collaborative slide exercise

In the middle of trying something new right now. Having just covered transcription/translation for my Bio101 class, I wanted to have a presentation about different proteins to highlight the diversity that exists in these molecules. What I decided to do was make a collaborative Google presentation which is Google's version of Powerpoint. I chose a bunch of cool proteins, added the names onto each slide and then "shared" the presentation with the students. They were then told to claim one of the protein slides and to add info and graphics on it.

One of the things I found neat was that there wasn't a single student who wasn't familiar with Google documents. They all knew how to access the documents and how to work with it.

One of the things I found fascinating was logging onto the presentation and seeing as many as 8-9 students working on their slides all at once. I didn't do it but technically I could have instant messaged them through the program at that point too

Technically you can export the Google presentation into Powerpoint, but they also have their own presentation player right in the software - just hit play and it plays on your screen just like Powerpoint. Tomorrow when I go to class that's exactly what I will do - no collating of slides or having people upload - because they all worked on it together at the same time. Very cool...

screenshot showing that 4 people were on editing at the same time