VR

Virtual Field Trip Kits Get a Makeover

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 12/07/20

An education robotics company has updated its virtual field trip offerings. RobotLAB will be working with Encyclopedia Britannica on VR Expeditions 2.0.

The announcement came shortly after Google said it would be shifting its Expeditions virtual reality content to its Arts & Culture service and eliminating the stand-alone Expeditions app for Android and iOS as of June 30, 2021. RobotLAB was a partner in the Expeditions program, selling VR classroom kits that included content and VR headsets.

According to the company, with VR Expeditions 2.0, teachers can choose online field trips from "hundreds" that are available, save them locally, provide student handouts curated by Encyclopedia Britannica, broadcast different scenes to the students and manage classroom usage. All of the 360-degrees photos and videos used are high definition with 4k resolution.

RobotLAB has three pre-configured kits:

• Standard Expeditions 2.0, which includes sets of three to 45 student headsets with VR content only;

• AR/VR Expeditions 2.0, with both VR and augmented reality content; and

• Advanced Expeditions 2.0, with VR content and higher quality headsets.

The new release is also backward-compatible. Schools with existing hardware can retrofit their existing kits to run VR Expeditions 2.0, the company said in a press release.

"We live in a wonderful, beautiful, magnificent world. It is history- and culture-rich, diverse and awe-inspiring. And teachers love bringing it all to their classrooms, and take students places, lead their way and excite their discovery and path-finding," said Elad Inbar, company CEO. "Especially nowadays, when everything around us looks so grim, and the reality isn't a fun place to be in, going on high-definition virtual field trips can infuse new excitement to an every-day lesson."