Distance learning has become all about Google! There are so many Google Apps for Education Tools you can use in your distance learning classroom. Try these 6 must have add-on tools for Google Slides to help your students get the most out of online learning!
Welcome to the best instructional canvas for anywhere learning: Google Slides! One of the best discoveries teachers are making is to see Google Slides as so much more than a presentation tool. In addition to built-in Slides tools like Master slides, captioning and layering of objects, we can now leverage Slides add-ons and Chrome extensions to create powerful learning resources for primary students!
Chrome Extensions:
Immersive Reader
Immersive Reader for Chrome is one of the best tools available to support emerging readers. Once the extension is installed, students can highlight text on any web page, right click and choose “Help Me Read This” from the menu that pops up. Users get to control the reading, highlight each word as it is read, color code parts of speech and even choose from among 20 languages for translation.
Mote
Mote improves feedback from teachers to students by allowing teachers to record audio comments on any Google Slide or Doc. Not only does the comment record with a play button for students to activate, it also auto-types the comment, and can translate to multiple languages. In addition, it makes feedback more accessible, and it saves teachers typing time!
Record to Slides
Record to Slides is one of the newest Chrome extensions released to support teachers and students. It’s a simple extension that allows teachers or students to instantly record video or audio on any slide. Once installed, a small video camera button appears next to the Slides Present button. Click the icon, choose the camera and mic and hit record. The video is instantly added to the slide. No more need to record, save, download and insert when you want to add video to a Google Slide!
Google Slides Add-ons:
Magic Exercise Book
Magic Exercise Book is the answer to common teacher frustrations when assigning Google Slides files to students in Google Classroom: needing to add content after a file has already been shared as an assignment and trying to lessen the clutter in the Classwork tab. The Magic Exercise book allows teachers to send out additional slides content to already assigned work. No need for students to copy and paste the slides into their files as it’s already done for them! This means less clutter in the Classwork stream due to less assignments.
PearDeck:
PearDeck brings ease and interactivity to Google Slides as a teaching tool. This slide add-on is a freemium product that integrates with Google for Education accounts, allowing teachers to send out instructional resources in teacher-paced or student-paced mode. Perhaps the most powerful feature of PearDeck is the ability to drop in checks for understanding during a lesson. Teachers can pose questions that allow students to sketch, type or choose from answer choices in response. PearDeck also allows teachers to easily insert audio onto a slide which is a great support for young readers who are working through lesson content independently.
Slide Object Order
Slide Object Order saves creative teachers time and energy in managing slides with multiple layered objects – think Bitmoji Classroom slides! Once teachers understand the power of Google Slides as an instructional canvas, images, links and text can pile up quickly on each slide, similar to stacks of paper on a teacher’s desk. Slide Object Order allows teachers to easily see all the elements on a slide and easily drag and drop them so the slide functions as intended. Great for use in escape room games, digital scavenger hunts and interactive classroom “scenes” created in Google Slides.
Google Slides offer so many tools for creative learning for teachers and students alike! Enjoy the increased efficiency, improved feedback options and support for young readers these add-ons and extensions provide!
Leave a Comment