Julius Caesar Virtual Reality Tour | Google Earth
For this project, I used Google Earth to create a virtual reality tour of different places that are mentioned in Acts 1 and 2 of Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar. This tour is intended to give students a "real" visual into what Rome, the setting of the play, looks like and to help them to visualize the scenery while reading the play. It is also to educate students about the places where Caesar may have actually walked and lived, and where his famous murder took place.
Google Earth is a great tool to use to create virtual reality resources because you can go anywhere in the world! It is simple to create a tour using the Project tool, found under the map pin icon on the left bar menu on the screen. Once you click on this icon you can select the button entitled "New Project" at the top of the screen to create your own personalized tour. Then you choose what format you want the project to be and how you want to store/create the project. I chose to store my project in Google Drive because most people have Google accounts that they can view the project in, and I have a Google account. Then, I gave my project a name "Julius Caesar Settings Acts 1 and 2" and a description. From then on, I added several settings that appear in the tragedy including Rome, the River Tiber, an orchard, and Pompey's porch. To add a place to your project, you select "New Feature." Under this menu are several options including "Search to add a place," "Add Placemark," "Add line or shape" (This is used to trace a route or specific outlined place that you want people to view on your tour.), and "Fullscreen slide." For the first slide, I created a full screen slide and uploaded a picture of Rome to introduce the students to the project. Then, I "[Searched] to add a place" and added Rome and the River Tiber to my project in this way. Finally, I used the "Add Placemark" function to select closer location views and street views for the orchard, the River Tiber in Rome, a street/square in Rome, and Pompey's palace. To add a place with a placemark, typically I would search for it in "Search to add a place" and then click the figure of the person on the lower-right-hand-corner to find street views that were close by. Then, I would click on the street views and zoom in or out with the plus and minus signs in the lower-right-hand-corner to find the right view that I wanted. In street view, you can also use the white arrows that look like this "< >" that appear in the map on the screen to navigate the street view and walk down the street. I used the placemark tool, which looks like a pin marker in the black square at the bottom-left-corner of the screen next to the menu, to select this location and add it to my project. Once I had selected my location, I would enter a title and information about it on the left-hand-side of the screen to describe how it was relevant in Acts 1 and 2 of Julius Caesar. Finally, I used the "Present" button, when I was done with my project, to ensure that all of my views came out looking alright and the presentation moved through smoothly. To share this presentation, you click on the person icon with a plus next to it by it at the top of the menu on the left-hand-side of the screen. I chose to share my presentation with a link, but you can also share it to different people and groups who also have a Google account.
Google Earth corresponds with the Danielson Framework for Teaching in Domain 1: Planning and Preparation and Domain 3: Instruction. In Domain 1, using Google Earth to develop a virtual reality tour for instruction specifically corresponds to Component 1e: Designing Coherent Instruction. Through the use of Google Earth, I am able to create an informative and fun tour of a place across the world to enable my students to better understand the play that they are reading in class, which is set in that location. This instruction is coherent because it is relevant to the topic that we are learning in class. It is a great supplemental resource to aid students in visualizing the setting of the play and learning about the history of Caesar's life and assassination in this work of literature. In Domain 3, my use of Google Earth also corresponds to Component 3c: Engaging Students in Learning. Because this resource allows me to take my students on an interactive tour of Rome, it is much more interesting and engaging resource for my students to use to learn about the setting and history of Julius Caesar than simply learning through the use of pictures. Students can see both map views of the location and street views of ruins from the time of Caesar and navigate these views with the use of a mouse and arrows in the map. This active tool allows them to engage with the location as if they were actually there. It is also a resource that they can interact with later, if they have internet at home, so they can continue their learning and exploring of Rome later if they wish. Because Google Earth is so accessible, when the students learn how to navigate one of these tour functions, it opens up a new world of online exploration for them to use to navigate the globe and expand their learning if they choose to do so.
I am not sure if I will use Google Earth again in my classroom. The positive side of this tool is that it is accessible to almost everyone who has the internet and you can use it explore almost any place in the world. Another positive feature is the ability to add full screen slides to the project and customize the titles, descriptions, and pictures of the places that you select. A final great tool is how students can interact with the map by using street view, navigation arrows in street view, and the grabbing function of their mouse to explore the area that you present to them. This tool makes it very interactive for the students. On the downside, it is a large program with a lot of data in it, so I had some problems loading it on my computer and it crashed several times when I was working on my project. It is also difficult to find the right street views to use. Several times, I found the perfect street view and selected it, but then when I would go to preview my project the street view would change and not be as clear. It would either appear close by to the street view I originally selected, but not quite the right view, or on the top of a tree instead of down on the road looking at the scene as I had selected it. It can be a bit finnicky to select the right view and maintain the right view, especially because the program is so big and takes such a long time to load. You need to be careful not to zoom out too much on the street view as well or you will find yourself in the map view. It can be frustrating to try to find a wider street view without zooming out too much and ending up in the map view. In addition, there are not always navigation arrows in the street view, which enable you to walk up and down the street to find the right view. This limitation can make it tedious to find the right street view because you must continue to go in and out of map view and street view to find the right place. Another added difficulty is that the dropdown description menus on the right-hand-side of the screen can interfere with your navigation and you must use the up arrow on them to reduce the menu to access the street view again. Overall, I enjoyed using Google Earth to create this virtual reality tour, but I may not use it again because it can be tedious to work with and there are a few kinks to work out to use it effectively in the classroom.
Works Cited
Geiling, N. (2014, March 31). Explore Julius Caesar's Rome. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved April 6, 2021, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/explore-julius-caesars-rome-180950262/?page=6
History.com Editors. (2020, September 25). Pompey the Great assassinated. A&E Television Networks. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pompey-the-great-assassinated
Royal Shakespeare Company. (2021). Julius Caesar Scene-by-Scene. https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/julius-caesar/story/scene-by-scene
Shakespeare, W. (2019, February 3). The tragedy of Julius Caesar (Project Gutenberg). http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1120
Weller, P. (2021, February 1). Note to Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 3, line 126, "Pompey's Porch." Shakespeare Navigators. https://shakespeare-navigators.com/JC_Navigator/J_C_note_1_3_126.html