Getting to Know You(r Students!)

#web20 #techtips #edtech

The beginning of the school year can be an exciting and busy time! Here are some fun ways to use  web-based tech tools to get to know your students.

Use Google presentations to create a student “expo”:

In one of our previous blog posts, we discussed how to use Google presentations to create an “Amazing Race“.  You can do a similar activity with your students to start off the year.  Head to Google Drive and create a new presentation.  The Topic could be anything, for example, “what did you do last summer?”, “Where did you go?”, or even better “What are you excited about for the school year?” We do some teacher trainings here at PSD Tech and have created a similar presentation.  Check it out here.

   You can set the sharing permissions on the presentation by pressing the blue “Share” button in the upper right.  It’s often easier to share the presentation’s link (or shorten the URL) with students rather than entering each student’s email address.

Next, create instructions for the students on the first slide.  After that, it’s a snap!  Students create one or more slides in the presentation and they (or the teacher) can share it out with the class.  Students can embed text, pictures, links, and videos!

Of course, there are other tech tools available for you to use.  The folks over at Socrative also have a great blog.  Check out their post on playing “Guess Who?” using the Socrative web app.

Not sure about Socrative?  Check out our post on using “Laptops as Clickers”

You could also create an editable class wiki using Google Sites (or BlackBoard) to do something similar to the above activities.

Have a great school year!