Slide Docs & Audiobooks

This book was created with the intent to print to standard size paper from a copy machine. The purpose was to have teachers examine different models of implementing the #observeme protocol, and to create a model that would fit our needs. There are places where teachers will need to access links to articles and videos, so I added QR codes to be scanned from their Chromebooks. The thinking behind this decision was that I wanted teachers to be able to have the reflection questions in the printed book viewable while they explored resources, and for teachers to be able to jot down notes as they examined the articles and videos.

To create this type of booklet you just have to change the page set-up of your slide deck-like this:

My example was for teachers, but this same use of slides could be applied to creating a parent or student handbook. Imagine the paper you would save by sharing your school's student or parent handbook in a digital format! These Slide Docs can be printed or downloaded as a PDF.

I've also used this strategy to create a yearbook for my class. I made the slide deck and inserted images from my drive, then shared it with the class through Google classroom as "students can edit" and they wrote up captions to go with the pictures. If you take pictures throughout the year, why not save them to a folder in your drive (I call my folder Yearbook) and share that folder with students? Then you can save yourself even more time by allowing students to choose and insert photos in the shared Yearbook slide deck.

Students can also create their own books and if they read each page, recording with screencastify, they can have their own audio-book.

EdTech Team has created an add-on for Google Slides that makes adding audio files to Slides easier. If you are creating a story in Google Docs Story Speaker is another great tool for creating an audiobook.