Monday, December 14, 2015

Using Google Drawing for Charts and Posters

Any time you want students to create charts or posters, try using Google drawing. I love the simplicity of this lesser-known Google app.  Its basic set of tools are great for introducing students to creation projects on the computer. Tech tools should never completely replace hands-on activities in the classroom, but there are advantages to creating digital posters for some projects. As with all teaching decisions, we want to consider the purpose for the activity and learning outcome before we choose the tool!

Here are some advantages:

1. Collaboration: Students can work together to create a poster even when they aren't in the same room together.

2. Sharing: Posters can be shared electronically by copying and pasting to a class blog or web site. This creates a much larger audience for their work than simply hanging it on a classroom wall or school hallway.

3. Creativity: Google Drawings can be inserted into a Google Slides presentation or other presentation tool. Students can add their voices to narrate or explain their drawing and a video can be created. 

Here are some examples of Google Drawing projects in various subjects:



Students can demonstrate their understanding of concepts by creating simple comic strips.





Making a digital poster can be a way to increase engagement for skill work.



Reading projects could be easily made with Google Drawing. Text can also be linked to outside websites to make the poster more interactive.


In social studies, students can create timelines or insert an image, such as a map, and annotate it.




Many science standards require students to make a model or create a representation of a science concept. Google Drawing could be a helpful tool for some units.


The shape tool contains operations symbols which could be used for math posters.





Here are some resources to help you get started using Google Drawing.