Facilitating Discussion through Technology

With the Google Classroom Stream

My students love to comment on other students’ posts online. It gives them a voice, and an audience. I would use the Google Classroom stream to send announcements with open-ended discussion questions about the characters in their novel. Students could then use the comments feature to respond and take the discussion deeper.

Since my students just finished reading Holes, I would love to add an assignment in Google Classroom with a YouTube video clip from the movie to drive the discussion. Students can then leave comments on the assignment post. It’s a great way to get them to compare and contrast the novel and the movie.

With a Google Group

During our study of the political parties, I would set up a Q&A forum in Google Groups with political topics that are typically debated by the parties, like illegal immigration. Then students would be assigned to respond as their assigned party, and debate the issues.

An online debate on a hot topic like the death penalty is the perfect opportunity to use a Google Groups web forum. I would start off by assigning groups to each side of the argument, and then have them post discussion topics. This would allow us to have a threaded discussion to refer back to and use throughout the unit.

With Google Meet

I would love to give my students the opportunity to discuss their science projects with an expert in the field. Using Google Meet, we could connect with the expert through video chat and engage students in meaningful discussion with the expert about their experiments.