Google Slides makes for great presentations not just for classroom use, but for students to refer back to even long after the class is over. They can be spiffed up, and then shared around the world. Here’s how…
Publishing Presentations
By going to the File menu in the upper left of your window, you can choose to “publish to the web”, and then “embed” your presentation. Why is this important? Well, I’ve used this in the past for sharing class presentations with students by embedding them into my class blog. The nice thing here, is that at any point, you can go back to make edits on that presentation, and any edits will be automatically updated to the embedded presentation on your blog. Edit once and done!
Working as a team
Create a presentation to share with students, and allow them to fill in the rest. This can be a means of promoting discussion, or can be as simple and grade-less as a test study guide. Simply create the first few slides, include main topics, and allow students to fill in and embellish with their own creations–or taken from their own notes. This works well when working with vocabulary, because students can easily include images, references, and links when “defining” a specific word.
Give those drab old slides a new look!
Give your presentation a makeover with a few new additions such as links, videos, and Google’s new themes. The new themes lend visual appeal to the same old themes you and your students have seen time and again. Engage students by integrating video as well as Google Forms for easy student feedback. Or better yet…
Google Slides: Presenter View
When you open Google Slides and select “Present” in the upper right, it will allow you to choose the “Presenter View”:
From here, you can see several features: a timer in the bottom right, to pace yourself; Audience Tools, from which you can allow for Q & A from your audience, as well as push specific questions to student devices (if they are following along); and Speaker Notes, where you can keep track of things you wanted to mention, without your audience knowing your little secret. 😉
I love, love, love using Google Drive in my day-to-day, and with students. Interested in learning more about these great tools? I’m now offering this mini-course on G Suite. Check it out!
Amanda M. Orozco 