Wednesday, December 16, 2015

7th Graders Research using Google Research

Today, 7th graders began researching information for their course project which is to either create a video about themselves or a PSA on a topic of their choice. I am having students conduct research, grabbing factual information for their message as well as locate images to help visually represent what they are learning.




Before we moved to Google Apps for Education, GAFE, students had to open multiple tabs in their browser to search different web sites and then use a citation app, like EasyBib, to help them properly cite resources. Google docs has that all built into one. Check out this video tutorial on using the research tool in a Google Doc.



Friday, December 11, 2015

5th Grade Cycle 3

5th Graders Create Interactive Presentations

Sure PowerPoint and Google Slide presentations are a great way to present information. They provide you the ability to dazzle your audience with beautiful images, embed videos, and use cool transitions. You can even set the presentation to run automatically, allowing you to talk without having to click the space bar or mouse. But, after awhile, the viewer most likely will start to drift off and lose focus, missing many important pieces of your presentation. Why is this? It's because the person who is viewing the presentation is a passive viewer.. meaning, all they are doing is sitting there, listening. There is little to no interaction with with the presentation or the presenter.

One way to solve this problem is to allow the audience a way to get involved with the new information being presented. Say hello to ThingLink, ThinkLink is a web 2.0 tool that allows the user to create interactive images and videos.

5th graders just finished discussing what is meant to be a hero in their language arts classes. What better way to show their understanding of hero than to create an interactive poster. After a few classes learning how to use ThingLink, 5th graders turned out some pretty awesome products. Here are a few examples of some 5th grade work.



Created By Alayna





Created by Jaidyn



Created by Julia


Up next for 5th graders is a crash course on Google Docs basics with a focus on creating screen casts of their learning.