My wife teaches art and digital arts at a local high school. First semester she taught digital photography. She was introduced to google docs before school started. She immediately recognized this as a valuable tool for teaching.
Conveniently, she was teaching in a computer lab. She set up folders where she would post the worksheets and assignment sheet in view only formats for the students. The students would log on and have access to the folders that were shared. When absent, she would put the assignment for the day in the folder from our computer at home.
When finished with an assignment, students would post them on the shared folder, where she would grade and add comments. Students would also have access to the folders from any computer they were on. They also worked from home, adding images that they shot and downloaded during off school hours.
Alison also wrote the curriculum for the class and posted for other teachers so that they could see what she was teaching. They also added their projects. Our school used to use an outside service for our curriculum and it was the biggest pain to use. Google docs would be a great (and free) way to do this.
More school should consider switching to google docs (or equivalent). Check out the following link for more information http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7035.pdf.
This article gives the many positive aspects of using web based word processors and other programs. They would be centrally located on a students google ig webpage (our class has prescribed to this and I love it!). They would then have access to this anywhere they have access to a computer.
No more 'I lost my thumb drive', 'I left it at home', or 'cat threw up on it' excuses. Students could log on and print out their reports from their laptops, smart phones, ipods, or a desktop computer in the school.
This could have larger implications as more computer would be needed, and that would be a great subject for another blog...
Aaron,
ReplyDeleteI was never a big fan of google docs. I have been using a class wiki for my math classes for the past 2 years now. It seems to work pretty well. A lot of monitoring on my part, and it has its privacy issues. It does have the internal email messaging system.
Our district is in the process of rewriting curriculum to the new standards and my supervisor was looking for an easy way to break our dept up into groups to work on the classes. I suggested google docs and it seems to be working pretty well. It is indeed a great collaboration tool.
I'm a huge fan of google docs.
ReplyDeleteThere are several online tools that I use every day at work and couldn't survive without, Gmail/Google Calendar/Google Voice; Google Docs; Evernote; and Dropbox. With that simple set of tools I am able to go between work and home and wherever without ever needing to remember anything. As long as there is a web browser I have what I need and can get what I need done.
Sometimes I think people wonder about me only carrying my cell and a tiny notebook (3x5) with me but that's pretty much all I need to keep myself organized and able to work anywhere.
I didnt know much about these tools, but certainly see the reasons they work. My favorite excuse is - I left it at home on my jump drive or the dog ate my jump drive! HAHA I like the fact that you can access from anywhere. I hate emailing lesson plans to a fellow teacher to print for your sub because you get sick and are out on a Monday.
ReplyDeleteI am totally planning to use google docs as the main method of paper submission next year. I also think we are going to do at least a few writing conferences through it... I want to see what kinds of comments writers get when there isn't that face to face thing. Actually, I have a lot of trouble breaking kids out of their comfort zones a bit when it comes to sharing their writing. They are always willing to pair up with a best buddy but those aren't always the people that give good critical feedback.. I did writing conferences with a graduate writing class and I liked it ok. I prefer the face to face dynamic with strangers but I am a die-hard writer and most of my students aren't. Maybe googledocs will be the answer. Let me know how it goes for you!
ReplyDelete