Who would have thought that a single application could do so much for elementary students? Throughout this school year, I’ve worked with teachers to guide students in using Google Slides to make presentations about something they are learning. The results have been amazing.

Making slides is an incredible learning tool. It’s a creative outlet where they can make something that teaches others, and reinforces things they’ve learned. But best of all, it encourages children to ask questions, do their own research, and make something of their own from scratch. This isn’t just about producing content, it’s about giving children the opportunity to be inspired and to inspire others.

Students at Penn Manor can make slides by logging in to Google drive and clicking on “New” → “Google Slides”.

For our video project in 6th grade at LeTort, we used Inkscape to make titles and slides. Inkscape is an open source illustration tool that is surprisingly powerful. Some open source graphics programs are ages behind equivalent Adobe products, but Inkscape is an exception.

Students learned how to create interesting overlays and titles in Inkscape that they will use for their current video project. Computer illustration uses vector graphics. Unlike a photo, vector graphics use points and geometry to draw lines and shapes. Graphics made in vector are infinitely scalable. Below is a title slide that one of the students is working on. Notice the controls they have for choosing colors, size, and direction.

Learning illustration will be a very valuable tool for these students for many future projects in middle school, high school, and beyond. It’s exciting to see their ability to jump in and start creating content like this so quickly.