Happy Friday! Tonight I watched a session from the Elon Teaching and Learning Conference 2021 entitled “New Ways to Engage Students with Google Applications.” Denise Wilkinson, Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Innovative Teaching and Engaged Learning Center, Virginia Wesleyan University started by talking about how students embraced technology. However, this past year has stressed the need for teaching students effective ways to work with numerous different platforms. Wilkinson spoke about recommendations for online instruction based on the literature. Implementing student-centered learning can promote engagement and participation through the use of technology, and Wilkinson cited Morgan 2020. Wilkinson talked about how they used Google Applications. The first one was Jamboard, and Wilkinson creates a Jamboard and has students share ideas about the syllabus. Wilkinson also uses Jamboards for professional development activities with instructors. The next app that Wilkinson spoke about was the use of Google Slides, and how the use it to share information. The next Google App that Wilkinson shared is called Kami. I did not know about this app, and that the icon for apps is called the waffle icon. Participants use the text box. Next, Wilkinson demonstrated NearPod. I did not know NearPod could do quizzes! There were several intriguing features that NearPod has that I had not considered. During the questions session, Wilkinson compared Jamboard and Padlet as someone shared that they were not sure if video could be uploaded to Jamboard. Wilkinson has used Jamboard assignments asynchronously. I now want to explore Kami and learn about how Google is involved.
