Here you can find educational resources and reviews of different Google Cardboard apps. Our aim is to find useful apps that teachers can use relatively easily in the classroom.
This is by no means close to reviewing all that is out there on Google Play or iTunes. The main 360 video apps are kept up-to-date but it is difficult to keep up with the numerous VR apps that seem to appear daily. If you are looking for something specific (i.e. VR human lungs) I suggest first searching on the Google Play Store or iTunes.
– great app with stories, short documentaries, and other types of newsworthy 3D, 360 degree experiences, lots of content overlap with Within – VR (see below).
– As of 2/6/17 they had:
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- “Orbital Vanitas” – Surreal sci-fi meditation experience (6:58)
- “Great Performers: L.A. Noir” – 9 videos on the suspenseful world of film noir, each short involving one actor (1-2 minutes each) : Don Cheadle; Casey Affleck; Krisha Fairchild; Royalty Hightower; Natalie Portman; Sasha Lane; Kristen Stewart; Ruth Negga; Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes, Alex R. Hibbert
- “Indefinite”- immigrants facing a future of indefinite detention. Step inside their world (14:48)
- “How I Became A Laughter Yoga Photographer” – Follow Alec Soth on his quest to make a portrait of laughter and happiness (6:24)
- “The Creators: Rob Pruitt” – A day with the contemporary artist as he meditates, shops at Ikea, and works in his studio. (8:07)
- “Meditation Journeys” – A guided VR meditation journey to four California vistas
- “Policing Flint” – Step inside a police department struggling with budget cuts and public distrust (17:28)
- “Notes on Blindness” – After he went blind, John Hull used sound to rediscover a rich sensory universe (6:56)
- “The Fight for Falluja” – Embed with Iraqi forces as they retake a city from ISIS – and experience the battle’s aftermath (11:08)
- “The Modern Games” – Travel through time to some of the most unforgettable moments in Olympic history. (8:37)
- “Pilgrimage” – A 21st century journey to Mecca and Medina. (4:38)
- “NYT Picks: Moderat” – The electronic trio Moderat has produced a VR version of their music video ‘Reminder,’ a dystopian sci-fi fantasy. (3:06)
- “Man on Spire” – Climb to the top of 1 World Trade Center with the professional mountaineer, filmmaker and photographer Jimmy Chin. (4:34)
- “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart” – Set foot on an alien world, 3 billion miles from the warmth of the sun. (7:35)
- “The Click Effect” – Decoding the Secret Language of Dolphins and Whales. (7:23)
- “Smile More” – a journey of a new song by Syd and the Internet, from rehearsal studio to concert stage. (7:08)
- “NYT Picks: Crown” – music video by Killer Mike and El-P, a.k.a. Run the Jewels (4:57)
- “10 Shots Across the Border – A Mexican teenager is killed by the US Border Patrol (also in Spanish) (7:45)
- “The Contenders” – be one of the crowd during a candidate’s campaign speech (8:50)
- “American Bison” – witness roaming American bison (2:59)
- “Kiya” – a reenacted 911 call on domestic violence (7:12)
- “Waves of Grace” – An Ebola survivor cares for orphaned children in her Liberian village. Great visuals of places in Liberia (9:46)
- “Great Performers: Take Flight” – weird flying experience with actors spookily hovering around you (3:47)
- “The Displaced” – war stories of three displaced children (11:12)
- “Vigils in Paris” – experience the candlelight vigils in honor of those who died during the Paris terrorist attacks(5:12)
- “The Food Drop” – Excerpt food drop scene from “The Displaced” (1:44)
- “Walking New York” – a behind-the-scenes view of the creation of the block-long art featured on the NYT Magazine cover (6:51)
- “Nature is Inspiring Our Industrial Future” – exploring the connections between nature, humans, and what could be our future – sponsored by GE (2:45)
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– watch 3D paintings as they are being created, can view either self-created or premade works of art
– beautiful 3D enactment of Siegfried Sassoon’s poem, “The Kiss”
– travel around our Solar System, getting great views of our planets and information as well. Good for an introductory Astronomy or Earth Science course
– a fun action/racing game that takes place in a realistic human cell. Great views of the structures and organelles inside a human cell.
An action/rollercoaster-type game that takes place in the human brain. The player moves through the brain shooting diseased neurons to clean them. Enjoyable game, scientific value lies in the realistic environment of being inside the brain and seeing neurons connected to other neurons.
Paris VR
- A nice 360 degree photo tour of highlights of Paris along with informative captions, has sound but no video
– Sounded promising with art and photography from Flickr but was underwhelming. Most pictures were not 360 degrees and set at odd angles.
– App that was created by the Discovery Channel but no longer exists. Their content was great content and some is still alive on Youtube. Apparently, they have an Oculus Rift version. Great 3D, 360 degree video stories that are a couple minutes long each, video quality is so-so though. Topics list below (as of 10/12/16).
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- Atlas – 4 videos featuring the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland, Venice, and Italy
- Seeker – 4 videos ranging from journeying to the edge of space, Africa, and the Arctic Doomsday Seed Vault
- Harley and the Davidsons – 3 videos from the show
- Always Running – 3 videos about different interesting occupations
- Playhouse Masters – 1 video of Steph Curry’s playhouse for his kids
- Wildlife – 6 videos: Lives of elephants, lions, sharks, and more.
