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Saturday, April 9, 2016

Google Slides and Google Classroom: Note-Taking At Your Own Pace.

Most of us have been there. You're lecturing on the topic at hand, using your particular presentation software of choice and a projector. You've thoughtfully put together each slide, detailing what the students need to know, when, after clicking to the next slide, you hear, "wait!" Another student exclaims, "you're going too fast, please slow down!" 

I was reminded of this after reading the article "My kid needs a teacher, not a Chromebook,"  The article discusses the value of taking notes, whether its done in the classroom or whether they're taken out of the textbook. It goes on to say that the introduction of Chromebooks have all but negated note taking in the classroom. I agree with the notion cited in the article that when students write information down, they're more apt to remember it. 

This is where Slides and Google Classroom come in.  Instead of presenting the slides to the students in the classroom as a whole, a teacher can put the notes on Google Classroom.  Students can then write the notes down, at their own pace, on a piece of notebook paper. 

Let's face it, we all write and comprehend information at different speeds. And it can be frustrating for not only a teacher, but for some students as well, when a few students slow the class down because it takes them a few more moments to write down the notes. And, coupled with Google Forms, you have yourself a great little note-taking exercise. 

By marrying Google Classroom with traditional note taking, a teacher can have the best of both worlds. The students are taking notes in a traditional way, writing them down on a piece of notebook paper, and at their own individual pace. The teacher can take the note-taking one step further with Google Forms.  After taking down the notes, the students can complete an assessment of the notes using Google Forms. The students will use their notes to answer the questions in the form. 

So there you have it! Technology and traditional note-taking, old school and new school if you will, living in harmony.

1 comment:

  1. Great post. Thank you for sharing this idea. In regards to the article cited, perhaps the school didn't do the whole Chromebook roll-out correctly. The parent appears very bitter and uninformed. We need to find a crossroads when integrating technology.