TechTip #9 brings a platform which features 360o panoramic photos.The website school.360cities.net offers “350,000 high-resolution, fully-spherical 360° panoramas from around the world that you can integrate into your class blogs, LMS [Learning Management System], and other websites that you use in your educational activities”.
This video explains the website idea:
Working with 360o panoramas is a creative way developing speaking or writing skills, facilitating vocabulary undersdanding and use. You may work with a blend of media (video, sound and text). The Blog RICOH360 suggest that in an English lesson “users can use 360-degree images of a coffee shop to order in English using the menu, seating, and other information in the images, check the interior of the store, and ask for directions while using 360-degree images of the city.
Papin and Kaplean-Rakowski (2022) state that,
Thanks to 360° pictures, language learners can see not only the photographed scene, but also the larger situational context provided by the surroundings […] 360° pictures make it possible to explore all directions (up, down, left, right, etc.), while 2D pictures are limited to a smaller field of view, depicting only a fraction of the broader context.
Type a keyword in the search bar or use the World Map option. Here is a preview of Lençois Maranhenses, Brazil.
This website offers indoor and outdoor images, including underwater and aerial panoramas. Teachers or students can explore the website from computers, tablets, cellphones (or VR headsets) and no special software is required. Explore, different ecosystems and cultures around the world.
REFERENCE
360-degree image for use in inquiry-based learning [Education], RICOH360 (Blog).
Papin, K., & Kaplan-Rakowski, R. (2022). A study of vocabulary learning using annotated 360° pictures. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 37(5–6), 1108–1135. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2022.2068613
