2 September 2018 The power of immersive 360 storytelling - Google Poly Tour Creator

For the fourth day in a row Christina and I woke up early, prepped for a helicopter flight, got the go ahead, only to have the flight canceled. Riding in the Toolik helicopter was one of the big things I was looking forward to as part of my PolarTREC experience – but it will have to be delayed until my next visit. It must mean something even more exciting is just around the corner. :)

Waiting for the helicopter, however, has given me a lot of time to play around with different technology storytelling tools. As an educator, I have learned one of the most important tools I have in teaching students is telling stories. For me storytelling doesn't always mean entertaining students; it means creating lesson plans and materials which engage students personally in discovering and exploring information. Storytelling is a powerful tool to change people's perspective and personally engage them in a topic. It puts them in the driver's seat of their own learning and makes the information matter personally to them.

So today's post is has the same information as yesterday's, I've just chosen to tell the story in a different manner. Both ways tell a story. But different stories will engage different types of learners.

I've translated yesterday's post into an immersive 360 Google Poly Tour. This includes 360 images of all of the Woods Hole Research Center's (WHRC) NASA ABoVE (Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment) active Soil Respiration Stations (SRS). It also includes points on interest which will pop up with images and text. So yesterday's journal is embedded into 360 images.

Happy Exploring! I'd love to hear your thoughts on which method of storytelling engages you the most – or which method is more effective in communicating the information in a way that you understand. Comment below!.

Click on the Google Poly Icon in the upper left hand corner for easier viewing of the tour.