placed it right in the middle of that powwow

  • and right next to the horses so that all the students

  • could see the horse parade.

  • And we took it inside tepees so that students

  • could see how a tepee is made.

  • And we built those expeditions.

  • And then we took it to the middle school

  • so that those students could all participate in the celebration.

  • But what was amazing was that those expeditions

  • were used around the world to celebrate that weekend.

  • And we also know that historical moments are also really

  • important teaching moments.

  • But they sometimes are difficult to facilitate.

  • So we've actually found a way to include rich overlays

  • and use historical sound recordings

  • to evoke a historical setting.

  • And one of the other cool things about this

  • is that we were able to use some of the same computer vision

  • techniques that the Street View team uses

  • to align this automatically.

  • And so let's take, for example, this recent expedition

  • we created in partnership with Ken Burns, and Major League

  • Baseball, and PBS to celebrate Jackie Robinson's life

  • and legacy.

  • This panorama is one scene from that tour.

  • And it's of the March on Washington

  • and how Jackie Robinson played a really critical role

  • in the Civil Rights fight for African-Americans.

  • And this 360-degree panorama was taken recently.

  • And we found a historical photo from the March on Washington

  • and overlaid it in the exact spot

  • of where it was taken so that students could get a better

  • understanding of that significance of what took place

  • over 53 years ago.

  • And current events are just as equally important teaching

  • moments.

  • But they too are often difficult to facilitate.

  • Take two of the most catastrophic nuclear events

  • that took place-- Chernobyl and Fukushima.

  • These are places that you would never, ever take students to.

  • But it's actually a really important teaching moment.

  • And teachers have had to rely on videos and news articles

  • to explain what happened.

  • But starting today, schools participating

  • in the Expeditions Pioneer Program in our beta

  • are actually able to go and visit Chernobyl and Fukushima

  • and see for themselves what happened.

  • And this expedition we have been creating-- this

  • is the first current event expedition

  • that we've created in partnership with Getty Images.

  • And we're also going to be working with Associated Press

  • to create more current event expeditions so that students

  • all over the world will be able to visit places

  • that time, and safety, and geographic distance

  • make virtually impossible.

  • And beyond the curriculum, we quickly

  • learn that there's even broader learning opportunities

  • with Expeditions.

  • And it was the vision of others that helped encourage

  • us to expand beyond that.

  • And so the First Lady saw Expeditions.

  • And she had a vision for how she could use it as part

  • of her Reach Higher Initiative.

  • For those of you who might not be familiar about the Reach

  • Higher Initiative, the First Lady

  • has been encouraging students all over the US

  • to apply and go to college.

  • And she saw Expeditions as a great tool

  • to use in order to be able to enable students

  • to actually visit colleges.

  • There are a lot of students out there

  • who lack the role models who might have gone to college.

  • And they themselves might not be able to imagine what

  • it's like to go to college.

  • They might not see themselves going to college.

  • And so we wanted to enable students

  • all over the world to get excited about college--

  • to envision what it's like, to see how much fun college is,

  • not only all the people and the friendships that you'll make,

  • but also all of the academic opportunities

  • that are possible.

  • And so being able to visualize what campus life is like

  • helps encourage students to take that first step

  • towards applying for college.

  • And similarly, when Soledad O'Brien saw Expeditions,

  • she had a vision for broadening kids' exposure to careers.

  • We know that kids dream about what they

  • want to be when they grow up.

  • But those dreams are often shaped

  • by the professional people in their lives.

  • And we know that getting exposure to careers

  • is an important learning process.

  • And this usually happens through internships.

  • But what happens if you don't have an internship,

  • or you don't have mentors in your life?

  • So we've been building a variety of career expeditions

  • to show what it's like and what professional jobs are out there

  • so that students can explore the day in

  • and day out of someone's career.

  • They can see what that person studied.

  • They can find out what they don't

  • like about their job, which is actually a really

  • important learning opportunity.

  • And we've worked with a number of professionals, including

  • the paleontologist professor from the American

  • Museum of Natural History, and others like Pam Terrell who's

  • an airline pilot for American Airlines--

  • and even an aquarist, which I didn't even know it

  • was a career until we built it.

  • You can laugh.

  • It's OK.

  • And it turns out you learn a lot when you bring your product

  • to 1 million students.

