Tools for Educators The Do's and Don'ts of Google Slides A User Guide for Powerful Student Presentations! Google Slides is a powerful publishing and presentation tool when formatting is sharp and ideas are clearly communicated in clear and engaging ways. It is important for teachers to take the time to outline key design principles to allow students the creative freedom to express both their ideas and learning. There are so many different ways in which Google Slides can be incorporated in the classroom, from publishing a novel to classroom posters and taking the time to showcase the many features of Google Slides will be sure to promote top notch designs that allow students to thrive and be successful with their learning. The following Google Slide tips are designed in a slightly obnoxious way to drive home key components of a well designed and effective slidedeck. Let me introduce you to some of the Do’s and Don’ts of Google Slides… Colour Scheme Black and white is boring! Inserting Images Animations Less is More Shapes Supporting Fonts
12 Excellent Add-ons for Google Docs Google Docs is a powerful word processing program with many unique features including voice typing, the research tool, revision history, web fonts, and much more. However, Google knows that even with all of those features, Docs may not be able to do everything you want it to do. So Google Docs allows you to install Add-ons to extend the capabilities of the program. Add-ons are third-party tools that provide extra features for Docs. Over time the amount of available Add-ons has grown tremendously. So how do you wade through all of the available Add-ons to find the best ones and the hidden gems? See below for my list of 12 recommended Docs Add-ons, what they do, ideas for how they can be used in schools, and a quick overview of how to install, use, and remove Add-ons.How to install an Add-on When you are using Google Documents, you will see that there is an Add-ons menu item in the top menu bar. If you decide you no longer need a particular Add-on, you can remove it easily. Conclusion
Google Slide Your Way from Zero to Hero Knowing where to start formatting Google Slides can often seem like a daunting and overwhelming task for any educator or professional. A task that many would think is time consuming, tedious, and only for a trained digital specialist. My goal today is to prove to you, yes YOU, that EVERYONE is capable of creating a beautiful and effective Google Slides presentation or publication! The following is a user-friendly, step-by-step guide to designing your best Google Slides yet! Before We Start: Choose your size! Let’s Get Started! Open up Google Slides either through your Google Drive (New > Google Slides) or through the direct link – slides.google.com.Choose your layout. The Design Process 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Voila! Be proud and confident with your new Google Slides design skills! Emma CottierCertified Google Innovator Royal Middle School Teacher & Technology SupportSaanich School District 63Twitter: @EmmaCottier Want to take it up a notch? Check out how here!
How to Add Music and Voiceover Narration to Google Slides Audio can bring your presentations to life especially in a kiosk setting where slideshows play unattended in a continuous loop. If you have recently made the switch from Microsoft PowerPoint or Keynote to Google Slides, the one important feature that you might be missing inside Google Slides is audio. Both Keynote and PowerPoint make it extremely easy for you to add audio to a presentation. You can embed MP3 music files that play in the background for the entire presentation or you can record your own voiceover narration that is synchronized with the timing of each slide. Google Slides do not support audio files but you do have the option to embed videos inside the individual slides. The workaround, therefore, is simple – place the video file on a slide, make it invisible and turn on the auto-play mode. Demo: Google Slides with Audio Step 1: Prepare the Audio File You can use free tools like FFmpeg or Audacity to convert your audio files into video. Step 2: Put audio inside Google Slides
20 ways to use Wakelet in your class The Internet is a busy place. Wakelet makes it more manageable. See how you and your students can create collections and more with Wakelet. The Internet is full of useful information … and it’s getting fuller every day. That’s curation. Students can act like museum curators, finding the best and most representative pieces to add to their collections to share with others. It’s an important life skill, too. Meet Wakelet A curation tool I love is Wakelet (wakelet.com). Wakelet lets you create a collection with text, links, images, PDF files, tweets and more.Add as many of any type of item as you’d like — a collection of all links, a collection with text and images, a collection with all types of items, etc.Teachers can create collections for students. We've been using Wakelet to gather resources at Ditch That Textbook for a long time. Or you can always head to our main Ditch That Textbook Wakelet page to see all of our collections! How to sign up for Wakelet Collaboration is key 2. 3. 4. 10.
