Slides can be used for much more than just presenting. Slides are just magical and with a bit of creativity and innovation there are many possibilities for slides as a learning tool.
1. Engage students with the “Comment Only” option.
Google slides can be a place where tons of content can be placed into one location, such as, images from google and videos from youtube. We may want our kids to learn/watch these slides and interact with these slides/content at their own pace, but we need evidence that they are learning and engaged. Just set your your slides to “anyone with the link can comment” and allow students to add comments but not affect your actual slide content. You can ask questions in your slide, have students reflect, or maybe add to ideas. Students can reply to each other and not just say “great comment”, but can add feedback and extra information to keep the conversation going online. This can be returned to and discussed as a whole class. Struggling students can learn from other student’s comments as well.
2. Use the Presenter Notes for extended writing/essays/instructions.
Slides can be used as a housing ground for our students work. By using the presenter notes, you can have this space used as a writing area or for your instructions as for what they should need to do. In the above example I had the students make dream houses in geometry class. They had to find the area and perimeter of different rooms in the house. I used the presenter notes area for the students to write a reflection and tell me what the area and perimeter of each different shapes were. I also had every student submit their work on the same slide deck, that way we didn’t need to present in front of class, the students just went through all the work at their own pace, commented and gave constructive feedback. Because the students could see each other develop their house, they got ideas from each other which made each students project that much better. It also made it very easy for me to grade.
3. Learning evidence with flow-charts, pictures, and video.
After a lesson that I have taught or an experience I have provided the students I need to have some evidence that they did the notes, did problems, and overall understood. There are many ways to have them show the evidence, but what I have done is have the slides be the housing ground for all learning evidence. The students use the slide to build a flowchart of their understanding, Insert a video they posted to youtube explaining understanding, insert a quick image of their notes to prove they worked on it, and do a short reflection in the presenter notes area.
All students do this on the same slide so that they can learn from each other. They like to have fun with the backgrounds which I don’t mind as it personalized their “learning evidence space.” I can easily provide comments to each slide while students are working FOR ongoing feedback. Grading learning evidence has never been easier.
Do you use slides for other reasons other than presenting? I would love to hear about it. Comment on this blog post and share your innovative idea!
About the Contributor
Wesley Przybylski | Innovation Coach
@wesleypski
“I am a creator, innovator, leader motivator, and an enthusiastic, passionate teacher”.
I currently work in Thailand. I’m an active Apple Distinguished Educator and active Google Certified Teacher. At TCIS (Thai-Chinese International School, Thailand) I am the Director of learning Technology. I love presenting at and organising tech conferences.
