Creativity Game with Google Slides - Why Did the Chicken...?

This post contains a link to the template you need to play this game, but you'll also want to see this one which explains how to run the game with your class.

Many of my most popular posts on this blog are the creativity games and exercises I created and shared about four years ago. I finally translated one of those into a Google Slides format, which I hope will allow more people to enjoy it.

When played as a classroom game, it allows 3 - 5 creative students to compete to make the best answers to random riddles. The class participates by voting on their favorite. I've seen middle school and high school students enjoy this game.

I also will list a few suggestions at the end of this post about other ways to use the activity, possibly with less time or allowing more students to create the fun answers.

First, here's the flow of the game when used with the whole class. 

1. Choose 3 to 5 students to be the contestants in the game. They should sit at the front of the room. They'll need either paper or a computer, depending on how you want them to share their riddle answers with you.
2. The teacher draws a random riddle as shown in the video below.
3. The contestants get two minutes to write their best answer to the riddle. Those answers and shared with the teacher.
4. The teacher reads the answers that were submitted and they are entered in the game slide.
5. The students in the class vote on the their favorite answer (using a classroom response system or possibly Google Forms).
6. Points are awarded to the contestants based on the number of votes they received.
7. Steps 2 - 6 are repeated three or four times, then scores are totaled to determine a winner.

Here is the Google Slides presentation that you'll need to play this game or to do any of the activities listed below.

Click to have a copy of the Google Slides presentation added to your Google Drive. 

Video Overview

This 4 minute video shows the basics of creating the random riddles and playing the game with a class.

Tips and suggestions for other ways to use the activity

• Have some things to show the class while the students write their random riddles. 
• It's easy to change some of the words that I have in the game, or you can just add a few. Pick things from your school, like your football team or the cafeteria. If you're feeling brave, put your name in the mix! This gives students a chance to practice being funny while still being respectful.
• Have the other students write riddle answers too. After the vote, have some of them share their answers if they want.
• If you don't want to devote much class time to the game, just generate a random riddle at the end of class and have all students answer it for homework. You can select your top 5 and have them vote on the best one as a warm-up in a later class.
• Be sure to read my post about creativity exercises that can be used before playing this game.

Game Design for Any Subject, Google Apps and More - Top Posts of 2015

2015 was an exciting year for helping teachers beyond my local district! In this post I will list some of the top tips, activities and resources from this blog over the past 12 months.

First, just a thought about my other blog. I love sharing resources and tips here at CG&T, but my heart has been in at my Teaching Like an Artist blog. I had a great year with some conferences, inspirational posts and even a book (digital and print). Be sure to check out my top posts there and consider following that work in 2016!

Now on to the great resources that got the most attention this year…
I ran a few PD sessions in the summer and these popular tips and tipsheets were a result:

• 4 Tipsheets for Navigating Google Classroom
• Updated and compiled resources for making comics using Google Slides
• Part of the above resources, but great to highlight on it's own - How to create comics using just the Google Slides app on your favorite mobile device

Here's an important post that introduces teachers to 10 simple, free tools for showing off any project (even non-tech projects) beyond the classroom. They range from simple to more involved.

I developed these two methods for making a narrated slideshow presentation using just a Chromebook.

• This simpler way uses Google Slides and SnagIt. (This hasn't yet been a "top post", but it is a great option that goes with this often requested presentation method.)
• This more involved method was my guest post on Free Tech for Teachers in June!

And these are my favorite quick tips from the year:

• How to record an audio "podcast" quickly and easily on a Chromebook using Twisted Wave
• Marking up images with a Chromebook and Google Drawings
• Two fast, simple tools for adding text to images

New Game Design Resources
Any teacher knows students today love games and many of them want to make games. I posted two popular series about creating games design this year. These are both non-digital game activities.

This first one is a “make a game in an hour” activity that I’ve done with designers. I started with a big picture look at what I and others have learned from making games.

