Using Google Apps in Education

This was my first year teaching 5th grade and prior to 5th, I had taught 3rd grade. My use of technology with my students was limited to a Promethean Board for whole group lessons, Kidblog on the class desk tops, and student testing on lap tops. I had done little beyond those things mostly because it seemed overwhelming and time consuming to get the students going and on board.

At the beginning of this school year, I was introduced to our new technology integration specialist. One of the first things he told me was that one of his goals was to help teachers go paperless. This sounded like a fantasy idea - one that sounded great in theory but would never be possible in a real classroom. He then began to share stories with me about his own classroom and how he went completely paperless. Suddenly, I was intrigued by this being a real possibility. Since then, I have learned a lot and most of the school year, writing assignments became paperless for my class. 

Google Apps are my favorite digital tools to use. Last year, my school district had decided to use Google Apps but changed their mind and went with a Office 365 instead. I was bummed because Google Apps seem to be much more user friendly. I continued to use Google Apps for my personal use and for teacher resources and only used the OneDrive strictly with my students and for collaborating with colleagues at school. The concept was very similar to Google Apps but again, not as user friendly (in my honest opinion). 

Google Apps are available for free just by signing up for a Google account. They offer a variety of different apps like drive, documents, blogger, and Gmail. Each of these could very easily be used in the classroom and begin that paperless classroom process.

Teachers, students, administrators and other school staff could get a free Gmail account. Then they could very easily not only communicate through email but also share folders and documents saved to their Google Drive. Students could complete assignments using Google documents and save these to a folder that has already been shared with their teacher. The teacher would then be able to access that folder in his/her personal Google Drive. Assignments can be pulled up on the computer, graded, and feedback emailed back to the student. NO PAPER! This is just one example of how it could be used in the classroom.

Teachers and administrators could also share folders and documents in the same way. It would give an easy access point to locate important files quickly. This is a great way to collaborate with one another. 

I love using Google Apps and use Google Drive for all my teacher resources files. I have even been able to share with other colleagues who have personal Gmail accounts. I can easily organize my files and save things without worry of corrupted files (that can happy with flashdrives) or computers crashing. One of the best parts is that you have access to these files from anywhere on any computer.

I created a technology survey for my grad class using Google Apps. The survey was very easy to create and the results are easy to access. The results can be viewed in the form of a spreadsheet as shown below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1luP6qD6i5y527rGjQ7r0etsXOFp0Pg4Yjor1M_Rkyes/edit#gid=1637885216