In the quest for finding the most effective way to deliver the same 'diet' to both the students at home and the students in the classroom, I stumbled upon this google slides add on which may just be the game changer we have been looking for. Not only does it deliver on the holy grail of the perfect blended lesson; the added workload in creating the blended learning sessions is minimal. As a novice user of this app, it takes me on average 5 minutes to modify my existing teacher-led lessons to create an experience for home learners comparable with being in the classroom. In addition, I am able to monitor the responses of remote learners and provide valuable feedback at the click of a button. - Jenny McLardy
The video opposite demonstrates how to edit an existing google slides lesson with Pear Deck. On the slides where I would question the students in the classroom, I clicked on 'text' to insert a text box for students to share their answers. As you can see, it took me under 4 minutes to modify my existing lesson this way. Once done, I selected the 'Student Led' option which generated a link for students working from home to access the presentation. When I want to deliver the same presentation to the class, I would select presenter mode. The students in front of me will then answer the same questions in exactly the same format as the students at home. Voila - blended learning.
This video shows you the lesson from the students' point of view (hopefully they are more articulate in their answers than me!) Both students at home and in lesson will see the same, regardless of when they view the lesson.
And finally, here is where you access the students' responses if they are completing the student led activity at home. Whilst you can access the responses of the students in your classroom there and then on your presentation (this makes for great discussion by the way); in order to access the home learners' responses you need to log into your pear deck account on peardeck.com - this video guides you through this process.