Digital tools are online resources that are available online. They can be accessed through websites, programs or even web browsers where information is shared. Educators can benefit from the use of such tools. Teachers in particular may make use of digital tools such as Google Slides and Slideshare. They make it easier for a teacher to execute their mandate more effectively. This paper will consider the benefit of these two resources to the teacher.
Google Slides
Purpose
The classroom today requires some level of interaction between the teacher and the student. The teacher's job may be made repetitive because of the number of similar queries that they must deal with. A digital tool that could keep records of the questions and their responses, would help the teacher to adress issues faster.
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Introduction
Google Slides is still digital tool that is used to create, edit, view and share presentations with others. The slides can be view on a phone set up or on a computer by downloading and app to one's preferred device. Individual slides can also be exported and imported in various file formats. They include JPEG, PPT, PDX, ODP and TXT (Trelease, 2016). Teachers can use Google Slides to present information to students and to other stakeholders in education.
Critical Evaluation
The Google Slides are suitable because they are easily available and accessible via an app. They can also be edited without much effort in order to add new information. The forum is beneficial in teacher to teacher interactions as well as it can be used to collect feedback and input. The owner or creator of the document may also allow or forbid users to edit the same presentation (Iftakhar, 2016).This is important in creating a wholistic document with sufficient information. This is also a suitable platform for peer interactions and team building.
Theoretical Links
Participatory culture can be enhanced in the classroom by incorporating the use of Google Slides (Jenkins, 2006). These can be availed as resource tools for older students. The interactions would enhance the teaching culture and also ensure that greater standards are applied and maintained. Moreover, over half of students acquire their extracurricular knowledge from the Internet (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007). It would be useful to incorporate Google Slides into the curriculum as a type of enhanced new form of creating literacy.
Suggestions for Use
Teachers can use Google Slides to link similar information to each other. This way, students can combine their work to each other. This can be useful in creating continuity for group and individual work (Price et al., 2015). The teacher will also be able to simplify presentations and evaluations by being able to access and compare all the information. Data collected over time may also be used to create an ebook that will lead to a comprehensive summary of the correspondence.
Slideshare
Purpose
Teachers have lacked a professional networking ground the serves their individual needs. This has led to a miscommunication which can only be solved by a platform that spreads information in real time.
Introduction
Slideshare allows users to share professional content privately or publicly ( Durovic et al., 2019). Professionals may use this digital tool to share content with individuals. They may also use the same platform to share information of public interest to a specific group of individuals in the professional pool.
Critical Evaluation
Teachers claims that Slideshare has been beneficial in connecting businesses to each other. The teachers can then be able to refer colleagues to service and product providers. Initially the service did not appeal to many because it was charging its users subscription fees. However, it ended all subscriptions and attracted greater clientele (Lange & Robertson, 2017). The tool helps its users to link and share information, which creates a useful network.
Theoretical Links
Digital tools such as Slideshare create the multimodality and control required in interactive learning (Beach, 2017). The learning experience has been enhanced for the educator because they can now use this mode of communication to exchange information and grow their knowledge base. Professional challenges can also be shared in an avenue that allows diverse views and opinions.
Suggestions for Use
Slideshare is a museum forum for teachers in team building and in networking. The digital tool can can be used to help teachers find information on issues affecting them (Purvis, 2015). For instance, a teacher needing resource material for special needs children can readily access the via links presented by other professionals. The teachers may also drive traffic to sites that advocate for better working conditions and teachers rights. These may create movements that are influential and large enough to make a difference.
Conclusion and comparison
Teachers and other stakeholders can benefit greatly from the adoption and application of digital tools. Google Slides is useful in that it can be edited and viewed by the number of people who are approved by the poster. It is beneficial to the education sector as it can continue growing even when new information is acquired. Google Slides has an overall advantage of being a resource center that an educator can access when they need to retrieve unchanging data. This differs slightly from Slideshare which only connects professionals. Slideshare also has a marketing advantage because one can trace who showed interest in their posts. This can lead to a mutually beneficial financial engagement. It also creates ideas for change and improvement. Slideshare may improve the strength of an educator but it cannot directly benefit the student. This factor makes Google Slides the better digital tool because it is benefits all the players.
References
Beach, R. (2017). How affordances of digital tool use foster critical literacy. In Global Conversations in Literacy Research (pp. 83-96). Routledge.
Davies, V. (2019). Kasey Bell’s 8 Great Ways to use Google Slides. The Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Retrieved from https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e322/
Durovic, G., Dlab, M. H., " Hoic-Bozic, N. (2019). Research on the use of Digital Tools by STEM Students at the University of Rijeka.
Iftakhar, S. (2016). Google classroom: what works and how?. Journal of Education and Social Sciences , 3 (1), 12-18.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century . John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, 5-7, 19-20, 3-4.
Knobel, M., " Lankshear, C. (Eds.). (2007). A new literacies sampler (Vol. 29). Peter Lang.
Lange, S., " Robertson, C. (2017). How is digital culture influencing your practice?. Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal , 2 (2), 139-143.
Price‐Dennis, D., Holmes, K. A., " Smith, E. (2015). Exploring digital literacy practices in an inclusive classroom. The Reading Teacher , 69 (2), 195-205.
Purvis,D. (2015). What, How, and Why to Use SlideShare. Comms Axis. Digital Intelligence Outcomes. Retrieved from https://www.commsaxis.com/what-how-and-why-to-use-slideshare/
Trelease, R. B. (2016). From chalkboard, slides, and paper to e‐learning: How computing technologies have transformed anatomical sciences education. Anatomical sciences education , 9 (6), 583-602.