- The Satchel – A 4-part VR Mystery
- Shark Week – 6 videos on what else… sharks
- Deadliest Catch – 4 videos from the show
- I (Almost) Got Away – 1 video called “Jailbreak”
- Mythbusters – 15 videos: their typical take apart, blow things up stuff, three of the videos are from their Shark experiment
- Ghost Asylum – 1 video called “Haunted by Nicholas”
- Racing Extinction – 8 videos: ecological, wildlife-focused, protecting endangered species
- Puppy Bowl – 4 silly videos about puppies playing in a “Super Bowl”. Not a lot of educational value unless you are studying playful behaviors of puppies.
- Survivorman – 7 videos: Different situations and skills for surviving in the wild. Fun experience of being stuck in the jungle!
- Gold Rush – 9 videos on modern gold collection techniques
- Adventure – 4 videos: surfing, mountain biking, freeboarding, and eurosport (whatever that is)
- The Legend of Tarzan – 4 videos about the jungle and rainforest
- Secret Space Escapes – 1 video: Spacewalk Mayday – something goes wrong during a spacewalk and the astronaut have to manage the problem (CGI). Not really realistic, kind of cheezy honestly.
- Pressure Chamber – 5 videos on extreme sports moments
- Test Drive the Future – 1 video of Dr. Kaku’s Microcosmic Journey
- Let’s Go Places: Austin – 10 videos: Different aspects of Austin from spelunking, art, and to the Alamo. Keep Austin Weird.
- Innovative Design – 10 videos on the designs of different buildings and products
- Our World: 4 videos: About the natural wonders of our planet Earth – Alaska, Half Moon Bay, Muir Woods
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– A short slideshow of about 50 high-resolution Martian landscapes, 3D and comes with music (app costs $1.99)
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Within – VR
– 3D and 360 degree stories of many different subjects, lots of content overlap with NYT app (see above). Updated as of 2/6/17.
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- Kinoscope – a colorful exploration of the history of cinema-from Melies to Tarantino (400 Mb)
- The Possible: Hello, Robot (1 Gb) – Meet the world’s most advanced robots and step inside Boston Dynamic’s top secret lab
- Kids – One Republic
- Mr. Robot – VR Experience
- Valen’s Reef – Sponsored by Conservation International
- Invasion! – cute animated short about bunnies and aliens
- Notes on Blindness: chapter 1 – (see NYT app above)
- U2 “song for someone” music video (500 Mb) – the U2 song being played by U2 and others around the globe in 3D and 360 degrees
- New York Times Magazine: Walking New York – (see NYT app above)
- Evolution of Verse (680 Mb) – an artistic view of nature, life, and being in a womb with a baby
- Always: Two friends discover what it takes to stay connected in the modern age
- The Click Effect (see NYT above)
- Clouds over Sidra (1 Gb) – Story of a girl in the Zaatari Refugee Camp for Syrians
- Lovr
- A History of Cuban Dance (1.2 Gb) – Cuban history and dance are intertwined in this musical and visual extravaganza
- Catatonic (560 Mb) – experience being in an insane asylum and bound to a wheel chair (frightening to say the least, I am too old for this stuff)
- TED 2016 – VR montage from the conference
- Squarepusher (671 Mb) – Dystopian narrative accompanying Squarepusher’s Stor Eiglass
- Take Flight (see NYT app above)
- The Displaced (see NYT app above)
- Muse “Revolt” music video (860 Mb) – interesting, honestly not that good of a video nor one of Muse’s best songs
- The Vodou Healer
- Waves of Grace (1 Gb) – An Ebola survivor cares for orphaned children in her Liberian village. Great visuals of places in Liberia
- The Source – Sponsored by charity:water
- My Mother’s Wing
- Virtual Giving Trip (sponsored by Toms) (500 Mb) – Virtual journey to Peru to see Toms-sponsored charities
- New Wave (225 Mb) – a story about two lovers at the beach
- SNL40: Jerry Seinfeld Q+A (411 Mb) – Clip of Seinfeld hosting a Q & A with surprise audience members
- SNL40: Celebrity Jeopardy (715 Mb) – Clip of Will Ferrell as Jeopardy host, Alex Trebek
- Vice News VR – Millions March NYC (1.1 Gb) – News broadcast of the Millions March (a call to end racial profiling by police) in NYC
- Smile More: The Journey of a Song (see NYT app above)
- New Wave
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– Decent app with 3D 360 degree photos of lots of places around the world. As of 2/26/16, it has 54 different locations to see. Here’s a few: Sydney Opera House, the Northern Lights, Paris (twice), Rockefeller Center, the Pyramids, lots of places in Eastern Europe
– a visual journey through fine art in the illustrated world of Dutch painter Hiernymus Bosch – focuses on his “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. First part, “Eden”, of the triptych is free, the rest, “Earthly Delights” and “Hell”, you have to pay for ($3.84 or something like that).
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