  • So I wanted to share some of those learnings

  • that we've experienced along the way.

  • Number 1, we know that teachers need very specific tools

  • to do their job well.

  • A teacher needs to be able to direct

  • their whole class at once.

  • They need to be able to get their students' attention.

  • And they also need to be able to see what

  • their students are working on.

  • And this remains particularly true in VR.

  • Teachers aren't experts of every single place in the world.

  • So to make it easy to direct their class,

  • content providers provide the descriptions and points

  • of interests of particular locations

  • so that the teacher doesn't have to spend all the time

  • researching and fact finding.

  • So let's take this panorama for example.

  • A teacher in the US may have never

  • visited Buckingham Palace before and might not

  • know that this is actually the Portrait

  • Gallery in Buckingham Palace.

  • And so with these descriptions and points of interest,

  • the teacher is able to point out the famous Canaletto

  • painting that's hanging above the fireplace.

  • We wanted to free teachers' time up so

  • they can spend the time creating engaging lessons

  • and incorporate it into their curriculum,

  • not having to research all these places.

  • And when we first built these tours,

  • we assigned a grade and subject to them.

  • We thought it would make it easier to find the content.

  • But what we found was that the Expeditions were only

  • used by those teachers in those grade and subjects, which

  • limited the use of the app.

  • And we have over 200 expeditions ranging

  • from all kinds of topics.

  • And so we decided to remove those tags for each expedition,

  • because what we realized was that the panoramas don't

  • actually change.

  • What changes is how the teacher actually

  • applies them to the lesson.

  • And the minute we did that, we saw Expeditions

  • used in the most creative way.

  • Take, for example, this expedition of Egypt.

  • An elementary math teacher used this expedition

  • to create a lesson about how to calculate

  • the area of a triangle.

  • Pretty smart.

  • And that same expedition was used in a high school world

  • civilization class to teach about hieroglyphics

  • and how ancient Egyptians communicated with one another.

  • And that same expedition was used in a college art history

  • class to teach about the art and architecture

  • of the Egyptian civilization.

  • Now, if that had been labeled an elementary math lesson or math

  • expedition, there is no way that art history teacher in college

  • was going to use that lesson.

  • And so that was one of the key learnings that we had.

  • And just like a normal class, it can sometimes

  • be difficult to get a student's attention

  • during the middle of a lesson.

  • So imagine that in VR.

  • Kids are super-excited about expeditions and VR in general.

  • And so after a few pilots, we realized

  • that we actually needed to provide a Pause

  • button for teachers.

  • So when the teacher hits that Pause button,

  • the screen goes black.

  • And it says, "Paused by Teacher."

  • And immediately you hear, awwww, can we go back?

  • And instantaneously, the students

  • put down their devices.

  • You don't hear the teacher say, now put down your devices.

  • It just happens automatically.

  • And the Pause button is easily one

  • of the most important features for teachers.

  • And jokingly, they ask me if we can add that

  • to all of their student devices.

  • And we also heard from teachers that knowing that students are

  • engaged is really important.

  • The way a teacher knows if a student is engaged

  • is by looking at what they're doing-- writing something down,

  • or looking up at the board.

  • And that remains really important in VR as well.

  • But if you think about it, when you're in your VR viewer,

  • the teacher can't see where you're looking.

  • And that was definitely something

  • that was missing from our app was the student gaze.

  • And so we realized that when a teacher points something out,

  • they need to be able to see if the students are actually

  • looking at it.

  • So if you look on the screen, you'll

  • see these little smiley faces.

  • And those smiley faces represent the students in a class.

  • And so when the teacher points something out,

  • you see this swarm of smiley faces

  • to that point of interest.

  • Well, if that swarm doesn't appear,

  • and you see students looking all over the place,

  • you know that you might need to use that Pause button

  • and refocus the class.

  • The other thing that we learned was

  • that VR and Expeditions empowers students to be teachers.

  • Teachers don't have all the answers.

  • And instead of having all the answers, what we found

  • is that the teachers really serve as a facilitator.

  • They build upon what the students

  • are seeing and exploring from panorama to panorama.

  • And across the world, we saw this thing

  • happening where teachers would ask their students

  • to explore a panorama, find something interesting, and then

  • would invite a handful of the students up

  • and actually point out that thing that they thought

  • was interesting and talk about it,

  • and share it with the rest of their class.

