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Less Physics Mo Problems

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Why am I writing this personal entry? Well, it is not an attempt to gain any sympathy. It attempts to show what is possible if a clear intention and goal serve the learner's needs.  In May of 2022 just near the end of another fantastic school year, I do not remember what happened. But, I was unable to finish the school year and was unable to teach the following year.  Why? On May 21st, 2022, I fell down a flight of 16 stairs (luckily carpeted) from the 2nd to 1st story of our home.  I was found at the bottom of the stairs. I was found foaming at the mouth. This would lead to a 2-month hospital stay which included an induced coma because my seizures would not stop, several rounds of lumbar punctures, and relearning basic physical movements like something as simple as being able to roll in the hospital bed. Simply put, when I was admitted to the hospital, I was diagnosed as being “critically ill.” Please take a moment and read those words: critically ill. They are not terms that are
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Student Presentations in 360°

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As we are wrapping up our personal learning projects, we were able to include a new option for presentation.  That is Thinglink VR.  This is the first time I've ever had my students work with Thinklink in the classroom and the VR aspect made it even better.

 A handful of students choose this option and a couple completed products are linked below. Note, they are designed to be viewed with VR Googles such as Google Cardboard. So, if you try to view it in non-stereoscopic mode, the hotspots can't be viewed in their entirety. 

 To view the images in all of their glory, you'll need a smartphone and a set of googles. Even if you don't have the googles you can follow these steps to view in stereoscopic display.  You just won't get the desired experience.












It was fairly simple to create. Students used Google Drawings to create the background image for the scene.  They then used Google Slides to create each of the individual slides to be each hotspot. As this was our first go around, we didn't worry about adding videos. I'll save that for the next time.  

 The only tricky part was scaling the Drawing and Slides so they worked in the stereoscopic image. The background was scaled to 5376 x 2688 pixels in Google Drawings to give the maximum panoramic effect. The Hotspot Slides were scaled to 720 x 720 pixels. In stereoscopic mode, they need to be square to show all the info. The only downside is they won't be entirely displayed in non-stereoscopic mode.

Once students had a plan and all the pieces, the assembly is very straightforward. The background image was uploaded. Then, each slide was downloaded as an image and uploaded as a hotspot image.

 Thinglink has a vast support center that can be found here.

I look forward to having students use this virtual space to design creative presentation spaces. I think Prezi was a great step towards rethinking presentations as an experiences.  I think Thinglink VR will be the next step in this evolution.  We just need to let students loose to design in these spaces.


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