I looked through the default options and noticed that they had been reviewed a few times already, so I set out to find some different options that would be relevant to subjects that I've taught in the past.
The video to the left refers to guided tours that can be done in person, but clicking on the link above will take you to the virtual tour tool set up by The Shakespeare Globe Trust in London. The context for theatre can be so important in helping students to visualize the plays.
Theatre is a unique medium in the sense that the plays are meant to be performed more than read, and there's the added element that Shakespeare's work was likely transcribed as the shows were being performed thanks to the hard work of a few of his contemporaries. A virtual tour provides students from all over the world access to one of the most iconic theatres in the world as it stands in its current location today.
The video to the right demonstrates how registered members experience the Google Lit Trip for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, another book I've taught and loved getting into. Effectively a guided and annotated Google Earth tour, these are curated by teachers.
I really love the idea of taking my students on a Google Lit Trip. In a way, it's superior to a real field trip to one location because you can reenact the steps of the characters in the novels you're studying. Some stories might be contained to a neighbourhood or city. The first thought I had when I watched this video was creating my own Lit Trip for novels that aren't currently covered. Lawrence Hills The Book of Negroes (Someone Knows My Name) comes to mind because it spans three different continents over the course of the protagonist's lifetime, and it's by a Canadian author.
This video is a 360º video, which allows you to scroll around inside while the video plays. It's a little bit like a linear VR experience. The link above takes you to another Google Maps immersive experience within the museum.
The work of international educational institutions now putting their collections online has happened at the fortunate intersection of technological capability and the necessity for socially-distanced experiences through the 2020-2021 pandemic. I have a hard time imagining the challenges we might have faced as educators had a year-long lockout occurred even 15 years ago. And as a curious and tech-learning lifelong learner, I can get back to a virtual version of Paris and finally tour through The Louvre. I limited myself to the Musée d'Orsay when I was in Paris in 2017 and it's nice to be able to see what I missed – without facing the crowds or paying the cost of airfare.
Tobi
Hi Christian,
I actually had no idea that there were virtual tours of the Globe theater, but I'm definitely going to keep that one in my back pocket (I'm a big Shakespeare nerd and majored in English, so that's one I'd definitely get a lot of use out of.) I also love the idea of Lit Trips and can see that being a great tool to use if you were looking at Romantic/Lake District poets in a higher level English class, but also just generally being able to show students different areas and settings. I can see this going over well with a lot of deep South set novels, or even Canadian ones like you mentioned. I read "Brother"…