When Google released their newest feature for Slides, "Presenter View with Audience Q&A", I was ecstatic. No, really. I think my exact reaction was freaking out with excitement to one of my fellow special ed teachers who shares a room with me. It made up for the fact that my LA7 lesson had flopped the period before. I think I looked something like this: Now, not only did I have an awesome addition for my conference presentations (and with my GAFE summit just around the corner!), I also had something great to add to my classes! I'm one of those people that doesn't like too much direct instruction. After spending countless years in high school and college with instructors who talked at you with bland, over-worded PowerPoint slides in the background, I resented the concept. But, unfortunately, I found that minimal direct instruction in the resource room was necessary, whether I was reviewing theme for the third time that week or introducing a new topic entirely. There were instances that I had some Google Slide presentations behind me- whether for reference, to provide images, or something else. And that's why I was so excited about Slides' Q&A feature. I couldn't wait to try it out and immediately revised my plans to include it. I had to review and reteach symbolism as we read The Outsiders and had an interactive presentation to help the students. When they came in the following day, I had the presentation set up on the board. It was preset with the "Presenter View," so the students were greeted with the initial title slide and the words "Ask a Question" followed by the URL in a gray box at the top of the page. Most of my students were confused, but followed our normal routine and signed into their laptops and then into their Google accounts. Then they typed in the unique URL for our presentation. They were greeted with a screen that looked like this: I explained to the students that this was a platform to ask me questions throughout the presentation. After each slide, I'd consult the list and answer any questions that were posted. I gave them a chance to test out the Q&A feature so they could see what it looked like from their screen and from mine (and to get the silliness out of the way). I forewarned them about the anonymous feature, stating that questions could be asked anonymously if the student did not feel comfortable attaching their name. In my resource room I have a variety of personalities; some students have no problem asking questions in front of their peers and others would rather fail in silence than open their mouth in front of others. The anonymity feature was something I considered to be absolutely perfect for my quiet students. It would allow them to participate in the discussions without feeling anxious about speaking or asking. Then there's the thumb up/thumb down feature. When students see the live stream of the questions, they have the option to click "thumbs up" or "thumbs down". I encourage my students to use only the "up" option, which would indicate that multiple students have the same question. That would show me that it was a question of high importance. Then, on the presenter end, I can choose to "present" a certain question. By clicking that button, the question gets projected onto the main screen. The student's name appears alongside the question, unless they are anonymous.
By the end of my presentation, I had expanded the Q&A to have the students make comments. I'd post a color or object and ask the students what it represented, with no repetitive answers. Some chose to go old-school and answer aloud, while others indulged in the new Slides feature. I found that some of my quietest students were excited to participate via their keyboard. Then I projected some great answers onto the screen, which provided positive reinforcement for my shy population. Turns out, my students were just as excited about the new feature as I was. It really helps me to reach out to my quiet students and allow them to have the opportunity to feel comfortable asking their questions in class. One of my students who barely makes a peep in class was frantically tapping at the keys, relishing the chance to have her questions heard. Now they're upset if I don't use this feature with any reteaching/introducing a topic in a Slides presentation. So, even though I was psyched about the capabilities of Q&A for my PD presentations, this feature also has pretty awesome benefits in the classroom. If you have any great ideas on how else to use this feature in class, feel free to share in the comments below!
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Katie Nieves@Ms_Katie Nieves Archives
December 2017
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