Using Google Apps in the Classroom

I am in need of some practical applications for these tools. I think if I can give my teachers some ideas as to how to work these tools into their lessons it would start the ball rolling.

Anything...no matter how small, will help. Right now they just think I gave the kids emails.

I am working in a middle school...6th - 8th grades.

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Permalink Reply by Allison Hart on April 6, 2010 at 8:44pm

For what age group? Upper elem, grade 5 in particular has been doing all sorts of small group research projects, each member contributing slides to their shared presentation, every class has a site, and any gDoc can be embedded in it to share with parents and classmates.

It's great for the writing process at any level; using the "revision history" and sharing to collaborate with a peer editor. Helps focus on content instead of "bells and whistles" A general rule; use GDocs to work on CONTENT (esp. if you want to work WITH someone) but if you need to "polish" or "publish" (print) it, then download it and use Office...

Permalink Reply by Jan Mars on April 7, 2010 at 7:48am

Sorry, I forgot to mention I am working in a middle school, 6-8th grades. Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Penny Hildinger on April 7, 2010 at 5:41am

What age group are you working with?

Permalink Reply by Jan Mars on April 7, 2010 at 7:48am

Sorry, I forgot to mention I am working in a middle school, 6-8th grades. Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Roger Nevin on April 7, 2010 at 6:44am

Hi,

We have been Google Apps in my school (adamscott.ca) since Feb. 2008.

Here is a link to the project

Here is a link to the first assignment and rubrics I give students to start off.

Google Apps is well worth it. Both students and teachers have really embraced it.

FYI

Roger

Permalink Reply by Vicki Reid on May 1, 2010 at 10:20pm

This was great I am using your project to present to teachers in a staff development class on web 2.0 tools!

Permalink Reply by Anne Jeschke on April 7, 2010 at 7:06am

For special education students another option is to have parents or sped teachers added to student projects as collaborators or viewers so they can monitor, offer support to students. This could be done for collaborative or individual work.

Google Docs can be used as a revision tool, students create a doc, then others can be added and offer comments for revision.

Google calendar can be used to post assignments, deadlines, attach scoring guides or project descriptions to keep students and parents on track.

Permalink Reply by Neal McQuaid on April 27, 2010 at 5:14pm

Don't know if it's of help, but I've been using the Google Docs form systems to do survey with kids of all ages (11-18) to assess how they found each module. the Head of Department is fascinated by how easily it can be used to gather ideas and opinions (survey only takes about 10 minutes to setup, and pupils can complete it in less than 5).

I also supply powerpoint presentations to pupils so they can access them from home using Google Docs (less cumbersome than the VLE system that is in place).

hope those help!

Permalink Reply by Roger Nevin on April 27, 2010 at 6:26pm

We have been using Google Apps in my grade 7-12 school since Feb 2008 adamscott.ca. It has changed the school. We use it in all subject areas. With students we find it best to start with Docs then move to Sites.

See
http://sites.google.com/a/adamscott.ca/www/google-apps-netbooks

and

getgoogleapps.com

Permalink Reply by Kristin Tarnas on May 22, 2010 at 8:23pm

I have been using Google Apps in my fifth grade class this year with great success beyond novelty. We have created fact and opinion documents together on research subjects (all 22 kids at once on separate computers-cool!). I have used forms extensively from peer feedback on projects to parent questionnaires. We also built Google website as a collaborative project. I also found it useful for individuals to use the document app so that their work was available at home and school no matter what computer they were working on (as long as they had web access). Due to their age and the newness of Google Apps in my school, I had one account for the class and we all used that account. having separate accounts would make it even more rich and smooth to use! Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Lee Alvin Beamon, Jr. on June 28, 2010 at 6:36am

I am currently looking to get involved with using Google Apps and will be following any developments posting anything new I find.

Permalink Reply by Doug Hinko on July 12, 2010 at 5:17pm

This are great tools... I got some good ideas. Thank you. One question, so if you are not technically allowed to have a Google/Gmail account until the age of 13, how do you cope or work around this?

Thanks!
Doug