HyperDocs in the Elementary Classroom

Happy Earth Day!  This week my class explored how to reduce, reuse, and recycle through a HyperDoc created in Google Slides.  The document contained links that took the students to different YouTube videos that explained about reducing, reusing, and recycling.  After viewing the videos, the students returned to the HyperDoc to display what they learned and explain the topic to others.  Here is the blank HyperDoc assigned to the students.



What is a HyperDoc?
A HyperDoc is a document that contains links for the students to access information to learn more about a topic.  The HyperDoc also contains a space in which the students can interact with the information and display their learning.  HyperDocs can be created using any program in which a link can be inserted; therefore, Google Docs, Google Drawings, Google Slides, and Google Sheets are great resources to create HyperDocs.

Lesson Learned from Using HyperDocs
Not every lesson that I share with the students work as planned.  I copied the links used in the HyprDoc from the share tab on YouTube.  All of the links worked on my computer, but when the students tried the links on their own, they were not able to access the videos.  Something was blocking the videos.  I decided to show the first video whole group while I investigated the problem.

After problem solving with the Digital Learning Coach on campus, we changed the links in the HyperDoc to match the links in the Omnibox (address bar).  Thank you @richesonemily for your help.  I learned the lesson to always check your links under a student login before assigning the project to the students.

Benefits of Using HyperDocs in the Classroom
First, using HyperDocs increases student engagement.  Students enjoy watching the YouTube videos about various topics.  From the moment we started the HyperDoc project, the students were glued to their Chromebooks learning and sharing the information that they learned.

HyperDocs also allows students to work at their own pace.  We all know that students work at different speeds.  When a student completes one page, they are able to move onto the next page and watch the next video without waiting for the rest of the class.  Students can also watch the video again if they need to see the information more than once.  

Students are working independently.  All of the information that they need is in the HyperDoc.  Therefore, students are able to collect the information on their own and share what they learn through the project.

Overall, the students did a great job learning about ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Check out the completed project below.

Creating Books with Google Slides

Today the students created their own book in Google Slides.  Each slide was a separate page in their book.  We researched information about groundhogs all week long, and this was a great opportunity for the students to share the information they learned.

I assigned each student a Google Slide Presentation with four blank slides through Google Classroom.  I only assigned four slides because I didn't want the students to become overwhelmed, and if a student needed more pages, it was the perfect opportunity to teach them how to insert a slide into their presentation.

The students were excited to make their own book.  The first slide was the title page.  The rest of the slides contained information about what they had learned about groundhogs.

It seems that there were two type of books that emerged from this project based on the type of background the student picked.  When inserting a background into Google Slides, you have the option to pick a solid color or insert an image.  (Please note: There is a background button on the toolbar in Google Slides.  This makes inserting a background very easy for the students because it eliminates the need to right click.)

When students choose a solid color background, they had to insert more images and add more details to make the page look complete.  However, when the students inserted an image as the background, the presentation looked more professional (in my opinion) and the student only had to add the words.  Check out the two slides below.  Perhaps less is better when it comes to professional design. 

Here are the links to the completed Groundhog books: solid color background and images as background.  Overall, the students did an awesome job, and I am very proud of their work.  

Chatting with Students on Google Slides (Using the Comment Feature)

Chatting with students is the most fun that I have had with a Chromebook project so far.  My students are working independently now, so I have the opportunity to sit back and give them feedback.  Through this activity, I really saw some of their personalities come out.

Google Slides does not really have a chat feature, but the program does allow you to comment on a student's slide, and the student can send a comment back to you.  This is a great opportunity to give positive feedback to the students as well as offer suggestions for improvement.  The students loved it when I sent them a message and were eager to reply back to me.  

The students would tell me when they sent me a message back.  Usually it would be a thank you or an ok like the picture above.  I would read these messages and move on without an reply; however, my students were disappointed when there was not a reply to their simple message.  Therefore, if Google is reading my post, I think it would be a good idea to add a like feature to the comment box so that a student's comment can be acknowledged easily.  This would make many of my students very happy.  Until then, it is best to acknowledge all of the students' messages with a simple reply or they will continue pestering you until you do.

I also liked to drop a few inside jokes in the comments for the students to enjoy (even though the students often didn't get my humor).  One of the students always used speech call-outs in her projects.  I was very surprised that she didn't use one in her project about the groundhog.  I nicely made the suggestion, and she revised her work.

Commenting with students works best with Google Slides.  Everyone is working on the same presentation, and it is easy to move back and forth between all of the students.  The commenting feature also works in Google Drawings, but it is hard to maintain because you have to open up each student's project individually.  I probably had a least 15 tabs opened at once, and my computer froze.

My next step in using the comment feature in Google Slides is to have students look at a completed presentation and give each other positive feedback through comments.  I think the students will enjoy chatting with each other, but I will have to closely monitor the conversations to make sure that they are treating each other with respect.  I will update you on how the it goes after I have the opportunity to test it out.