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In addition to taking the 23 Things course, I opted to take 2 more online courses this summer to help me implement technology in my classroom. One of them, which I completed last month, was ALL about Google Apps! Many of these things I already knew how to do, but learning how to use them in my classroom is pretty valuable!!
In the course, we created newsletters, spreadsheets/rubrics, slideshow presentations, forms, and even drawings to show/label the different regions of Texas! I can truly see how using Google Docs in the classroom would be highly successful! It allows students to pull up work from any class and make changes, without needing the hard copy physically in their hands. Something like this can really eliminate any need for paper! Save a tree!
One way that I MOSTLY excited about using Google Docs in my room is when we are writing. Students can draft in Google Docs and share it with me... I can revise, edit, and offer suggestions for change right within the document. This is amazing to me... one of the things I really struggled with last year was finding time to conference with all 31 kids in a 50-minute class period on their individual writing. With Google Docs, I can add comments from the comfort of my couch and they can see the suggestions the next day when they log on, or from home if they are doing it for homework! This will also work well for peer revisions... they can share the document with their peers who can offer suggestions of their own! I love that we can accomplish all of this without 3 written copies of drafts and various colored highlighters... just the computer!
The only thing I did find is that perhaps my version of Word is a little more sophisticated on my personal computer than the one in Google Docs. I uploaded a newsletter that I had made, and it took away quite a bit of my formatting. I had to go through and mess with it quite a bit until I was satisfied with the overall look. In my opinion, though, that's a small concession considering the other ways I can use Google Docs to my advantage!
What an informative post. I am a Google Docs novice, so I wish I had taken that course. I know my daughter does most of her homework on there, which is accessible at school. As usual, she makes it look easy without taking a course!!! Technology Natives!!!
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