Game Design in the Classroom - What I learned, what others learned, the "game jam" style activity and thoughts on developing and publishing

Later in the year I created this series, which one designer called a “baby step” into game design. All the resources are created in Google Docs for easy modification and sharing with students. It’s a flexible introduction to making games that integrates with many subjects. The flow of the project is...

• Learn the basic game
• Modify the game by adding a theme and possibly other rules
• Test the games
• Reflect on the process (This step is the key to tying it all together with your course content.)

Also new in 2015, I created this Game Design Page as a convenient place to find all my best classroom game design resources.

Game Design Exploration Part 4 - Reflection

This is the fourth part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

_________________

This final stage of the project can be the most important, as it requires students to reflect upon what they learned about the lesson topic for your course as well as game design. In it each student Students will complete the document at the link below. 

Do not give students the document until they worked through Parts 1 - 3 of the activity (each easily accessible at the links above). That means they should have created a game based on Roll-n-Flip, tested it and played at least one game created by another group before they try to answer the questions. 

If you modified the activity in Parts 1 - 3 of the project, you might have to change the questions in the document to fit what your students experienced.

Through reflection, students should gain deeper insights from the activity. Their responses also provide you with a look at what they've learned about the lesson topic. That can be used to guide followup instruction or class discussion.

The reflection questions in the document come in three parts:

• The activity itself
• The game design process
• The lesson topic and how they connected elements of it to their game theme

You can find the Game Design Exploration Reflection Sheet here.

Game Design Exploration - Part 3 - Testing the Games

This is the third part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

_________________

The importance of playtesting and revision - the iterative process in game design

This testing and revision stage of the game design process is essential. It can be fun and rewarding or sometimes very frustrating! It's often the heart of the creation process and it will probably take more time than all other parts combined.

Being so important, students need to see it. With limited class time, though, it is likely you will use it in this activity only provide some exposure to the concepts and a chance to have fun with the designs. Tell students it is important when making any type of game, but remind them to really test and improve their game they'd need to work on it a lot outside of class.

Keeping that in mind, tweak the following outline and resources to fit your needs.

Is everyone ready to proceed?

If a class is working through this design activity, at this point each group of students should have redesigned the simple Roll-n-Flip game. At the very least they should have done the following. (All of this is explained in the second post in this series.)

• Chosen a theme for their game based on the topic studied in class
• Created a title for their game
• Written a short introduction about the game
• Redesigned the 11 cards and changed them on the template found in Part 2 of this series

Optionally, the groups might have designed additional rules and components for their game.

Make the games.

When all the parts above are complete, groups should print and cut out any cards or components they need to play their games. It's best to print the cards on cardstock or at least the thickest paper possible.

Each group also needs at least one die. They need tokens for a pawn and chips too, but a template in Part 2 provided components they could cut from paper if those tokens were not available. 

If the groups added rules for additional cards or components, all of those pieces need to be printed and cut out or gathered as well.

Depending on how much time you want the class to devote to this playtesting experience, groups could make two or more copies of their game so multiple groups could play them at once.

Groups test their own games

Game designers often play their own games first, just to see if the creations even work at all. At this stage, each group should play their game at least once.

After playing, students should discuss these questions:

• Did the game work as we intended?
• Did we find anything (good or bad) that we didn't expect?
• How much do we think other groups will enjoy our game?
• What changes could we make to improve the game?

Depending on how much time you have for this design exploration, students could rework their cards. Simple changes might be handwritten right on the cards. Significant changes might require students to actually alter the cards in the original Google Drawings they made in Part 2 of this activity.Of course, that would require them to print and cut out more components.

If time doesn't allow a students to make all the changes they want to, remind them that they can improve the game as much as they want on their own.

Groups test a game designed by another group

For this part of the activity, each group will play at least one other group's game. Ideally this will be "blind playtesting", meaning the groups will play the games without additional assistance from the game designers.

The game components should already be created by now. Game introductions and possibly new rules need to be printed (or shared through Google Drive) so groups have everything they need to learn and play the games.

Along with these materials, give each group a copy of this Game Playtesting Sheet. It provides questions for before and after playing the game. 