Add Music to Your Google Slides With the AudioPlayer Chrome Extension Earlier this year I excitedly shared the Google Slides Add-on called AudioPlayer for Google Slides. The video tutorial that I made for about it has proven to be popular too. Recently, I've received comments from viewers of that video who said that they can't find the Add-on. It turns out that the developer of the Add-on has turned it into a Chrome extension. AudioPlayer for Slides is a Chrome extension that will let you add music or spoken audio to your Google Slides presentations. Applications for EducationAudioPlayer for Slides could be useful to students who would like to add a little bit of background music to presentations. It's important to note that your students will need to have audio files stored in their Google Drive accounts before using AudioPlayer for Slides.
3 Fun Presentation Tools for End-of-Year Projects As the school year winds down, tests and final projects are looming. Class presentations can be a great way for students to synthesize knowledge, practice public speaking, and interact with their classmates. But there are also potential drawbacks: Standing up and speaking in front of peers can be nerve-racking (even for some adults!), and the presentations themselves can become repetitive and formulaic. Multimedia tools can reduce student anxiety by encouraging a creative approach that not only builds design and tech skills but also can turn an intimidating final assignment into a fun experience. Screencastify Price: Free; premium version $24/yr.Platforms: WebsiteGrades: 3-12 Screencastify is an extension for the Chrome web browser or Chrome devices that records the screen, voice, and more. Office Sway Price: FreePlatforms: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Chrome, Apps for WindowsGrades: 6–12 Adobe Spark Price: FreePlatforms: WebsiteGrades: 8–12
Ten Overlooked Google Slides Features Like any robust presentation tool, Google Slides has many features that often go overlooked by new users. Some of these features will let you accomplish the things that you used to do in PowerPoint or Keynote while others will just save you a bit of time. Either way, here are ten features of Google Slides that you should know how to use. 1. Word Art Word Art is different than just changing your font size or style. 2. Launch a live Q&A channel forum for your audience directly from the Presenter View menu. 3. Open the "tools" menu while editing your slides and you can choose to open a Keep Notepad. 4. You can use the "insert image" menu to launch a Google Images search, but that's not the best option for an integrated image search. 5. There are two ways that you can do this. 6. Last year Google finally added the option to include videos in your slides without those videos having to be on YouTube. 7. 8. In the "tools" menu in Google Slides you will find an option for speech-to-text. 9. 10.
Student collaboration in shared Google Slides Teamwork is a desirable job skill in today’s economy. When we let students collaborate, we prepare them for the future! Here’s how Google Slides can help. Part of the reason social media has taken off so much are the connections. Seeing other people’s reaction to what you’ve shared. Learning from others. We can get the same attraction when we do collaborative learning in the classroom. Google Slides makes this possible. By creating a slide presentation and sharing it with students, it creates a few really cool features: A shared learning environment where everyone is doing their work togetherA little piece of digital real estate for every studentAn easy way to talk about what they’re creating and learning In this tutorial video, I’ll show you step-by-step how to get started with shared Google Slides and some of the great things you can do with it: Collaborative writing prompts (kind of like a blog)Sharing research findings with the classCreating something big together a little at a time
Differentiation via open tasks Google Slides: Add Your Roster One of my favorite activities is collaborative Google Slides. That is all students in the class on the SAME Google Slides. I usually recommend to keep it simple. Create BLANK Google Slides and share it with edit access with the class. Students add their own slide and put their name in the speaker notes. Template alicekeeler.com/rostertoslides Directions Make a copy of the spreadsheet template.Use the Add-on menu to choose “Roster to Slides.”Choose setup.Authorize the script. Add-on Menu From the Add-on menu choose “Roster to Slides” and select “Setup.” Authorizing Google has NOT reviewed the script I coded. View screenshots of authorization Do not click on “Back to safety” but rather click on the word “Advanced.” Then more warning will expand out to let you know that Google has not reviewed this Apps Script. The app authorization is for YOURSELF to allow you to use SlidesApp and SpreadsheetApp to access the two files in this project. Paste Your Roster Create Slides Link to sample slides