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A Digital Breakout is just like an escape room, except on your computer! Students use Google Sites and Google Forms to unlock their way through a series of academic activities. A digital escape room helps make the skills and content you are teaching more attractive, and therefore, more memorable!
Student Engagement!
10
Before we learn how to make a Digital Breakout, let’s first try a quick one out.
Type in the link below (works best on a computer):
LET’S TRY IT!
First, make a new Google Site.
Start off by writing your prompt! A great Escape Room will have a fun backstory to hook the reader. Students love themes. They can be based on a holiday, season, topic, place, or idea.
By the end, your site should have:
☑ A theme
☑ An introduction story
☑ A form to input all of the clues
☑ A picture where your links will be ‘hidden’
What locks will you be using? When you create your clues later, the answers can be in the following format:
Next, you will want to decide on how many clues you’d like. Determine how many and what kind (number, word, color, directional, etc.) of clues you want.
Then, create all of your clues. Some are in �Google Forms, Docs, Jigsaw Planet, etc. You �can keep all of these in a folder in your �Google Drive so everything is together.
If you need some inspiration for types of clues you can create, click here!
In this step, you will create an interactive image in Google Drawing. Open a new Google Drawing and begin creating your scene. Try to find an image of a room or a specific scene so you can hide the clues.
To hide clues, insert a small square. Link the clue to this square, then hide it somewhere in the scene. When you’re satisfied, change the square to transparent. The link is still clickable, but �it is invisible!
Now that your clues are all created, you will create the form that your students will input all of their clues into!
Tie it all together! Return to your website and �add in your Locks Form and your hidden clue drawing.
CHECK YOUR �SHARE SETTINGS
TEST IT OUT
IT WILL BE CHALLENGING
Make sure you click ‘SHARE’ on anything you create through Google (forms, clues, etc.) and click "get shareable link," then change the settings to "anyone with the link can view."
When you’re done, test it out! I like to try out the Escape Room in an Incognito window to see if there are any areas that need work.
It takes some time to create, and it also takes some time for your students to complete. However, the end result and student engagement will be phenomenal!
Some ideas:
* = created for and used by my second graders this year!
Certificate of Completion
Use any remaining time to begin planning out your own digital breakout!