Additional considerations

• Give the groups time in class to read and discuss the Game Playtesting Sheets that test groups filled out for their game.
• Groups could test games from more than one group if possible.
• Students could take their games home and have other people play them to get more opinions.
• Have a class discussion (possibly virtually) at the end of this stage so you and the students can look for patterns on what worked best in the games.
• It would be ideal to get test groups from a class that did not go through the design process themselves. In other words, they would likely be unfamiliar even with Roll-n-Flip, so the whole experience would be new to them. This requires the designers to put a lot more work into their rules.

In the next post (and final stage of the activity) students will reflect on their game designs and the design process.

Classroom Game Design Exploration - Part 2

Recent Update:  There's now a link at the end of the post to some sample student games and tips I learned from playing with them.

This is the second part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

__________

Photo by Mark Strozler

Considering Theme in Game Design

For students to understand this part of the game design exploration, they need to think about the concept of theme. If working with an entire class, you could lead a discussion using these ideas here. Students could provide other examples from game they are familiar with. 

The basic game of Roll-n-Flip (which you should have played in part 1 of this series) has no theme. It's not about anything other than getting chips.

Many other very popular games do not have a theme. Think of Checkers or many card games like Bridge or Hearts. Players are just playing with the components within the game's rules, hoping to win. We sometimes call these abstract games.

Photo by Jon Ross

But in other games like Monopoly or Risk have a theme. It's like a story, in a way. More or less, players are pretending to be doing something other than playing with cards and plastic. The themes are selling property and fighting battles to take over the world. In games with strong themes, the card text and the artwork all serve to remind players of that theme.

It's also important to notice that the rules also should support the theme. The rules of Monopoly are not exactly like buying and selling property in real life, but there are obvious similarities. For example, when you put some new buildings on a property it increases in value. In Risk, a bigger army has a better chance of taking over a smaller army. We expect the rules to support the theme.

For this stage of the game design project, students will design the cards of Roll-n-Flip so it has a theme.

Examples of Themes for the Roll-n-Flip Game

I have already created two other games based on the Roll-n-Flip game. Those games have themes and they are: 

• The Game of Christmas Cheer
• All Around Mackinac Island

The themes of those games are apparent from their titles, their boxes and the text on all of the cards. As you might guess, the first one is about Christmas. The second is based on a popular tourist spot in my home state of Michigan.

To make sure players remember the theme on every roll of the die, we don't refer to the chips as "chips". In the Christmas game, they are called "cheer" and we call them "fun" in our Mackinac game. 

Likewise, the cards don't have generic names like the ones I used in Roll-n-Flip. Instead, the Christmas game has "Stressed Out" in place of the Mix-Up card. The graphic on that one shows a person who obviously is overwhelmed with the holidays.

In the Mackinac game, I made that card "Tourist Rush", since a busy day on the island can be a hectic experience.

Really good things also are found in the cards' names. One card is "The True Meaning of Christmas", for example, and it can bring in a lot of chips (cheer) for a player. And in my other game, the best card is Fudge. That's because everyone who visits Mackinac Island knows about the popular fudge shops.

__________________________

Adding a Theme to Roll-n-Flip

After discussing themes in games and looking at the examples above, it's time for students to add a theme to Roll-n-Flip. The theme will be based on the lesson topic they've studied in class. 

The special Game Design Planning Sheet linked below will guide them through the process. Here are some things to keep in mind before assigning the planning sheet:

• The students will choose a theme that's related to your topic. The lesson might be about a book they just read, like The Outsiders, or maybe it will be about a historical event like the U.S. Civil War. While they could use those entire topics as the theme, they also could choose a specific part of those topics. For example, they might focus on a climatic scene of the book or a particularly interesting battle of the war.
• The planning sheet will require them to name each card as something from their theme and to rename the chips. 
• The document has a link to the components for Roll-n-Flip in a Google Drawing. If students click it, they will get a copy of that Drawing. They can type their changes onto the cards and print a copy of the game.
• There are optional ideas listed on the second page of the planning sheet for a more advanced re-design of the Roll-n-Flip game. Use them as appropriate for the age of your students and the needs of this project.