  • And this is exactly what Seymour Papert was talking about

  • in the quote that Ben referenced,

  • that the role of the teacher is to create

  • the conditions for invention rather than provide

  • ready-made knowledge.

  • And interaction is really critical

  • to add to this experience.

  • And it's something that we know we need to continue

  • to add to in Expeditions.

  • And we also know that learning happens

  • outside of the classroom.

  • Many of us would say that we're lifelong learners.

  • And as it turns out, Expeditions can

  • be used for a broad range of learning opportunities

  • beyond the classroom.

  • We've actually been piloting Expeditions in senior citizen

  • homes and children's hospitals.

  • And the feedback as well has been incredible.

  • We have lots of requests from senior citizens

  • to go and visit Verona, Italy to see the setting

  • of Romeo and Juliet.

  • And a lot of kids and children's hospitals

  • have been asking to go underwater.

  • All they want to do is pick up the goggles, hold their breath,

  • go underwater, and explore the majestic Great Barrier Reef.

  • And for that moment, those kids are

  • forgetting about their illness.

  • They're smiling.

  • They're laughing.

  • And they're asking questions about what they're seeing

  • and what they're learning.

  • So now I'd like to turn it over to Ben

  • to talk about group learning in Expeditions.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • BEN SCHROM: So one of things that we've seen

  • is that one of the primary features of school-- I

  • didn't love going to school when I was a kid.

  • But one of the things you realize

  • is that group learning is actually one

  • of the best features of school.

  • An early decision that we made was

  • to make Expeditions fundamentally social.

  • And many of the teachers we talked to,

  • even the ones who had never seen the cardboard, who

  • thought Oculus Rift was like a geological phenomena,

  • they carried this preconceived notion that VR was a singular,

  • isolated activity.

  • So we took steps from the get-go to make it social,

  • something you do with a group like an actual expedition.

  • It's not a canned experience as a result.

  • Every time is different.

  • It's a dynamic experience where your teachers

  • and your classmates are the ones who

  • are asking questions, making comments, and pointing things

  • out.

  • Though I've seen some great uses of VR

  • to provide singular focus, it's really, really important,

  • I think, for us as a community of people

  • who are beginning to build up this technology, to counteract

  • this notion that VR is a fundamentally

  • isolated experience.

  • If you're not convinced of that, there's

  • a good example from history, which

  • was Edison's first attempt at the camera, the Kinetoscope.

  • Edison assumed that movies would turn out to be something

  • that you just watched alone.

  • And he resisted projecting movies onto a screen

  • so that a bunch of people could watch at the same time.

  • We all know how that turned out.

  • So lots of signals that VR is super, super important

  • to have a social element to it.

  • Another key point, and this is certainly true, basically

  • for all technology, but especially

  • for educational technology, is that making

  • it simple and easy and especially quick to get going

  • is really critical.

  • I remember reading about there's some warehouse, in Florida

  • of all places, that the Air Force can

  • make super, super cold like subzero temperatures.

  • And they put planes in that to test them before they actually

  • put them into high altitude.

  • Classrooms are like that subzero warehouse, right?

  • They are very harsh environments in which to deploy technology.

  • And it needs to be simple and robust, or it will fail.

  • So we found that most teachers are actually

  • really skeptical that they could even use VR in the classroom,

  • not because they couldn't figure out how to use,

  • but because they were really intimidated by it,

  • because they thought would be too complicated to set up,

  • because they thought it would be a distraction

  • for their students.

  • So we were super-committed to ensuring that teachers who

  • hated tech loved Expeditions.

  • And the best way to do that was to make it simple.

  • We found that time and time again.

  • It's almost defined by how few features it has.

  • It doesn't require an account login.

  • And we wanted to counteract as many

  • of the technological prerequisites

  • as we possibly could.

  • So we made sure that it worked well in devices that classrooms

  • already had like tablets.

  • You don't need a Cardboard viewer to do it.

  • You can do it what we call magic window

  • mode where you look in 2D.

  • And if you've never used VR, if you've never used Cardboard,

  • that's actually a really, really magical amazing experience

  • by itself.

  • Another challenge we encountered was

  • that getting Expeditions to work in environments with little

  • to no internet connectivity was really challenging.

