Google Presentations Creates Collaboration

Today was the final day for our students to work on their debate presentations.  Students will be debating about the effects that various groups of people (waterman, farmers, recreational boaters, ordinary citizens, and land developers) place on an ecosystem.  In this case, our model ecosystem is the Chesapeake Bay.  Our students have been preparing to challenge each other on many topics.  Within their presentation, they must state how their group negatively effects the bay, three solutions to their problem, and the pros & cons of their solution.  Lastly, they must also initiate trade-offs with other groups.  For example, if we fish less, your group will pay more for our fish.  The trade-offs are what will build our day two debate.

To create our presentations, students have been using (and loving) Google Presentation.  Google Presentation is Google's take on Microsoft PowerPoint.  Perhaps the best and worst part of Presentation is the lack of bells and whistles.  Students want more, but quickly realize they don't need more.  What they have in front of them is perfect.  

Google Presentation also allows our students to work in the cloud.  They can work on their presentation at home, in a car (assuming the device they are using connects to the 3G/4G network), in our school, or while on a vacation.  Today, one student even entered the presentation from his couch at home (because he was too sick to come to school).  Google Presentation can offer one thing, that Microsoft PowerPoint cannot touch: Collaboration.  Our students are beginning, without knowing it, to reap the benefits of working in collaborative groups.  Check some of the images from our collaborative work time today, below: