Who is really working with her/his class in google docs?

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Permalink Reply by John Sowash on March 18, 2010 at 6:37pm

Alfredo, you need to jump in with the Google Certified Teacher group. These are educators who are doing absolutely amazing things with Google Apps. The best way to connect with them is via Twitter. We are using the hashtag #GCT. There is almost a constant stream of ideas, links, and examples of ways Google tools are being used in the classroom. Here are the blogs of some of the GCT's that I think are doing great stuff:

Joel Zehring: http://joelzehring.edublogs.org/
Kern Kelly: http://thetechcurve.blogspot.com/
Daniel Rezac: http://www.drezac.com/

You can also follow my shared items on Google Reader. I frequently share ideas related to Google in the clasroom that I pick up from the blogs I read.

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Permalink Reply by Alfredo Tifi on March 19, 2010 at 5:09am

Thank you John. I have tried to hashtag #GCT# in a try tweet in twitter, then I became a follower of joelz/google-educators' list. I'm not sure I did really jump in that GCT group. Hope so. I'm not very skilled in using twitter technology.
My institute has a google Apps domain, but my colleagues are not going to use it and students have not yet had personal accounts in it. So my daily esperience is limited to the sharing of documents with my own students. They and me use personal google accounts to share, review, solve problems and different kind of assignments.
What I'm really searching is for people who use these tools to extend the interaction with students out of schooltime as I do, and to find ideas for practices - that I haven't thought yet - in coordinating such activities.
If there are some high schools where this kind of teaching support is wanted at an institutional level and is not only a matter of individual choice. So my concern is more on the class - uses of the tool, than on the tool itself.

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on March 18, 2010 at 8:54pm

I just started out with Google Docs and my ELLs this spring. I have A LOT to learn, but through this trial and error period, I hope to be in a better position in the fall. I will be given a day off to spend with a teacher in our district who has been successfully doing it for 2 years. I am excited at the thought of less paper to wade through:)

I had no idea how limited my students were in technology until I asked them who had emails. No hands went up. This process has becoming a major learning experience for next year...start at ground zero. I want to present on this topic at CUE (Computer Using Educators) in Santa Rosa, CA in November.

Please share your experiences here:) I will share mine as long as you understand that I am a newbie at this and will probably do things that with your background, you would know better not to do--hahaha--humor intended:)

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com

www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

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Permalink Reply by Alfredo Tifi on March 19, 2010 at 5:40am

Thank you for reply Denise.
ELL is for English Language Learning?
Italian students too don't use emails because they don't really need it to communicate anything. SMS, Facebook and MSN are the most preferred technologies they use for sending "signals", but these "signals" are not to communicate concepts or to really collaborate on something (and not absolutely to collalboratively study for some assignments). Students jargon - basic language - is completely separated from standard written language (the one we are using here, independently of the tongue, Italian or English) so they have only very limited understanding of teaching subjects (as we woud be completey foreign if we live in their slang).
With these remarks we can explain the reason why technology don't solve the difficulties in understanding the standard written language and the logical structures in it, that many students manifest in approaching the shared documents in google or in any other platform. So we should be aware of this in devicing best practices in the use of google collaborative tools. Mind, that the "better" communication that you can use orally at school is very very deceptive if the subject you teach is made of concepts and logical structures. So I prefer to enhance the use of written communication, and find ways to use google docs as an help.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony VonBank on March 19, 2010 at 7:42am

I love it so much I do a blog about it! I use it just about daily!

teachingwithgoogledocs.blogspot.com

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Permalink Reply by Alfredo Tifi on March 19, 2010 at 1:26pm

Great!!!
That was the masterpiece: "DO NOT scare them with the whole "Microsoft will soon quit making Office because everything will be online." Some people find a lot of comfort in Microsoft Excel, and you don't want to disturb that."

Can you gimme some published page of google presentations or google documents collaboratively created by your students?

Mine are on www.divini.net/chimica, central upper part

Alfredo

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