  • And that's a very common scenario

  • not just in affluent schools, but in disadvantaged schools.

  • Many, many schools do not have the network environment

  • that would allow them to pull these super-large VR

  • assets down out of the cloud 30 devices at a time.

  • And we decided we couldn't wait for Google Fiber.

  • So we built Expeditions to work without the need

  • for the internet.

  • Basically, the guide's device-- that

  • tablet that the teacher is holding--

  • operates as a local server.

  • And it serves imagery to each of the connected clients, each

  • of the devices in Cardboard, over the local Wi-Fi network.

  • So as long as that tablet has cached the imagery

  • from the internet at some point before,

  • it works without the internet, which means

  • we can take this anywhere.

  • We can take it to Ghana.

  • We can take it to the rural Amazon.

  • We can take it all over the place.

  • This is another one.

  • Getting beyond this wow moment.

  • Obviously, we love these moments when students first

  • experience Expeditions.

  • And you saw that in the video with Lance's class.

  • Basically, any chance to see someone

  • experiencing VR for the first time is a pretty magical one.

  • It's an amazing moment.

  • But the sort of immersion and engagement that VR provides

  • is a bit of a moving target.

  • What we consider mindblowingly immersive

  • right now will be considered table stakes

  • at some point in the not too distant future.

  • And we should be excited that technology

  • will continue to push the boundaries of how

  • immersive VR can become.

  • So you should be really careful to rely too much

  • on the initial moment of sort of awe and wonder

  • that comes from first use.

  • It won't ultimately mask poor designs.

  • And it might actually distract you

  • from realizing design flaws for a long time.

  • A good piece of VR learning technology

  • still needs to be actually fulfilling

  • its fundamental learning objectives.

  • It's not just about being fun, or immersive, or engaging.

  • Measuring it can be really, really hard at first.

  • But don't start entirely trusting your feedback

  • until your users have been able to use it for a few hours,

  • or better yet, a few days or weeks.

  • Get feedback, iterate, ship it, do it a lot,

  • like basically fundamental technology,

  • but super, super important for VR.

  • As Jen mentioned, this is one of the reasons

  • that we embarked on the Pioneer Program.

  • So hopefully we've seen a little bit

  • how we think Expeditions can transform the classroom today.

  • But we're really, really excited about the possibility

  • of more advanced VR in the classroom.

  • And to talk a little bit about that, I'd like to invite Rob.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • ROB JAGNOW: I'm Rob.

  • I'm going to look into my crystal ball and in 10 minutes,

  • try to tell you the future of VR in education,

  • which is going to be really tough.

  • I built a bunch of tiny little prototypes

  • here at Google in a group called Daydream Labs.

  • And for the first time ever, we're finally sharing our work.

  • So I am really excited to be here on stage and hope

  • that everyone can benefit from sharing and seeing

  • what we've been working on.

  • So for now, a little bit more about Google Expeditions.

  • Expeditions is amazing.

  • And I am really proud to be on the stage with these two.

  • But we also are very cognizant that we're

  • in the early stages of VR.

  • Hardware will improve, computational power

  • will improve, design patterns will improve,

  • and some of the developers in this room

  • are going to find ways to use VR in education

  • that we haven't even imagined yet.

  • The slide here is a pretty common example

  • of how evolution is portrayed.

  • You can think of it as this forward

  • moving intention direction.

  • But that's not what evolution looks like in species.

  • And it's not what it looks like in any other technology either.

  • In any evolutionary process, we know

  • that there are going to be false starts and dead ends.

  • And that's why within the Daydream team,

  • we're spending our time on these things called Daydream Labs.

  • Put bluntly, even here at Google,

  • we really know that we don't know very much about VR yet.

  • So we're looking at highly experimental ideas that

  • push the boundary of VR, force us

  • to reconsider what's possible.

  • And we're exploring this vast new territory

  • right alongside you.

  • We've gone back to first principles.

  • And we've tried to set aside what

  • we think we know about education and app design,

  • because the best VR experiences out

  • there aren't going to be other forms of media pulled into VR

  • and re-imagined in VR.

  • They're going to be built from the ground

  • up in a way that really understands the strengths

  • and weaknesses of VR.

  • And in the near future, like I said,

  • I hope we're going to see entirely new categories of VR

  • educational experiences.

