I thought I would start off by giving a little bit of my background. In 2008, I was chosen to attend the Google Teachers Academy in Chicago which was also the first year of Google Apps in Prince George's County. I have enjoyed being a Google Certified Teacher so much I went ahead and went through the process of becoming a Google Apps EDU Certified Trainer. The reason for mentioning all of this is that I LOVE Google Apps and there may be a little non-biased opinions in this entry.Google Docs have all of the best qualities of wikis. You can collaborate on any Google Docs, just like wikis, by sharing. Not everything you work on you want to make into a web site and Google Docs solves that problem.
Unlike wikis, Google Docs has more options when it comes to privacy settings. A Doc can be private, shared with a few, or published on the web. Through each of those options there are view, edit, or own options to grant the new users. The best part is that all of the options can be changed within seconds. This makes true collaboration a lot easier than wikis.
Now for a real life example... Our school is working on new professional development models for next year. The administration and I shared a Google Form to create a survey on the comfort level of teachers in different areas: co-teaching, technology, Webb's Depth of Knowledge, etc. At first I created all of the questions in private mode. When I was done, I gave editing rights to the administration in case they wanted to add or modify questions. After changes, I used the public link to share with staff so they could take the survey, but not view the results. Results are instant and Google has a nice summary of responses feature. All of this will be applied to our school improvement plan. This whole process was a lot faster than the traditional paper method.
Using Google Docs in the classroom is a little trickier since students don't have access to Google Docs yet (fingers crossed for the Fall middle school roll out). There is an option where any one with the link to the Google Doc can edit, but this has issues. You cannot track revisions back to individual students, so docs can be sabotaged (Revision History is wonderful in these situations). It also makes it hard to use other features like discussions and comments. I do use Google Docs as a storage area for students to upload projects they are working on. I set up an account for each grade level and change the passwords between assignments as a work around to the system. Setting up collections makes grading and archiving student work a breeze.
Did I mention I LOVE Google Apps?
I would really like to know how you feel about Google Apps!!!! LOL! I can't wait until our students have access to Google Docs and would be willing to bet that you feel the same. As for being biased, you provide reasons for feeling as you do and they are all valid, so there is definitely no need for concern.
ReplyDeleteOur school has used Google Docs as part of the School Improvement Plan process before and I must say it is much more efficient in time and resources than the old method where each member on the team had their own copy of the School Improvement Book. Oops, I mean plan.
I must also say that I love how you always add "just the right" picture to your blog!
I love your enthusiasm surrounding Google Apps. When I was reading the required documents, I was not excited. Reading your blog got me excited. It's like real world application. you also made it much easier to understand. Should have read your post before I created mine. lol
ReplyDeleteBefore reading your post, I was not feeling very excited about Google Docs. I thought wikis seemed like a much easier option and could not find a good reason to even think about Google docs. However, I must admit, after reading your explanation of what can really be done in Google docs, I am more likely to begin playing. Before, I saw all of the applications as overwhelming without really knowing where to start. But with the ideas you provided, I now have some direction.
ReplyDeleteWell, this part of the class was easy for you! I also feel that Google Docs is limited for students because I have sued it with fellow teachers, but never can really find the right way to use it with the class. I am glad I am not alone in that thinking. I guess the elementary schools will be last in the roll out, so we will have to wait our turn :(
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of the great feedback!
ReplyDeleteThank you, first, for sharing all of the information that you did about Google docs (don't you just love all of the info that you can get your hands on & data crunch with the forms?)but also for your idea as a work-around with the grade level accounts and changing passwords. I like that and plan to attempt to try it out with at least one group of Library students next year.
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