The G- Slides Trap goes something like this: Students research information, slap their text on the slides with some pictures and say "all done". I have also caught students "researching" by typing a question into google, "What was the goal of Apollo 13" and then copying and pasting an image of a "slide" on to their own slide.
It has become really important to me to have students research and present information and while doing so push their efforts to design a final original product.
Connect this idea to Instagram. It's traditionally used by users posting a series of single, isolated posts disjointedly documenting their day to day on one profile. There are some creative users who are using this tool where posts are cleverly strung together to tell a story.
Consider the Netflix Series Ozark who for Season 1, turned their entire instagram profile into a map of the Ozarks with hidden eggs as clues from the dramatic story line. Netflix has since deleted the entire map and for Season 2 posted a new themed series of images and videos to engage and tease viewers. (I googled and could not find a visual of Season 1.)
Taylor Swift, the queen of hidden messages, foreshadowing and symbolism has figured this out a long time ago. In 2017, after hiatus from performing and social media Swift deleted every post on her Instagram to post three clips of a hissing snake which we now know was hinting at her and next album release, Reputation. Its 2019, and Swift has mastered the art of calculated posts, simple, creative, and delicately just puzzling enough to get her fans buzzing with the exciting drama and anticipation and for whatever she releases next.
I feel like all of these people have figured out that social media is the secret key to what will advance their careers and are marketings themselves effectively. Any person, in any career, can market themselves professionally through social media networking but to be effective you have to stand out- take ordinary products and give it a twist.
This theme of creativity has been repeated over and over in the work of people like The Tech Rabbi and David Eagleman. I promise I'll connect all of the dots, just but hang with me a little longer.
Fun fact- I love to take children and family portraits. I have been a family photographer for almost seven years and have been able to photograph the real story of couples becoming engaged, sharing birth announcements, and taking their children's photos. I used Facebook as my main platform for sharing and business, Instagram was around but not really a thing yet. Most of my editing and posting I predominately did on my desktop. I even posted to Facebook directly from my desktop.Inspired by these three creative Instagram profiles I decided I wanted to create a business profile on Instagram that was a portfolio and also artistically told the story of all of these families growing over the past seven years. My motive was not to gain customers but to satisfy a creative itch and try something new.
I quickly realized the tools I knew how to use on a desktop were null. I needed to figure out which apps would allow me to resize images so they would post correctly. I also needed access to a digital canvas with layering, for images, pngs, and videos to design. I wanted to figure out how to split images into a collage for posting, and I also needed an app that I could use for just video editing to create short gifs or animations. There were a lot of things I wanted to create but I didn't know which tools to use.
Experiencing that pain point and wanting original student products guided my pedagogy for our current 6th grade research project.
We have done a project several years in a row wheres students research a mission from NASA and then create a news report on video. In the past I would mandate which app or website students would have to use for the sake of keeping students work together, and consistency. Now that we use itslearning, there is an assignment feature where students (or groups) can submit their work to their teachers from anywhere. It doesn't matter where they make their product.
This year, I approached the assignment differently. When it came to creating the final product, I told students it was simple. Whatever they made had to have be in a video format. They did not have to show their face but I there had to be audio of them speaking about their information.
Our classroom has a set of Chromebooks that all students use. We talked about their how their phones have apps for photos, editing, and then I showed students the "Chrome Web Store" and explained what extensions were. We created an area in our class for students to post their ideas of Apps to use.
The response was bipolar. So many students were vocal, "Miss why can't we just do a Google Slide. I don't want to make a video," or "I hate how I sound, why do we have to record our voice," and "I don't want to do this." There were also many students jumped into the freedom and were really excited about all of their options.
There was also paralysis. Some students stared at me and their screens waiting to be told explicitly what to do. Luckily they had to gather research and complete and outline first so those students had a few days to digest and think about their product. Everyday I started class showing samples of what students had started working on and slowly their confidence gained some traction.
There also had to be compromise. The makeup of my classes are so different and unique, there needed to be accommodations. Some students needed a place to anchor their research and images. I allowed them to use Google Slides as a base and then use the extension Screencastify to record a voiceover of themselves narrating their videos.
Students created scripts, their own animated backgrounds out of custom gifs, they worked collaboratively, negotiated, found editing sites such as WeVideo and Pixlr. I set up a greenscreen in the classroom for students to use DoInk. Some students even made two different version of their videos.
Not only had they collected research, finally, FINALLY they were creating original products. I know I spent a lot of time talking about the product, and so frequently I am reminded it's not about the app but more about the learning, I am not trying to minimize the academic importance or content.
I love this project as a whole because students practiced many skills: reading expository text, gathering research, writing an outline and turning that into a product where they had to articulate what they learned. They had to problem solve on what tools they needed to use and were challenged on going beyond Slides.
All of those skills need to be practiced, and we're making progress together. I will write another post about how all of this was implemented in the classroom and share student samples. There are some really exciting and freeing features through the platform of itslearning and it's Google Integration that teachers NEED to know about! I have another project I have to finish first, more to come.
This is a Student Sample from an academic class. It is not perfect but I have never heard one of these students actually speak in class: Slides 1-4 are includes their base info, slide 5 has their screencast vide inserted.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1G2UHCC_G2YvValJMXvgv055taGDsjWJwstV92S6GSWc/edit#slide=id.p
Smiles,
Christine
