Embedded Files
The following resources are intended to serve as inspiration for different digital tools you can use to engage your peers within your learning activity. This list is not exhaustive: feel free to use other tools you are familiar with or find!
Scroll the page to explore, or use the table of contents, left, to find specific resources.
Video Production
There are several simple tools you may use to create brief introductory or explanatory videos for your peers.
Animoto
Animoto allows you to create quick videos with simple templates. Students can create free animoto accounts and access several template, stock video, and stock music options. Add your own images, customize your colors, and choose from their music to make the video your own! When you're ready, click "Share" and then click "Embed" to copy code you can embed on your google site (under the "Insert" tab on the right hand side). The video to the right is embedded using the Small (432 x 243) option in Animoto. Animoto has a full collection of tutorials for additional support.
Powtoon
Like Animoto, Powtoon offers student accounts and a large collection of templates you can use to animate a short video. Powtoon is especially adept at animating word and icon combinations, and offers icons of people in addition to more basic symbols. In order to share, you'll need to make sure you're using free items as I have in the example to the right--or pay for an account. Check out this recorded webinar offers an overview of the Powtoon basics.
Finally, Canva--described in more detail below--offers a large range of free resources for video creation, including video templates that you can drag and drop your own content into. You can also turn presentation slides into a recorded video!
Infographic Tools
Infographics are a great way to condense key contextual information about a topic for your peers, or draw them into your topic with a hook.
Canva
Canva offers a wide array of tools that you can use to create slides, posters, and infographics. The set of images above was created using a Comic template from Canva and simply dragging and dropping different figured into different settings to create a short narrative. Canva's presentation templates offer options for creating more visually interesting charts and graphs, and for animating objects on a slide which you can then download as a gif to create a moving graphic (as seen in this example, right).
Canva's For Teachers resources offer great video tutorials on the range of graphics and videos you can create.
WordArt
In addition to making graphic elements with illustrations, you can visually represent (and analyze!) the words that a source contains. WordArt.com allows you to easily and freely create word clouds--you can even specify their shape and image. The example to the left is a word cloud of the Morrill Act of 1862's text!
Discussion Tools
You may be interested in tools that encourage your peers to interact with one another, even if they are doing so asynchronously. The following offer different options for such interaction.
Whimsical
Whimsical allows you to create mind-maps and other content that your peers can then comment on. Commenting requires students to create a Whimsical account, but creation is free. Similar to Jamboard, students can add sticky notes and text boxes to share their perspectives, but they can also comment on existing items. Check out Whimsical's tutorials here.
Jamboard
Google's Jamboard is another option for virtual discussion. Unfortunately, like Canva's whiteboards, Jamboard is not editable directly from your google site. However, you can take a screenshot of your board to display for students! Then, just add your (shared!) hyperlink to your image so that students can click the picture to participate in a new tab.
Padlet
Probably one of the best options for asynchronous online discussion, Padlet embeds easily on google sites so students can add their thoughts without ever leaving your site pages! Padlet allows you to create three free padlets for sharing before requiring a subscription, and offers several different formats for discussion. The example above uses the Timeline structure, but you may also be interested in more free-flowing discussion options such as the wall, stream, grid, or canvas. And if geography is important to your primary source activity, Padlet even offers a map structure in which you and your peers can add content to different points on a map. You can find additional Padlet resources and how-to's here.
Quiz Tools
Many students wish to incorporate quizes into their learning activities in order to check learner comprehension, make space for students to reflect on prior and gained understandings, or prompt peers to reflect on the content they have been reviewing. Several options exist for creating quizzes and embedding them on your google site.
Guide to Google Forms Settings.pdfGoogle Forms
This is one of the most commonly used options, and that's because it integrates so easily with google sites! Simply scroll down on the Insert right-hand side bar to find Forms, select it, and then select a form you've created for this assignment. Like all google features, make sure your form sharing is set to public so your peers can view and participate. This infographic provides helpful instructions and tips for creating and sharing your form.
Fyrebox
Fyrebox allows you to create more visually interesting quizes than google forms--and includes options to display correct answers to questions, and add explanations for participants. Though the example above is a single answer multiple-choice style quiz, Fyrebox also supports open ended questions, scenario-based quizzes, and multiple answer questions. Finally, they provides quiz templates that you can edit if you'd rather not make more detailed design decisions. Check out the Fyrebox site for more information.
Additional Tools & Plugins
You may wish to more creatively display information. The following tools offer an array of ways to display your primary sources with commentary or share additional contextual information with your peers.
Commoninja
Commoninja allows users to create a variety of website plugins to display images and content in unique ways. For example, to the left is an "Image Hotspot" plugin, which allows you to add hotspot annotations to an image. Additional plugins include before and after sliders, tables, brackets, social media feeds, countdowns, and more. A free account is available.
To find more tools, check out Free Tech 4 Teachers, which has a great collection of recommended resources, tutorials, and tech reviews.
If you want to recommend a tool that has worked well for you, submit it via the Questions form available here.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse