Innovate using Google Slides

My school now has a set of 20 Chromebooks and the teachers are excited to get their hands on them. The lunch and learn sessions I have been part of have been about the general use of Chromebooks and GAFE and they have been with teachers who are interested but not necessarily immersed in the use of the technology. Now that the technology is here I feel the need to go "deep" with some of the tools. The first tool I want to go deep with is Google Slides. Here is the presentation I have put together for our next learning session:

It will be fun to talk about my experience using Slides and provide my colleagues with ideas around the innovative use of the tool. I will also make sure to stress a few things.

1) Pedagogy comes first, technology comes second.

Pedagogy is the driver, technology is the accelerator, and passion is the gas!

2) Google Slides is only ONE of many tools that can be used to offer students a creative/innovative way to meet a learning goal! As teachers become more comfortable with blended learning they will discover that there are many tools that can assist in meeting student needs/goals. Technology, like the Chromebook, can be likened to a Swiss Army Knife. It is a tool that can provide many options to get a job done and to do it right.

3) The best learning that happens is often messy. Plan things out but don't over plan. Take the time to figure things out and enjoy the learning moments!

Demonstrating Understanding in Mathematics using Google Drawing

In Mathematics the students are learning about Time, Temperature, and Money. They recently worked on an activity where they were asked to share their understanding of the passage of time. The purpose of this particular activity was two fold - 1) I wanted the students to share their understanding of time (the basics), and 2) to continue to become familiar with the use of technology to access our D2L site, their Google Drive, and work on their research skills.

Using Google Drawing, I created a graphic organizer for them to use to show their understanding.

As you can see, the organizer isn't anything special. It simply allows the students to have a place to show their friends and I what they think they know about seconds, minutes, hours, and days. The link to this organizer was placed in our D2L site so that students could access it quickly. 

Once they accessed the "master copy", they made a copy of it, deleted my name from the title of the Drawing and added their name. They began adding text and searching the Internet to find pictures that would fit with their text. They also shared their work with me so I could make comments and actually edit the document (working side by side with the student) if needed. 

As they were working on their task I would check in on them and leave comments. I got to see them working on this task in real time, digitally and face to face, providing me with formative assessment of and for learning. Listening to their talk and watching them do the work provided me with great information about what they know/think they know and what I might need to do next to move them forward in their learning. Not a very difficult task, but a good one to gather information about their understanding and provide them with opportunities to use the technology efficiently to benefit their learning.  

Here are some examples of what the students created:

In combination with their graphic organizers, the students talked about their work and their thinking with their classmates and myself. It was a lot of fun watching the students do this activity. They were sufficiently challenged with all the little things they had to do (share their work, make a copy, use the research tool, etc) but at ease with the use of D2L and Google Drawing. When their work was projected for the other students to see they were proud and wanted to talk about what they were doing and why they were doing it. They looked forward to my feedback and were quite receptive to my comments. There were little issues here and there but most of the things that popped up were dealt with by the students themselves, which meant that my time was spent asking questions and providing feedback.

Have you tried anything like this with your students? 

What are your thoughts about the process my students engaged in to show their learning?

Would love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment or connect with me on Twitter, Google +, or email.

Comfort with the Unknown

Over the last few days my students have been using the Chromebooks to explore their GAFE accounts. The only instruction I provided them with was how to create a new Google Drawing and that I wanted them to explore and experiment with Drawing.

As they dove into the task I provided them with, I backed out of sight and observed them. What I heard and saw was astounding. I watched my students log into their GAFE accounts without too much difficulty - and the ones that did struggle (usually a typo with all the numbers they have to input) got help from a classmate.

They all started by creating a new Google Drawing, as I instructed them to do. One student asked if he could share his drawing with me, I said yes. Then others wanted to share their work so he started showing them how to do it. It was exciting to see the students teaching each other - great examples of initiative, leadership, and independence. Then they started telling each other how to do certain things like naming their document, creating shapes, adding colour, using the research feature to embed pictures into their drawing, how to change fonts, and size of fonts, etc. Some students even decided to leave their drawing and create a Google Document! When one student asked another what they were doing, they replied by saying "I'm exploring!". 

With permission to explore, to make mistakes (and deal with them their way), and minimal parameters set for them, the students were in a natural state of inquiry and quite content. As I walked the room and talked to the students I could see and hear the learning that was happening. I could see them building the foundation that will provide them with the ability and confidence needed to take on tasks that will challenge them but ultimately help them build on their knowledge and skills. 

My experience tells me that the students need time to become comfortable with the tools they use to help them learn and demonstrate their learning. Although the students learn how to use engaging and interesting tools quite fast, they still need to familiarize themselves and learn how to troubleshoot. This means that they have to be somewhat comfortable with the unknown and be able to systematically work through obstacles that present themselves.