Take Students Anywhere!

Talking Tours: Google Arts And Culture

@LisaBerghoff

Have you ever wished you could take students on a field trip somewhere wild, like the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia? Or maybe there is a famous landmark, cultural institution, or even an archeological site that you would love for your students to experience. Sure, we probably have some students who are fortunate enough to have traveled the world and seen some of these places, but for most of our students, these locations might as well be works of fiction.

So, it's not in the budget to fly our students all over the world for field trips, but you can give them a 360 bespoke experience with the newly featured Google Arts And Culture "experiment" called Talking Tours.

What Is Talking Tours?

Talking Tours was created by one of Google Arts & Culture Lab's artists in residence. Gael Hugo combines generative AI audio and street view on Google Arts & Culture. You select a location on the map or from the list. Explore the 360 street view and press the snapshot button to hear your AI guide give you insights into what you are seeing. At any time, you can click on the "ask a question" button which will generate three questions based on your Street View. You may also speak your own question and the AI guide will respond. A transcript of the interaction is also available. There are many options already loaded, with more sites are set to be added in the future. 

How Do I Use Talking Tours?

1. Navigate to Google Arts & Culture and click PLAY.

2. Click on TALKING TOURS and click LAUNCH EXPERIMENT.

3. Make sure your volume is turned on and click START.

4. Choose your category from the top and then click on a location. 

5. Once you are in your location, you can navigate around the area in 360 view. Click on the snapshot button to hear your AI guide give you information about what you are looking at.

6. Click the icon in the lower right to ask a question. Click on the Google link in the lower left to go to the website associated with the location.

Where Can We Go?

There are currently four main categories, with subcategories under each one. You can choose from the map, list view, or search for what you are looking for. 

• Cultural Institutions: Library, museum, theater (158 locations)
• Landmarks: Famous landmark, stadium (55 locations)
• Nature: Cave, desert, forest, garden, seaworld (67 locations)
• Archeology: Sites (45 locations)

Watch a 2 minute demo below. 

Here I am at the Art Institute of Chicago. Make sure your volume is on so you can hear the guide's commentary.

When Should I Use Talking Tours?

This is a wonderful resource for students who are doing research. The 360 degree images combined with the audio tour guide makes this tool interactive and interesting. Here is a list of other times when it would be appropriate to use Talking Tours.

• At the start of a lesson to give students some baseline background knowledge.
• As an enrichment tool to help keep students engaged in learning during a lesson.
• As part of a jigsaw activity. Talking Tours could be one of the tools used for students to acquire information to then teach to their peers.
• As a whole class activity. You could project to the class and have students give suggestions about where to go and what to ask. They can also help fact check the AI guide. 

Please remember: AI generated content can be incorrect, or give biased information. This is a wonderful opportunity to have students use an AI tool with a critical lens.

Where will you go first? I can't wait to hear.  Let me know if you want some help getting started.