Student Created Digital BreakoutEDU....

Student-Created Digital BreakoutEDU....

Teaching students critical thinking skills is a struggle for teachers. Students are used to receiving information and repeating it, then moving on to the next set of information. To get students to dive in deeper and make connections is hard and time-consuming in the classroom. For the past year and a half, I have either created or used pre-made digital breakout with my students to help them learn critical thinking skills.

It dawned on me as I was teaching skills such as hyperlinking, uploading images, embedding, and just creating with digital tools that my students needed to be building digital breakouts. I am limited on the digital tools my students can use, either because they cost or the filter blocks them. SMORE is one of the tools that I use with my students. Using the free version of SMORE my students are limited to only creating three SMOREs.

My school is also a GAFE school (Google Apps for Education). SMORE is a simple way of learning how to upload images and learn to hyperlink. You can even embed a Google Form within SMORE. Before I had my students create their digital breakout in SMORE, I had them write a story and create a SMORE around their story. Giving them practice using the different options within the SMORE format.

Creating the Digital BreakoutEDU:

I placed students into groups with one student being the captain. The captain was in charge of the SMORE. Since students are limited to only being able to create three SMORES I had the captain create the digital breakout with their SMORE account. As a team, they had to devise a plan for sharing the information with the captain for it to be placed on the SMORE. The team was also required to document what role each person did in the creating of the SMORE.

The Requirements for the Digital BreakoutEDU:

• The captain had to obtain feedback from the team on the topic their digital breakout would be over. Then decide on the theme keeping the team's interest in mind.
• On the Google Form, they had to have 5 to 8 clues.
• I demonstrated how to set up the Google Form for it to work correctly for the digital breakout.
• Each link had to take the user to where a clue could be found.
• Each image had to relate to the digital breakout & provide a clue.
• If the Google Form needed a particular format such as a date or letters for a directional lock, then under the clue an example would be required.
• A story or scenario was needed on the SMORE to tie all the pieces together.

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