Click here to access the Game Design Planning Sheet.

And click here to see my post that includes some samples from games the students made.

Simple Game for the Classroom and Explorations in Game Design

This is the first part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

____________

How to Play Roll-n-Flip

This is a simple game of chance and pressing your luck. Played with these simple rules, it could entertain students in ages 8 - 12. Remember that the goal of the project is to entertain your students, but to redesign this game. Older students would play it so they can fully understand the basic game first. They'll see it can easily be modified to be more enjoyable by older players.

This video (just under three minutes) is probably the best way to see how the game works. 

After watching the video, read the full rules.

In order to play, you will need these components for each set (which works for 2 - 5 players):

• This Google Drawing contains the cards for the game. Ideally you'd print this on card stock, but paper will work if necessary. Cut those 11 cards out.
• 10 chips per player - These can be poker chips, bingo chips, plastic coins or any small tokens.
• 1 Six-sided die
• 1 Pawn - This can be any small piece as long as players won't confuse it with their chips.

If you can't find chips and a pawn, this Google Drawing has some squares you can cut out for these purposes. (Ignore the additional cards on that template for now.)

Coming soon: Tips for redesigning the game for use in many subjects

How to Create an Audio Recording on a Chromebook Using Twisted Wave

I created this short tutorial to show students how to record "podcasts" on a Chromebook. We used Twisted Wave to record, edit and save their audio skits as mp3 files. Twisted Wave can be installed on the Chromebooks as an app or the students can just go to TwistedWave.com.

If the students have Google Apps for Education accounts, it makes it very easy to sign in and save their files to Google Drive. From there it can be shared with others or turned in through Google Classroom.

I was very impressed with the ease of this process. Students who wrote and practiced their scripts ahead of time finished their short recordings in about 10 minutes. Those who remembered doing similar projects with Audacity in the past agreed this was much simpler. (Though Audacity is an excellent tool for multi-track projects.)

We did run into a few bumps using the process outlined below.

• It seemed to freeze more often if students opened the recorder in full screen. I suggest keeping it in a smaller window as shown in the tutorial.
• When the recorder did freeze, closing and reloading seemed to solve the problem. No one reported that their file was lost. It autosaves frequently.
• Sometimes it wouldn't properly load the window asking for permission to access the microphone on the Chromebook. This stumped me and some students at first, but eventually the recording window would show up with a small icon in the upper right. By clicking that, I was able to grant access and complete the activity.

Updated Comics with Google Tools Resources

Last week I presented at GoogleFest 2015 in Lansing, Michigan. I showed a packed room of teachers how I use Google Drawings and Google Slides to create comics from photos. Now it's easier than ever when using the Slides mobile app.

Some pictures and thoughts were tweeted out about the session. You can follow everything about the conference using #migooglefest. Here's one attendee's comic frame using a picture we took in the session:

Just finished a day of Google PD with 5 other Brownell Broncos #migooglefest pic.twitter.com/3qw1Z9XOwE

— Bob Abel (@BobAbelWLGeek) September 21, 2015

I updated the resources on my comics site, which you can find here. Most of the updates were just in the presentation itself, but I changed some links and added some notes. The site contains information about using the comics in classroom creativity games too.

As always, I started the session off with a big picture look at the importance of creativity in learning.

Google Boot Camp and Updated Comic Resources

This week I spent two days at the Genesee ISD for their Google Boot Camp. I presented a session on using Drawings and Slides to create comics.

I also taught a group how to make narrated slideshows using Slides and WeVideo.

There were a lot of great ideas shared. As always, the best and most lasting benefits will be the connections we made with other passionate, innovative educators.

If you want to follow the hashtag on Twitter, it was #gisdcamp15. You'll find several good people to follow there.

