Technology has transformed the field of education and Google has forever changed technology. Therefore, it can be concluded that Google has revolutionized the way we learn, right? Maybe not just yet, but it is trying to do so.
Technology in Fairfax County Schools
The implementation of Google products into classrooms was first seen in some select schools in Fairfax County last year, but is now a full-fledged movement across the entire school district. With BYOD (bring your own device) in full swing, teachers at every level, elementary, middle, and high school, are being urged to use Google Apps for Education in their classrooms. And it’s not just Fairfax County, that is making this switch. Other school districts and universities (e.g. Georgetown) are also using Google Apps for Education across the board. Additionally, both Montgomery County Public Schools and DCPS have considered switching to Google Apps for Education (Montgomery County chose Office 360 due to cost, DCPS is still deciding).
In a nutshell, Google Apps for Education are seemingly flowing into classrooms across the nation, and I personally wouldn’t be surprised if they become the norm within 5 years. But what exactly is Google Apps for Education and how will it be used in the classroom? In this blog I will explain how to use Google Apps, how it will be used in the classroom, and how you can use it to keep your child more organized, efficient, and make homework time a breeze.
Over the past several years, Google has designed a TON of applications to help make life easier for everyone. Many of these apps are secondary to the main two: Google Docs and Google Cal. I will be talking about these secondary applications in future blog posts, but for now we are going to focus on the two main ones.
Let’s start with Google Docs/Drive. Short and sweet, Google Drive is basically your “My Documents” folder on the internet. It allows you to store text documents, spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations, PDFs, images, and pretty much every other type of file with access to these files wherever you go. You might be thinking, “ok, so it’s basically dropbox/evernote/icloud/any other cloud-based software out there.” But really it’s a lot more than that because it also integrates Google Docs.
Google Docs
Google Docs allows you to create a text document (it has a similar display as Microsoft Word), spreadsheet, Powerpoint presentation, or drawing. It also allows you to share these documents with anyone. But the best part of Google Docs is that the person that you share the document with can view, edit, work on, and add comments to the document while you are also working on it. This means that rather than emailing a file back and forth, creating 17 different versions of a file, students can all work on one document at one time. It also is constantly saving, meaning that a document is not lost entirely if the computer crashes. For the visual learners out there, check out the video below to understand what I mean.
So what does Google Apps mean for students, and how can you use it to make life easier? Well, first things first, Google Drive/Docs get rid of the excuse for students “I left it on my computer at home”. With everything in the cloud, students can easily share their documents with their teacher, classmates, a tutor, or a parent and receive instant feedback. Teachers can easily grade work, and parents or tutors can easily check to see how far a student is on a project or provide valuable feedback.
Google Docs also makes group project nightmares a thing of the past. One of my least favorite things about working on group projects in school was when you were stuck working with the non-contributor. My natural Type-A personality just takes over and I always end up compensating for that person’s lack of contribution. It was always a sore subject, and since it happened so much, I usually preferred to work alone. But, collaboration is increasingly becoming an important school and many teachers are no longer giving students the option to work independently. So, how does Google Doc help encourage the students who prefer to do nothing in the project participate while giving credit where credit is due to the active group members? Well, because it is a collaborative software, Google keeps a running record of every change made by every person editing the document throughout its history. Therefore, a teacher can easily open that tab and see who was making the changes.
Because Google Drive is in the cloud and students can access it from any device, it automatically makes their life more organized by putting everything in one place. The collaborative aspect of the application also makes it easy for students to work with one another on their time without having to coordinate a group meeting. Lastly, it allows teachers, tutors, and parents the opportunity to provide feedback on students work from wherever they are. All the student has to do is press the blue “share button” in the top right corner.
Google Calendar
Another application being utilized by a number of teachers is Google Calendar. I have loved and used Google Calendar since college and I still use it regularly. Like Google Docs, Google Cal takes a basic idea and makes it organized, easy to use, and collaborative. Teachers can create a class calendar at the beginning of the year, with every major test, assignment, field trip, and any other important events on the calendar, and share it with their students. The students can sync this calendar with all of their devices allowing them to have an agenda a the tip of their finger tips.
At home, parents can use this application to create family calendars, allowing the whole family to be on one page. Students can add to these calendars, so if Billy’s lacrosse game gets moved, he can change it so that his Mom and Dad’s calendar is changed too. Students can also create calendars that break down assignments and share them with parents or teachers. Research proves, that when students break down large assignments into small, manageable chunks, they are much more likely to finish the assignment ahead of time.
Google Drive and Google Calendar, allows students access to all of their information wherever they may be and allows them to share this information with those around them. To get started with Google Docs, students just need to log in to their FCPS Google sign in and parents simply need to create a free Google Account.
Next blog, I will touch on some of Google’s secondary applications which help to make learning fun and interactive!