  • Now, since we started this prototyping experiment,

  • we've built more than 60 prototypes

  • that cover of a huge array of use cases.

  • So I want to cover just a few of those.

  • And this isn't just to show off our work.

  • Hopefully, by seeing some of these examples,

  • it'll spark ideas in your own minds.

  • If you're curious to learn more about these prototypes,

  • there are two talks that took place yesterday.

  • One is called, "Daydream Labs-- Lessons

  • Learned from VR Prototyping."

  • The second talk is called, "VR Design Process-- Turning

  • Fantasy Into Reality."

  • They're both already available on YouTube.

  • But for now, I want to focus on these prototypes

  • that we think can really have the power to change education.

  • What we're looking at here is a molecule viewer.

  • And so much of what we explore in education is at a scale

  • that almost completely defies comprehension.

  • From atoms and molecules all the way up

  • to galaxies and superclusters, pictures in textbooks

  • just don't get us excited about this content.

  • But what if you could hold that molecule in your hand?

  • And the app that I'm showing here

  • doesn't just have a couple of molecules in its database.

  • It has an enormous collection.

  • And it builds the model of the molecule dynamically

  • based on what it knows about the chemical composition.

  • I don't know if you're familiar with this molecule

  • in particular.

  • It's one of the foundations of life as we know it-- caffeine.

  • So now let's go 31 orders of magnitude

  • in the other direction and take a look at the Milky Way.

  • Here we see our VR planetarium.

  • And real planetariums are amazing.

  • But here you're in control.

  • You can pull a constellation from the night

  • sky-- pull it right in front of you to get more information.

  • Next up, biology lab.

  • Here what we tell the student is that you're

  • an explorer from an alien civilization

  • in the distant future.

  • And you've stumbled upon this skeleton.

  • And you're trying to learn as much as you can about it

  • by assembling the bones into a human form.

  • So a careful observer will see the different types of joints.

  • She'll notice that when slender bones are paired together,

  • those are the ones that go the farthest from the body

  • on the arms and the legs.

  • Hovering labels tell you that this is the radius and ulna

  • or the tibia and fibula.

  • And all of these clues give you insight

  • into the human body in a way that a textbook really never

  • could.

  • Here's our physics lab.

  • And the key here is that there are two players

  • in the same virtual space.

  • Ben was talking about how participating

  • together and having us be social is important.

  • And these two players in the same virtual space

  • could be in the same physical room.

  • Or they could be across the globe from each other.

  • Either can change the physics parameters of the scene

  • like the mass of the bowling ball.

  • And the objective is to set the values

  • just right so that the bowling ball knocks over the pin.

  • And being able to share this experience really

  • amplifies the fun.

  • Next up is language learning.

  • And this is such a perfect example for virtual reality.

  • It builds on techniques that we've

  • been using in conversational instruction

  • to put you directly into the conversation.

  • And in this video, we've turned on subtitles

  • to help you understand what's going on.

  • But if you've taken the time to just learn

  • a few words in one of the previous sections

  • of this educational app, you have no trouble

  • participating in this conversation with these two

  • young girls.

  • In this case, VR does more than just

  • make you feel like you're part of the conversation.

  • It does that very well.

  • But it also removes distraction so that you can really

  • focus on the lesson.

  • Now, when we're talking about learning,

  • sometimes we just think about kids.

  • But really, learning is a lifelong process--

  • professional skills, job retraining-- how about a skill

  • that terrifies most adults, doing what we're doing up

  • here-- public speaking.

  • What if you could prepare your talk by presenting

  • to a simulated audience?

  • We've seen VR used to help overcome phobias.

  • And this isn't really that different.

  • Public speaking is really uncomfortable for people who

  • don't have experience at it.

  • But in VR, you can simulate that stressful environment

  • without fear of judgment from a real audience.

  • So that's kind of handy.

  • Now, let's change pace a lot and go back to the days

  • before Google and talk about the arc of educational games.

  • So how many people here died of dysentery?

  • Not as many as I thought, but a third of the audience here.

  • Personally, I see "Oregon Trail" as actually leading

  • a revolution in educational games,

  • because it was so different.

  • It wasn't just a wrapper around a bunch

  • of boring educational content.

  • Kids can see right through that.

  • And I see a lot of educational games where kids get

  • spoonfed a bunch of facts, and then they answer a quiz.

