Days of the status quo slide presentations are OVER! Today's learners want and need to be engaged in order to stay interested and retain information. Students want more choice over their learning processes, too, and the standard lecture style of learning does not meet most students' needs.
One simple way to increase learner engagement and to provide opportunities for differentiation is to rethink the way you use Google Slides. Google Slides can actually be used to create interactive experiences that provide students with choices to direct their own learning.
Four simple ways to use Google Slides to increase differentiation and learner engagement are:
Student-directed independent study and formative assessment
Supplemental choice activities to be completed when students finish work
Choice boards that allow students to select their own learning activities
Group review activities such as Jeopardy games
Now, you might be asking...how do I use Google Slides for this?
As you can see in this presentation, you can use images and text to link to activities on outside websites as well as linking to slides within the presentation itself.
By selecting the image or text you want to hyperlink and then clicking on the link symbol on your toolbar, you have the option to link to an outside website OR to choose a slide within the presentation itself.
In the image below, you can see arrows pointing to the link button as well as the space to type in an outside web address or to click to link to specific slides within the presentation. You can also see a blue box around the text that is being hyperlinked (Supplemental Activities).
Once you begin to play with this, you can create an endless selection of interactive experiences for learners.
CLICK HERE to see some examples of how I use these strategies. You'll find some free learning resources, as well.