A current technology that has emerged within the last few years that is currently shaping the learning and the productive in my school district is Google Apps for Education (i.e. Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Forms, etc.). As my school district has moved into a 1:1 technology environment with (ipads and Dell tablets) the benefits of Google’s cloud computing and their collaborative features in their products has truly begun to elevate the learning experience in our classes. Google Drive allows teachers and student to not only store files within the cloud thus taking away the purchasing of jump drives (Google Drive is free) but those files and folders can also be shared with one another, decreasing the paper trail often found in traditional classrooms. Another way this technology has elevated the learning experience is the seamless capability of fostering collaboration. Almost every Google App/Tool has the ability to not only share that product with one another, but to also work together in that platform at the same time on different devices. So students are able to write on the same document, work on the same presentation, make calculations from the same spreadsheet, but from their own devices. This has made numerous elements of our classes more collaborative and helps the teacher promote and support group structures and 21st Century Skills.
Since the technology does require internet access, the lack of that access or schools with low available bandwidth could be a challenge with this technology. Also, the technology has stiff competition from Microsoft Office programs therefore resistance from teachers may arise trying to understand the applications of the program. Though Google Docs can be used as a word processor it has stronger applications as a collaborative learning tool.
In a world where 21st Century Skills are more and more becoming a focus, the effective use of technology within the learning experience helps support those skills. This technology can also help improve the learning opportunities in the classroom by fostering collaborative work. This technology can also help teachers by allowing them innovative tools for collecting student progress data more easily. With tools like Google Sheets and Google Forms, teachers are able to quickly collect student data by completing these forms and that data can then be used to tailor the learning to the needs of the students at those vital moments.
Much of the possible pitfalls this technology could face lies in the digital divide. Since much of the programming and features built into Google drive requires an internet connection, those without one will not be able to truly benefit from the features of the technology. Google has already begun to address this issue by creating the ability to work offline on drive documents and have them update when it reconnects.
Link to website with more information on Google Edu: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Link to website with more information on Google Edu: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Great post, Danny! I am a big fan and advocate for using Google Apps for educational collaborations (for both students and teachers). My school hosts an annual math competition for high schools within our state, and one of the biggest setbacks was scoring the exams, compiling those scores into a spreadsheet or database, and then determining the awards based on that information. We have always prided ourselves in scoring the contest exam and announcing results within 1.5 hours of the completion of the exam. This past year I convinced the faculty to use Google Apps to enter our spreadsheet info because it would allow faculty and staff from several different computers to enter scores at the same time in the same document. Some were skeptical (but not for long). We finished in record time. It was awesome! I had not heard that an offline feature was in the works. That's a great idea!
ReplyDeleteDanny, Like zedtek, I have used Google Docs to quickly score and share result during drill team competitions. Using the offline option provides a great tool for those occasions where the internet is not available. Google focus on creating collaborative resources provide instructors with options to encourage peer learning. In the 1:1 environment in your school district, how have you help instructors learn to use these tools? Great post.
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