Google Slides can be a great resource for educators to present new and difficult content. It is a celebration tool that allows teachers to share outcomes and information with students, parents, other educators, and administrators. Google Slides allows teachers to create colorful and appealing slideshows that contain different types of media such as pictures and videos to keep the students interested. However, no matter how beautiful and interesting you make your slideshows, there are always some issues that arise when teaching through these presentations.
Here are some pros and cons of presenting new information through this type of outlet:
Pros
- The teacher can incorporate multiple forms of media within one slide to maximize differentiation
- The teacher can organize slides in such a way that allows the students to best understand the content
- The teacher can add important notes and facts on the slide and elaborate while instructing
Cons
- The teacher cannot ensure all students are being engaged at all times
- Students may feel nervous to interrupt the teacher if something is not making sense to them
- The teacher cannot stop to check for understanding for each concept easily
The cons of presenting with this type of outlet are daunting because as a teacher it is important that you are ensuring all of your students are receiving the content that you are delivering. However, luckily for us, there is a program that can help with that!
Pear Deck is a Google Slides add-on that allows teachers to add quick formative assessments and engaging questions throughout their slideshow that the students can answer on their own devices. This tool allows teachers to instantly check whether or not the students are engaged in the presentation and also who is and is not understanding the content. What a great tool!
Click here to go to Pear Deck’s Website!
Here is a link to a lesson plan including a powerpoint that a teacher could transfer into Google Slides and then add any questions they wanted to throughout to check students understanding.
Below I included a video on how to get started using Pear Deck in your Google Slides!
Let me know what you think of Pear Deck in the comments below! Do you have any other ideas on how to keep your students engaged in the process presenting slideshows? Thanks for reading my blog and if you want to see more of me follow me on twitter for updates on when I post on my blog and more! @alexhend_educ98