All my resources are at these two sites:

• Creative Comics - I updated the presentation and included new information about the improved Slides app.
• Narrated Slideshows

And many other presenters shared their resources on this page.

If you found this post helpful you might also want to see:

• Tips for Chromebook basics
• How to capture and Mark Up Images with a Chromebook
• Google Apps Tutorials - Summer PD from 2014

How to use the Google Slides mobile app to make comics from real life photos

A lot of teachers have been using my process for creating comics with Google tools. I was thrilled to find it can now be easily done using the Slides mobile app! The best part of this is now you can bring in the real world pictures very easily.

If you haven't seen the general process and possible final products, you can read all about it on this page from my Education On Air presentation from a few weeks ago.

That process starts on a Chromebook or a computer and it uses either Google Drawings or Slides.

Now you can start in the Slides mobile app. I did this on an iPad, but the Android app will be similar.

First, start a new Slides presentation.

On a blank slide, click the + sign and select Image.

Choose to get the image From Photos or From Camera. Notice that if you use the camera, this is an amazingly simple way to immediately bring the real world into your creations!

Crop, resize and move the image as necessary.

To add comic elements, click the + again and select Shape this time.

Select Callouts and scroll down to the three comic elements. Choose the one you want.

From there, it's just a matter of placing the thought or word bubble, dragging the point to the character who is speaking or thinking and then entering the text. Here's my sample taken from a game I was playing with my son.

A few things to consider:

• While the tools are easy to use on the app, you might prefer to just use the app to bring the pictures into the Slides presentation. Then you (and any collaborators) can open that presentation on a Chromebook or computer for easy editing. 
• See my two-minute tutorial on creating the comics using a computer. The first steps are now replaced by the import process above, but the rest of the video shows the details of adding and editing the comic elements.
• You can change the background color of the slides by editing the presentation on a computer or Chromebook at any time.
• See the Projects page of my website for possible end products we make such as PDFs, virtual books or videos.

Join me May 9 for Creating Comics with Google Tools

I'll be presenting in a free Google for Education conference, Education on Air, at noon (EST) on May 9.

I'll show some very creative and practical tools for creating comics in projects for any class or subject. It's an often overlooked, flexible presentation tool students love. We'll also take some time to talk about creativity in school and I'll share how to use the comic tools in fun creativity games for the classroom.

You can join my event here.

More information about the Education on Air conference (with tons of presentations from people more talented than me) is here.

Follow me on Twitter to keep up with more information as the date approaches.

How to Create a Narrated Slideshow on a Chromebook Using Google Slides and WeVideo

I've had a few teachers ask for a project somewhere between a PowerPoint presentation and a full blown video project. I have been suggesting what I call a narrated slideshow and I made a tutorial to show them how to do it on a Chromebook.

This process uses Google Slides and WeVideo. I really like how the whole thing can be done on one device.

I recently updated the final video below to include:

• Correct terminology for the final step in WeVideo.
• Steps showing how to turn it in through Google Classroom.

Some of these steps are specific to the Chromebook, but the great thing about these tools is that you can use them on any computer as long as you have a microphone.

First, here's an example of what I mean by a narrated slideshow:


In part 1 I show a brief overview of creating the presentation and how to download the slides as image files.



In the second stage I show how to import the images into WeVideo and how to build the video presentation. (WeVideo was recently updated, so some screens won't be identical to what you see in this video.)



In Part 3 I explain how to record your narration. (WeVideo was recently updated. It looks like they fixed the problem I refer to in the video about showing the preview while recording.)


In this final step I show how to finalize the project as a video saved in WeVideo and Google Drive. I also show how to turn it in through Classroom.

Note: Be aware that the free version of WeVideo is limited to how many minutes of video you can export each month. If the students keep these under five minutes there shouldn't be a problem, but they need to be sure their work is as good as possible before exporting. Multiple exports of even short videos could end up exceeding the limit on free accounts.


Note about first four videos above:
The first four videos were recorded on a Chromebook. I normally make my video lessons on a PC with Camtasia. Here I used the SnagIt Chrome app and extension. I edited in WeVideo (using some premium features as part of a free month trial). I am happy with the results using the free tools, but they are not as polished as other tutorials I have created.

