What is Discussion?

1. Pear Deck Pear Deck is an interactive presentation tool that allows teachers to incorporate and engage students into the lesson, in real-time. Teachers create slides and then use interactive questions, quizzes, or polls, which students are prompted to answer on their devices. This tool requires student engagement and helps teachers offer more dynamic lectures and gives the teachers the power to assess understanding in real time! Classroom Use: Pear Deck can be used to facilitate discussion by incorporating open-ended questions where students reflect on a topic before group conversations. •Learn More about Pear Deck 

2. Nearpod Nearpod is a platform similar to Pear Deck, in that it too offers an interactive experience during presentations. Student participation is live or teachers can offer self-paced lessons. Nearpod not only has polls, quizzes, and collaborative boards that foster interactive learning, it also offers VR field trips. This platform also supports formative assessments which helps to make it easier to gauge student comprehension throughout the lesson. •Classroom Use: Nearpod can be used to launch discussion boards and create collaborative spaces where students can contribute ideas and respond to their peers. •Learn More about Nearpod

3. Qora Qora is a relatively new platform designed to support student-centered discussions by fostering inquiry-based learning. Qora lets students post questions, ideas, and responses in discussion threads moderated by the teacher. This platform encourages critical thinking by prompting students to explore and inquire independently, making it an excellent tool for fostering in-depth academic conversations. •Classroom Use: Teachers can use Qora to create a discussion-based assignment where students lead conversations by posting and responding to questions about a texts, themes, or concepts. •Learn More about Qora 

4. Canvas Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) that enables teachers to create and manage online classes. In addition to course management tools, Canvas includes discussion boards, where students can post and reply to each other’s ideas asynchronously, which can extend class discussions beyond the classroom. This platform offers the opportunity for students to post video and images to the discussion threads. In addition, teachers can upload a lesson from Zoom and students can use this platform to join a live discussion where the teacher can then put them into discussion rooms and monitor those discussions as well. •Classroom Use: Canvas discussions can be used for ongoing academic dialogue on lesson topics, allowing students to dive deeper into course content at their own pace. •Learn More about Canvas 

5. Canva Although Canva is mainly known for graphic design, it offers tools to foster collaborative learning. Teachers can assign group projects where students co-create visuals, infographics, or presentations. These visuals can serve as conversation starters in both physical and virtual classrooms. •Classroom Use: Canva’s collaborative boards can be used in peer discussions where students work together to create infographics summarizing their learnings or opinions, stimulating critical thinking and dialogue. Not only can they collaborate with one another, but they can also learn from this experience for future careers where they will need to collaborate on a project at a distance in real time. Canva offers the possibility to see what colleagues are doing on a screen where everyone can edit simultaneously. •Learn More about Canva Sources:• Pear Deck • Nearpod • Qora • Canvas • Canva 

Quizlet https://quizlet.com/gb

Quizlet can be used as an online index card set for students to practice vocabulary words, translating and interpreetting sentences, and conjugating verbs in a second language. Students may also share material with each other to collaborate. Teachers may choose to create a practice test for students to complete during class time or at home to note what material may need briefing and reviewing before the test.

Kahoot! https://kahoot.com/

Kahoot! Is an online website for students to engage with material in a different way than what is typical to the every day lesson. Students can "play" learning games and both students and teachers can assess knowledge and understanding throuhg the results. This also allows teachers to see major trends within classroom understanding of material. 

Google Earth Education https://www.google.com/earth/education/

Google Earth Education allows students to virtually explore the world and other cultures in the present and past using the data collected over recent decades. This gives students the opportunities to see countries and locations they study in their language classes as well as history classes.

Google Arts and Culture https://artsandculture.google.com/story/BQUxhFxSZvHUag

For virtual field trips, teachers can use Google Arts and Culture to show students images of museums or historically significant places around the globe. This is especially useful in language classes where culture is also a signficant part of the curriculum. For example, there are walking tours of cities and musuems. There are also games students may play to explore artwork and culture even farther.

Radio Ambulante NPR podcasts/news in Spanish https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510315/radio-ambulante

Radio Ambulante is a Spanish language podcast that discusses culture, news, and underreported news stories in Latin America. This is a resource that can help students listen to a variety of authentic Spanish accents and put vocabulary words into context.

Padlet: https://padlet.com/

An online "bulletin board." Padlet provides a real-time, collaborative web platform that students and teachers can upload, organize, and share content to a virtual bulletin board. Students & teachers can post a range of different media like videos, images, texts, and links. The posts can be anonymous, which supports students who might shy away from an in-person discussion. With padlet, students can comment on other students' posts and share the padlet with others. Padlets can be used as a content bank, for group activities, for mapping ideas, and for a fun way to host an anonymous discussion. One way that I've used Padlet in the classroom is before we start our argumentative essay unit. I allow students to post ideas, images, and videos about relevant topics that we should debate in class. 

Google Slides: 

Google slides can be a great way to have students collaborate on an assignment, facilitating meaningful discussions. Students can be assigned one slide as a group, or a group can share a set of slides. In my classroom, I have used this to facilitate when students explore and research content. After working in groups and discussing the research, students apply their learning to a slide and then we go over the entire presentation as a class and groups take their turn presenting their information. The opportunities with Slides is endless! In addition to my approach, you can host in real time "silent" discussions. This can be similar to Padlet, but more user friendly if students are already familiar with Slides. Below is a video that details how to set up a silent discussion in Slides for your class. I've also included a link that will provide multiple ways to use Slides and ideas for incorporating collaboratives assignments. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixnTc944P3Q

https://www.theedublogger.com/google-slides/

Socrative: https://www.socrative.com/

Socrative is an educational technology that provides live polls, quizzes, and open-ended questions. These questions can serve as a great way to create real-time discussions in class. In addition, you can create "Rooms" in order to launch activities for groups of students. Rooms is a great way to keep students connected virtually or in the classroom. 

Mentimeter: https://www.mentimeter.com/

Mentimeter is a word map that builds as students add their thoughts. It is a great way to get a quick understanding of your students' thoughts and clarify confusion. One of the best things about Mentimeter is that it is anonymous, so even quiet students will feel comfortable sharing their ideas. I sometimes do Exit Tickets in my class to generate discussions, but with Mentimeter it speeds up this process so that I can get the discussion going easily. For instance, I had students watch a short video of Maya Angelou reading one of her poems and respond to a prompt that had them make assumptions about her personality before we read from, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I was able to introduce them to the author and get them engaged in the topic of our excerpt more quickly than the previous year where they had to write it down, then I had to collect it, then read them aloud. It's a small difference, but students are more quickly engaged, and sometimes that makes all the difference. 

Thinglink: https://www.thinglink.com/edu

I discovered Thinklink when struggling to find my fifth technology. I really like this platform! Although I haven't used it in my classroom, I can definitely see myself trying it. Thinglink allows teachers and students to create interactive videos and images with embedded links, which can facilirate discussions through multimedia content. Students share and learn from multimodal immersive experiences. They can take transform any media into an interactive learning tool. This would be a great way for students to analyze and explain art, history, or even math concepts! Teachers can embed forms, links, and quizzes in order to assess student learning.