The technology for students
The 826 Valencia Center, located in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, leaves no one indifferent. It is unusual indeed to be able to buy a bottle into the sea, find a pen-shaped giant squid or climb into a two-story cabin perched on a tree planted inside, all on the corner of the street. It was there, at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Leavenworth, students from across the city meet after school and, with the help of volunteer tutors, tell stories.
According Lauren Hall, director in charge of grants and assessments, "the purpose of 826 Valencia is to transform children's relationship to writing." By stimulating their creativity, the association helps "to consider writing as a tool and a place of power." As for the whimsical and magical atmosphere of the place, it is no coincidence. It is essential to enable the association to promote the power of literacy. The goal is not only to get children to write, but also they will take pleasure.
The Tenderloin district and the original atmosphere inspired by the travelogues of a fish named King Carl recall the Mission District of San Francisco, where is located the first site. This new site has emerged through a grant of $ 500,000 received in the Impact Challenge program Google.org. A team of Google employees also participated as volunteers, helping staff to find technological solutions to give life to the ideas of children.
Each week, students EC1 and EC2 of the city gathered at the center Tenderloin. Together, each writing a few lines, they wrote a story on a planet ruled by love. At the same time they wrote, a local artist drew the world that they were described, with Tilt Brush. The technology literally gave a new dimension to their story.
Second and third grade students from the San Francisco literacy nonprofit 826 Valencia recently wrote a story about a planet ruled by love. In this 360-degree film, check out the world the students imagined, illustrated through Tilt Brush and turned into an immersive experience.What happens when you bring together the limitless potential of kids’ imaginations and the power of technology? When literacy nonprofit 826 Valencia and Google are involved, students’ ideas transform from words on a page to an immersive experience. Check out this journey from the heart of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood to an undiscovered—and very colorful—universe.
At the party organized for the release of the book, the young authors and their parents were able to experience the story they had written. With Google Cardboard, a simple virtual reality tool requiring only a smartphone, they discovered this new planet as if they were there in 360 degree virtual reality. Instead of just reading the history of the world they have created, they were able to dive in.
On the planet governed by love, the houses are marshmallows, we never left the school benches, people can always be themselves and tacos flying trucks run regularly. Back on Earth, the children talked with enthusiasm because of seeing the details they had imagined come to life ( "It was me who wrote it!"), They laughed in history they created together and sometimes stretched his arms to try to touch the image before them, as if it were just as real as the hut located at almost 5 meters above the ground in the building at the