  • And this almost teaches them-- it almost

  • reinforces that learning sucks.

  • But if you do it, you get this reward

  • of the mini game at the end.

  • This isn't what we want to teach.

  • And "Oregon Trail" took a really different approach.

  • It didn't try to feed you this list of facts.

  • It tried to put you in the shoes of early American pioneers

  • so that you can empathize with the difficulty

  • of their journey.

  • And this word empathy is really important,

  • because it's something that VR does really well.

  • And at the end of the experience,

  • maybe you don't remember how long the Oregon Trail is

  • or what percentage of travelers died of dysentery.

  • But you understand that it was a brutal experience.

  • And because of that, the people who undertook that journey

  • must have been willing to shoulder a lot of risk

  • in search for a better life.

  • Now, today I think this kind of experience is really hard.

  • It has a lot trouble for this kind of game making inroads

  • in education, because it's not easy to measure

  • what the child learns.

  • And if you can't prove that they're

  • going to do better on the test, it kind of

  • looks like a waste of time.

  • And now you might really want to come

  • to the defense of this piece of childhood nostalgia.

  • But the critics really have a point here.

  • How do you measure the value of empathy-based education?

  • And if you think "Oregon Trail" was on the right track,

  • I think you'll agree VR has potential

  • to really revolutionize this.

  • But it's not going to be easy.

  • Let's talk a little bit about what the ingredients are

  • that we're going to need to create

  • great immersive educational experiences.

  • And the three components that I want to focus on

  • are these-- immersion, interactivity,

  • and measured results.

  • That third one might come as a surprise.

  • Immersion is where VR really shines.

  • It's really hard to make a VR experience that

  • isn't immersive.

  • In this example here, even though the avatars

  • are very simple and cartoonish, when

  • you put that headset on and those little two

  • cartoony little girls turn to face you,

  • you want to respond to them.

  • They have included you in their conversation.

  • And you don't hesitate to respond.

  • Then we have interactivity.

  • Now, Expeditions, like most classroom experiences,

  • is interactive in the sense that kids can

  • look around and ask questions.

  • But ultimately, the teacher drives

  • the content and the pace.

  • And that works very well in classrooms.

  • But what if we want a VR experience

  • that someone can explore on their own-- on their own pace,

  • on their own time.

  • And in this case, adding more opportunities

  • for the viewer to drive the show can

  • do a lot to make the material more engaging.

  • In this two-player physics lesson example,

  • the students have complete control over the difficulty

  • level that they choose.

  • And they're also solving the puzzle themselves.

  • And solving that puzzle on your own

  • is a lot more rewarding than watching somebody else

  • do it or talk you through it.

  • So here's the tough one.

  • Finally, it's important that we measure how students interact

  • with the VR experience.

  • It's hugely rewarding to peek into a classroom that's

  • doing a Google Expedition, whether it's kids or adults,

  • and see all those giggling faces as they

  • travel around the world.

  • But in order for VR to make real inroads in education,

  • the subjective evaluation is not going to be enough.

  • We need some way to measure how students interact with the app

  • and demonstrate the resulting knowledge of a subject.

  • And I'm not going to pretend that this is easy.

  • People have been trying this for a long time.

  • And it's really hard.

  • Just choosing an appropriate metric is hard,

  • and then measuring those aspects without turning

  • your application into a boring quiz is even harder.

  • I think we're going to need to rethink both

  • what we're measuring and how we're measuring it

  • for these things to move forward.

  • And this is why to some degree these aspects are

  • in conflict with each other.

  • I can make an experience that's more immersive.

  • But it's hard to measure the impact.

  • I can measure the impact by forcing students

  • to answer trivia questions.

  • But all of a sudden, it's not immersive anymore.

  • So it's going to take a lot of specialized skills

  • to get this right.

  • And those specialized skills are going

  • to come from specific people.

  • And I am going to run through each of these here.

  • The first one, of course, is teachers.

  • Teachers understand their students.

  • And they can't be excluded from this process

  • in creating these VR applications.

  • They need the flexibility to make sure

  • that the VR experience is tuned to the ability and the style

  • of teaching needed for their classroom.

  • Next up, of course, VR designers--

  • they know how to make an immersive experience.

  • And even within this group, I'm glossing over

  • a lot of talent that's needed.

