Six Ideas to Get Started with Genially

Sponsored by Genially, Opinions are my own

Last year I had the chance to check out Genially with my Spanish classes and was amazed at what they created! There are so many digital tools available for educators to use in the classroom that knowing where to start can be difficult. When it comes to tools like Genially, we just need to provide enough to get our students started and then take it as an opportunity to learn with, and more importantly, from them.

Giving students choices in how to share their learning is important. With presentation tools that offer a variety of media options and choices in templates, we can get started right away in our classrooms without losing much time at all. As a language teacher, I’m always looking for more authentic and meaningful ways for my students to build their language skills in a way that meets their interests and needs while also fostering the development of essential SEL skills that will best prepare them for the future.

Bringing in technology and providing time for students to explore the options and create on their own helps to spark curiosity for learning and boosts student engagement. An added bonus is that we can learn more about our students from the personalized and unique choices they make as they create. I learned a lot from my students’ presentations and they gave me some new ideas to try using Genially!

What is Genially?

Genially is a versatile and interactive platform that can be used to create so many different projects and multimedia presentations. For just a few ideas, use it for creating a class website, making choice boards, school flyers, interactive images, digital portfolios, class and school newsletters, multimedia presentations, storybooks and more! You can even upload one of your PowerPoints and turn it into an interactive Genially presentation with sound, hyperlinks, and social media buttons. Want to boost student engagement? Try some of the templates for bringing gamification to your classroom through digital breakouts and escape rooms! Whether you start from scratch or choose from a ready-made template, Genially has something for everyone! And it’s free to use and has premium options to choose from too.

Creating is fun!

Last year, I first made my own presentation by choosing from the many Genially templates available, all of which are visually engaging and of course, make it easy to get started right away. In Spanish III, students were learning about narrating in the past tense, which can be difficult. I had used some fairy tales and fables they were familiar with to help them to understand the differences. Then I wrote a quick story and used Genially to bring it to life.

Rather than show students exactly how to use Genially, I shared my project with them and let them explore on their own. Genially is easy to use and it gives students the chance to build their digital skills and create a more authentic and meaningful project. Once they wrote their own stories, they had fun bringing their characters and stories to life through animations, audio, colorful backgrounds, different characters, GIFS, and more!

Here is one of their creations using many of the Genially features. Being able to share it with classmates and use audio boosted their engagement and definitely enhanced their learning experiences with using the past tense for narration!

Create a more interactive lesson for students by adding icons to each page or even hot spots, which are similar to some other tools out there like Round.me or even Thinglink.

What I noticed right away is how Genially really enables you to bring your presentation to life. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on it, adding a variety of visual effects with transitions between the pages of your presentation. You can add videos, social media links, or even 3D images. I love that students and educators can find exactly what they need to create something amazing with Genially.

For anywhere learning

Want to promote collaboration? No problem. You can collaborate with other educators or give students the space to work together on a project. When students collaborate, it promotes the development of essential SEL skills such as self- awareness, social awareness and relationships building. Especially as we’re working in transitioning learning environments, having a space for students to collaborate and create together makes a difference. Choose from more than 1200 templates in 12 different categories, with hundreds of additional resources available including figures, icons, illustrations, figures, and so much more. The fun part is learning from your students as they create!

The possibilities

There are so many ways to use a tool like Genially. When I think about the possibilities for my classroom, my students create many types of content throughout the year. Whether they make infographics, introduce themselves in an About Me or design a resume, create a health poster, make a family scrapbook or create a brochure for a school club, these are just a few of the ideas we can bring into our classrooms.

Explore the Jumanlly game!

Here are six more ideas to start with:

Digital Portfolios – great for students for building SEL!
Gamification – choose from templates for digital breakouts, or try Jumanlly!
Infographics – newsletters and brochures
Interactive Lessons – boost student engagement! Check out this example
Quizzes – interactive quizzes! Check out this one on Salvador Dalí
Timelines – interactive timelines to narrate events, a student’s life experiences, retell a story or correctly sequence events. Here is a great example

Check out this great Breakout!

Interactive Lessons – so many possibilities!

Dalï interactive quiz

Students can create a brochure, newsletter or a travel ad and use templates available to get started right away. My Spanish I students were creating menus and loved checking out the possibilities for adding in images of food and places to their projects. Students loved creating with Genially and being able to include so much in one beautiful and animated presentation. I love that I have these new resources to share with students and other educators.

Interactive timeline! So many possibilities to explore and have fun creating.

Explore this template here!

If you are looking for ideas, start with the templates on the Genially site. I have been planning to have students create announcements, timelines or anything that they choose to design as a way to share their learning.