5 Google Drawing Ideas to Unleash Student Creativity

    If you're looking for ways to allow students to be more creative with technology (think our Bright Bytes goals and Iowa Core Curriculum Universal Constructs), here are some easy, foundational skill building ways using Google Drawing.  First, to create a Google Drawing, go to your Drive, click the red "New" or "Create" button, and find Google Drawing.

Here are some quick ideas:

1. Create an Avatar- students can import a picture (even their own) and modify it for cyber safety's sake.  Feel free to tie in art topics, and have students create a blog avatar using themes and ideas from cubism, impressionism, or another artistic concept.  The picture could then be used as an avatar for student blogs.  My humble attempt took about 5 minutes.


2. Create a logo- To increase the relevance, have students create logos.  I see teachers having students create logos for historical themes like American Revolutionaries did with concepts of liberty, freedom, and later with manifest destiny.  Students could also use design concepts to create logos for local businesses or school websites.  I created the Curriculum and Innovation header using Google Drawings, and this Favicon for the website:


3. Demonstrate your learning graphically- Google drawings can create mind maps, graphic organizers, and with some extension and scaffolding, infographics.  Alice Keeler, author of the blog Teacher Tech, has some excellent ideas here.




4. Build badges to Gamify your content- why not have students design the badges for your gamified curriculum?  Badges could also be shared among content areas.  Badges can be imported into spreadsheets and displayed on web pages.  Check our Google Apps Ninja website to see an example of this HERE.




5. App smash your original art with other apps to create powerful learning opportunities-  Students can create an original image, then import it into YouTube or Thinglink and annotate the image.  A secondary result from doing images this way is you eliminate (mostly) the worry about students using copyrighted images.  I created this Thinglink image from Google Drawings and used the embed code to add it to my blog:




Of course, there are a number of drawing apps and programs that have different features which may be better suited for your needs.  However, with so many schools using Google Apps for Education, the features of sharing, collaborating, commenting and importing, Google Drawings adds another level of ease for teachers, parents, and students.