  • You need to understand 3D modeling, interaction design,

  • audio design, environment layout.

  • You need to stand understand what types of motion

  • makes people sick.

  • It's really a complicated thing.

  • Then we have our classic game designers.

  • These people know how to make experiences

  • that are interactive and sticky and elicit the desired

  • behavior.

  • Next up, and this is the one that I

  • think is being excluded too much in this process,

  • researchers understand the metrics of education.

  • Now, you might have heard it said

  • before-- if you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

  • In the context of getting your app out there to schools

  • and really getting impact there, the more apt expression

  • might be, if you can't measure student improvement,

  • your app will be discontinued.

  • And the final element in the equation is students.

  • Thankfully, this is a really easy one.

  • The students are the ones who are

  • the most open to new ideas in education,

  • because you don't see a fourth grader come home from school

  • and say, mom, I'm not convinced that this new curriculum

  • is adequately fulfilling the pillars of the next generation

  • science standards.

  • They say, we went to Europa.

  • Did you even know that Europa is a moon of Jupiter.

  • And it's entirely covered in a frozen ocean.

  • How amazing is that?

  • So I've talked about the ingredients

  • for a great educational VR experience.

  • And I've talked about who's going to be

  • involved in creating them.

  • But it's still really hard to give

  • a roadmap of what the real process is going to look like.

  • With technology, ideas, and patterns moving so quickly,

  • it's really hard to guess what's just six months down the road.

  • So take it with a grain of salt as I

  • try to predict how the next generation of educational VR

  • experiences will come to be.

  • I think it's going to start with existing VR experiences that

  • aren't necessarily intended for education.

  • VR game designers are going to make something

  • that's incredibly compelling and that has a huge audience.

  • From there, teachers are going to recognize an opportunity

  • to use that VR framework for education.

  • And "Minecraft" gives a great example

  • of a game that's already been repurposed for education

  • in all sorts of ways.

  • From there, we're going to have to involve

  • the researchers to figure out the appropriate metrics that

  • allow us to measure the impact of the app on the students'

  • performance without compromising the overall experience

  • of that app.

  • Working together, the designers, teachers, and researchers

  • are going to figure out a way to put education

  • at the core of that experience rather than just making VR

  • a light layer on top of what is otherwise an educational app.

  • What I really want you to take away from these last few slides

  • is that a great VR educational experience will

  • require multiple disciplines.

  • We need to engage new partners and get

  • outside of our comfort zones.

  • So I think they're going to play off the stage pretty soon here.

  • But I'm going to try to have us all wrap up

  • with our own conclusions.

  • BEN SCHROM: Thanks, Rob.

  • Yeah, so as I said at the outset,

  • we're really excited about VR.

  • Hopefully, that's pretty obvious by now.

  • I think it's actually pretty rare that we get opportunities

  • like this as a community of people that build technology.

  • It's not rare to find amazing technology like VR.

  • And it's not rare to find causes like education.

  • But it's rare to find technology like VR that can so profoundly

  • scale solutions to an imperative like education in a way

  • that long-held intuition in science

  • has told us is the right way.

  • If all of us, or even some of us, get this right,

  • it could change the way that we teach and learn.

  • And one of the teachers, this one

  • that we met on our Expeditions panel,

  • told us that the superpower she most wants

  • is to be able to make eye contact with all 30

  • of her students at the same time.

  • What an amazing idea.

  • And it's probably too late for us

  • to have this amazing teacher in our class.

  • But it's probably not too late for us

  • to give her that superpower in the near future.

  • So we're just really, really excited to see that happen.

  • JENNIFER HOLLAND: And virtual reality

  • will never completely replace physical field trips

  • and travel, nor should they.

  • But it's going to enable experiences to happen when it

  • would otherwise be impossible.

  • And not only will it be a democratizer of experience

  • to individuals around the world and schools and the home.

  • It's going to be an enabler of experiences

  • to distant galaxies, and Mars, and microscopic worlds that

  • would otherwise be virtually impossible.

  • ROB JAGNOW: And I will simply conclude by saying,

  • I want you to be prepared for surprises.

  • That amazing VR experience that is

  • going to revolutionize education probably

  • isn't going to look like anything

  • you have ever seen before.

  • And I hope somebody here will help us find it.

  • Thank you.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

BEN SCHROM: Hello, everyone.

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