Collaborate with Google Slides!

One of my favorite ways to use Google Slides in the classroom is to have students create collaborative slide decks together. I originally learned about this idea from Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) in one of her "Go Slow" classes. She also wrote a blog post earlier this year about using Google Slides to create Frayer Model templates. I took her idea and changed it up in order to use it for a geography activity.

I created an assignment with the directions and the Google Slide decks (one deck for each rotation):

Here are the directions I added to the assignment:

I used the grid view in Google Slides to watch as students started adding to the slide deck.

My students have really improved in their ability to work collaboratively within a single slide deck. The first time we did this there were some students who were messing with other students' slides or changing the backgrounds for all the slides instead of just their own. I try to treat each of these instances as an opportunity for students to learn how to be responsible and respectful of the work of others. It also helps to show them that all of their actions are recorded in the "Version History" screen! =)

Now that we have the basics of collaborating in a slide deck down, I would really like to have students start adding comments on other students' slides.

Have you used Google Slides for collaboration in your classroom? I would love to hear the ways you have used it!

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