Google's Technology Curriculum

It's not often that you get a robocall and act immediately on it. A couple of weeks ago, I got a robocall from DonorsChoose.org about a partnership they had with Google. They were trying to entice teachers to try some of the Google Applied Digital Skills curriculum, and if teachers tried it, they would receive a gift code to use on a DonorsChoose.org grant. Well, I took a look at the materials and found that Google has an extensive curriculum that allows kids to learn, through video tutorial and guided practice, many technology skills that they will need later in life. I was sold (as if that was even going to be a question). The next day, we embarked on our journey into Digital Adventure Stories.

The kids wrote adventure stories using Google Slides. They were able to import photos and videos in to enhance their text. They also learned how to link slides so that the reader could choose the pathway of the story. For example, if given two characters to follow, a reader could click on a character's link and just follow that character through the story. Kids learned how to create pathways of slides so that various story lines were possible. It was interesting to watch the kids try to map out the different avenues the stories could take while matching up the link to the appropriate slide. While all of this complex planning and thinking was occurring, the kids still had to create good stories.

On the instruction page of the Google curriculum, it said that this learning should take 2-3 hours. Well, our kids took longer. My kiddos averaged four hours in this activity partly because they were learning some new skills and also because they had to think through all of the possibilities. Some experienced paralysis by analysis.

When kids filled out the accompanying survey, they overwhelmingly said that they liked the unit. They liked using Google Slides and many thought of other uses for the app. Anytime I use technology in class, the kids are overwhelmingly positive about it because they don't get much exposure to technology in school and they value the new skills that they are learning. I constantly stress to them the value of digital literacy. They are learning and I think they are gaining new appreciation for what we are trying to do in class. Not only do they learn to read, write, speak, and think better, but also to do all of those things in a digital environment.