The Future of Field Trips
So you get the 3D effect (like on a Viewmaster) because you are seeing two stereographic images (one with each eye) and because these images and videos are shot with a special 360o camera rig, that means you can take advantage of the gyroscopic tech in your phones to actually look anywhere in those images or videos (even as the video is playing).
Google Cardboard Not Needed

You can also do this on your iPhone or Android phone. But it works way better because you can just move your phone around and it will move around the image based on the orientation of your phone. It works seamlessly within the YouTube app on an Android phone but on the iPhone you need the In360Tube app for it to work.
Google Cardboard Field Trips
Now there are many apps (iOS, Android) that try to take advantage of the 3D VR environment. There are games, videos and animations and a lot of this stuff is just kind of neat but so far there seems to be a lot of mediocre stuff as this technology just starts to be used. But what I foresee in the future is that this could be used to have virtual field trips where kids can be immersed in the location. Like the video below, we could send kids to far off places to explore the surroundings in a more interactive way (check out this one about the astroids around us). Right now there isn't too much but I feel like there will be a lot to see in the very near future. And once the content is there then I can imaging students in geography classes exploring natural formations or travel & tourism classes exploring far off cities or art classes exploring foreign museums. The possibilities are many.Where do I get Google Cardboard?
Update (Oct 1, 2015)
Update (Feb 15, 2016)
- As mentioned Google was coming out with a virtual field trip program. Called Expeditions, these use Google Cardboard to take virtual field trips. Sign up and get info here.
- Nearpod has started to produce content to exploit the Google Cardboard technology with Nearpod VR. Check it out here.
- And there continues to be more and more videos out that use the VR technology, like this one on the solar system:
Update (Mar 6th, 2016)
Though this is just a prototype, Coke is looking at embedding Google Cardboard into their packaging:
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