Check out Genially!

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Genially has been on my list of tools to check out for quite some time and I finally made it a point to get started.

As a language teacher, I love giving my students a lot of different choices for creating with the language to not only help them to build their language skills but also technology skills and also promote digital citizenship. For each level of Spanish, I often provide multiple digital options for students to explore so they can find something that sparks curiosity for learning. I’m always excited to learn from the students based on all of the unique choices they make for creating something that is of interest to them.

Where to begin

I started with Genially by choosing using one of the Genially templates that caught my attention. All of the templates available are very visually engaging and make it so easy to get started. I used the inspiration in the template to write a quick story and added some extras so that I could show my Spanish II and III students what a presentation might look like. I knew that they would be excited to try Genially, especially after their responses to seeing my story brought to life with the vibrant and colorful backgrounds, animations, GIFS, characters and more!

The first project was for students in Spanish III to create a book describing their childhood or write a fairytale. When I provide choices in platforms, they always include tools we’ve used in the past and one that is new, especially one that I want to learn more about. That’s when I brought in Genially.

What is Genially?

For anyone who doesn’t know, Genially is quite a versatile and interactive platform to create pretty much anything that you might want for your classroom. Use it to create choice boards (next on my list!), interactive images, presentations, and even digital escape rooms There are so many options for what can be added into your presentation like sound, hyperlinks, social media buttons and so much more. The best thing about it is that there are so many ready-made templates and options to choose from that it is easy and quick to get started.

What I think is so awesome about Genially is you can use it to create a class website, a newsletter, a book, a flyer, and so much more. You can add icons to each page and make it more interactive by adding in hot spots similar to some other tools out there like Round.me or even Thinglink.

What makes it really beautiful and a standout when it comes to presentations are the choices that you have with animations that enable you to bring your presentation to life. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on it, adding a variety of visual effects with transitions between the pages of your presentation. You can add videos, social media links, or even 3D images to your presentation. I love that students and educators can find exactly what they need to create something amazing with Genially.

Great for hybrid and fully virtual learning

Genially is collaborative so you can work with other educators or have students work together on the same project. Especially as we are working through challenging times with learning environments, having a space for students to collaborate and create makes a difference. You can choose from more than 1200 templates in 12 different categories, with hundreds of additional resources available including illustrations, figures, icons and so much more.

When I think about the possibilities for my classroom, my students have opportunities to create so many types of content throughout the year. Whether they make infographics for project-based learning, introduce themselves in an About Me, create a health poster, design a family scrapbook or create a flyer for a school club, these are just a few of them many ways that we use presentation tools and especially interactive presentation tools in our classroom.

Beyond my initial purpose for trying this amazing tool, I discovered that I can do a lot within one space! Create infographics, lessons, posters, presentations, quizzes, social posts, and even use it for gamification!

Students in my Spanish II class had to create a travel ad or brochure for travel to a Spanish speaking country and also write a postcard as though they took the trip. Students loved creating with Genially and being able to include so much in one beautiful presentation. I love that I have these new resources to share with students and other educators.

If you are looking for ideas, start with the templates on the Genially site. I have been planning to have students create announcements, timelines or anything that they choose to design as a way to share their learning.

Click here to try Genially for free!

A great choice for all educators, give students a chance to create!

Something else that I thought was pretty awesome was when I learned about collaboration between Genially and Flipgrid. It’s easy to find different topics available in Flipgrid’s Discovery library to get started quickly and what is also so helpful is that you can reuse the different genealogy presentations available and then make it your own.

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Looking for a new book to read? Many stories from educators, two student chapters, and a student-designed cover for In Other Words.

Originally published at http://rdene915.com on March 1, 2021.