Student collaboration in shared Google Slides

Google Slides

Google Slides | Monday, October 4, 2021

Student collaboration in shared Google Slides

Teamwork is a desirable job skill in today's economy. When we let students collaborate, we prepare them for the future! Here's how Google Slides can help.

Part of the reason social media has taken off so much are the connections. Seeing other people’s reaction to what you’ve shared. Learning from others.

We can get the same attraction when we do collaborative learning in the classroom.

Google Slides makes this possible. Really easy and quick, too.

By creating a slide presentation and sharing it with students, it creates a few really cool features:

  • A shared learning environment where everyone is doing their work together
  • A little piece of digital real estate for every student
  • An easy way to talk about what they’re creating and learning

How to create a shared Google Slides presentation

In the tutorial video below, I’ll show you step-by-step how to get started with shared Google Slides and some of the great things you can do with it:

  • Collaborative writing prompts (kind of like a blog)
  • Sharing research findings with the class
  • Creating something big together a little at a time

… and more! 

Want to skip to the part you want to see? Check out the video timestamps below:

1:30 — Step 1: Create a new slide presentation

2:20 — Step 2: Set the layout the way you want

2:35 — Step 3: Create slides for every student in the class

3:10 — Step 4: Share the presentation with students

4:00 — Ways to share the presentation with students

6:10 — Step 5: Have students get to work on their assignment

8:55 — Activity idea: Simple question/prompt

9:10 — Activity idea: Virtual manipulatives

10:15 — More ideas: Ads, billboards, graphic organizers and more

11:00 — Step 6: Add comments for student collaboration

13:15 — Tips for great student comments

16:30 — How to make sure every student in class gets comments

18:10 — Ninja trick 1: Use add-ons for more Slides functionality

21:00 — Ninja trick 2: Set background to make items un-moveable

24:30 — Ninja trick 3: Copy/paste groups of slides repeatedly

25:40 — Ninja trick 4: Stash useful images around the slide

tech like a pirate

Get the book on this subject!

Tech Like a PIRATE shares seven key ways to make learning with tech UNFORGETTABLE! You'll get practical ideas, downloadable templates, step-by-step tutorials and more. Your students will be engaged and begging for more!

10 collaborative Google Slides activities

Select a topic
Assign each student a slide number
Each student fills it with information they research
Download as eBook 

Done!

Shared by: Evan Mosier 

2. Vocabulary puzzles

Try taking vocabulary and turn it into a collaborative puzzle!

Then have students challenge each other within the collaborative presentation.


Shared by: Nate Ridgway

3. Design a virtual locker

Students will have a blast copying the blank locker image and decorating their own virtual locker on a separate slide. You can get the template and directions for how to use it here.


Shared by: Mandi Tolen

4. Introduce yourself

A simple yet effective way to get students working in a collaborative Google Slides presentation AND get a chance to know each other better. Get an example of the introduction activity here.


Shared by: Mandi Tolen

5. Among Us style game

Among us, an online sci-fi murder mystery game, is all the rage right now with students young and old. What better way to get students collaborating than with a fun and relevant game? 


Shared by: Laura Steinbrink

6. Board game

You can use Google Slides to create collaborative  board games for your students like this example shared by Nate.


And check out more board game templates from SlidesMania.


Shared byNate Ridgway

7. Virtual art gallery

This goes for any creative student work — poetry, video, visual art, etc. Display the work in a presentation (try this art gallery template from SlidesMania) via text, image or video. Share the presentation with permission for anyone to add comments, or embed a live version of the presentation in a website for others to see.

Shared by: Karly Moura

8. Cyber Sandwich

The Cyber Sandwich EduProtocol paired with articles on Fortnite and Minecraft is a low stress and fun way to introduce shared slides and work on best practices for collaboration online.


Learn about EduProtocols and get more templates in our post 10+ FREE EduProtocol templates + ideas for using them.

Shared by:John Hartmann

9. Worst Preso Ever

The Worst Preso Ever EduProtocol is a great way to get collaborating in Google Slides. Try pairing it with an activity like a visual learning selfie where students show how they learn best.

Shared by: Rayna Freedman

10. Amazon product list

Amazon's product pages are how we gather information and evaluate products with images, descriptions, categories, and ratings. Give each student their own page in this template where they can describe and critique objects, people, places, and more that they're studying with product pages.


Get more templates in this post 14 social media-inspired Google Slides templates

Shared by: Matt Miller

Helpful shared Google Slides collaboration tips from the #Ditchbook community.


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  • John Smith says:

    It would be help me can i share my googles slides also because I’ve create many

  • Teresa says:

    This video clarified the use of shared slides with me. I needed the ideas for making them more quickly too.

  • […] Create one slide presentation for your whole class. Each student gets a slide. Create a collaborative digital learning space! Click here to learn how! […]

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