7-4 Blog: Google Apps
In your Blogger blog, reflect on the use of Google Apps in schools with students as well as professional development with other educators.Visit my Google Glog
I remember sitting in a faculty meeting when our IT support asked for faculty volunteers to participate in using Gmail, and some other "interesting new ways of publishing" in the classroom. I volunteered, and began switching from a classroom using Microsoft Word to Google Docs. Many of my peers laughed, stating that there was no possibility that a freeware publishing platform was going to bypass the gold standard of Word. I laughed a few years later as the school switched over to Gmail for the entire school and started to prepare the faculty and staff of the the plan to phase out Office and introduce Google Apps and Moodle as the new classroom standards.
One of the more effective developments I have seen for teachers and students using Google Apps is the development of ePortfolios. Google Apps have allowed learners of all ages and levels to utilize ePortfolios as storage, workplace, and showcase in one simple and free platform.
The options for collaboration using different Google Apps is amazing. I have seen teachers and students share Docs with commenting and editing privileges to provide feedback with highly effective and timely feedback. I have watched students collaborate on slide show presentations in the classroom together, and then working separately but in real time together at home, because of the almost universal access. Creating quick classroom quizzes with Forms can help teachers stay alert to the pulse of the classroom.
For some new users, the concept of sharing and collaborating online with these and other tools is exciting and inspiring. My son, age 9, started writing stories and building drawings with his friends using Google Docs and Drawings this winter, just because they thought it would be cool to start working together online. To me, that is a great reflection on the future of young students embracing technology.
As Google continues to strengthen, develop, and offer more tools, I hope that many more educators and schools systems invest time into these resources. These tools, or ones similar in nature, are used for many small businesses, and personal use; it only make good sense to prepare our students for using these too.
FYI - A quick search will help anyone to see new and fun ways to include the Apps daily. Ask the Gooru shared some great tips back in October:
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