Comic Assignment with Google Drawings

Back in April I posted about using Google Drawings to make comics. Since then, I've had a chance to use it in a couple settings. Below I'm linking to the latest assignment I created for our high school Digital Media class.

First, here's the outline:

• We took pictures of two students who posed with a few emotions.
• The pictures were uploaded to a shared Google Drive folder where students could access them.
• The rest of the class looked at the pictures and planned their original stories.
• Using the process shown in a video tutorial, students added word bubbles and thought bubbles to make comics.

You can view a copy of the assignment here. It has a link in the assignment to the shared folder of pictures and the video tutorial.

Follow-up assignments will show the students how to turn the images into an ebook and a video version of their stories. Those additional steps will appear here on the blog after we use them in class.

The Tutorial

If you want to see the video tutorial that shows how to create the comics, it's here. Note that this was for our students, so I refer to the teacher by name in one part. If you're using it in class, just explain your students would share it with you.

Google Tools for Teachers - Virtual summer PD, because tech waits for no one

Our high school is getting Chromebooks this fall, so I have been doing weekly technology professional development sessions for any teachers that want to get a jump on learning. The Google Apps for Education domain in our district will be new to them, so I made a series of videos, pointed out some existing tutorials and suggested practice that should take about 15 - 30 minutes for each session.

The videos I made have some content related specifically to our domain, but the features will work the same way with any Google account. The only difference is we restrict sharing to only accounts within our domain. If your admin doesn't restrict it or if you just have a standard Google account, you won't have the same limitations that I refer to at some points.

Here are the sessions:

Session 1:  Overview of Drive

Session 2:  Creating, editing and commenting on Google Docs (This session has a document to use for exercises, but it's only shared in our domain. You can use this copy of the document instead when you get to that part.)

Session 3:  Creating and posting assignments (I use Edmodo as the example, but the process will be similar for any classroom management system you use.)

Session 4:  Using Forms for feedback and assessment

Session 5:  Google Slides overview

Session 6:  Google Calendar overview (This one is based exclusively on videos from others sources.)

Session 7:  Making a simple website with Google Sites

Session 8:  Chrome Apps and Extensions for Education

Session 9:  Chromebook basics

Comments and feedback are very welcome so I can improve this series.

Using Google Drawings for Comic Creation

I was reminded recently that Google Drawings has Callouts in the shapes of speech and thought bubbles. Used in conjunction with the app on a mobile device, this makes a great tool for collaborative comic creation.

I put together this quick sample using a few pictures I had on my iPad from a PD day in our district. Ideally the pictures would be of actors or maybe toys or other objects set up according to a script.

Here's the process:
1)  Take pictures of the actors or objects for the comic. You could draw these on paper and take pictures or make them in a graphics program too.

2)  Upload the pictures to Google Drive using the app (if using a mobile device) or with the computer (if you created them in a graphics program on a computer).

3)  Using a computer, create a new Drawing in Google Drive. Share it with anyone who will be working on the same project.

4)  Set the background color.

5)  Add each picture and edit/arrange them. I found this order worked best overall. You'd repeat this for each frame of your comic on the page:

• Import the picture.
• Crop it with the crop tool.
• Resize it as necessary.
• Set the line width and color if you want borders.
• Move it to the correct place.
• Add the Callouts from the Object dropdown. You'll see speech bubbles in a few shapes and a thought bubble. 

• "Draw" the speech or thought bubble on your picture. 
• Drag the "tail" of it to the person talking or thinking.
• Type the text in the speech or thought bubble(s).
• Resize and move the bubble and text as necessary.

6)  Add any other text boxes or text to the Drawing.

7)  Download as a jpg image and share with others if necessary.

8)  Copy or import the image file into a shared Google Document. There it can be a page of a book made up of a series of such pages/images. You could put it in a Google Presentation too if it's more likely to be displayed that way.