I have had the pleasure of learning how to use Google Apps for Education in my classroom and school. Students have moved away from using word documents and are now going straight to their google drive and accessing a google doc. to write their reflections or responses when doing a project. The journey of bringing google to the classroom has been exciting, it started off with a Google Ed Summit, then I have moved into taking the modules to become a Educational Google Certified Trainer.
This year students had the opportunity to create their own road map of learning by delving into their passion by involving themselves in a project called Genius Hour. Using the power of Google Drive, students accessed either google presentations or documents and shared it with the teacher via their edu gmail accounts. Students were able to show their understanding of their passion whether it be creating their own cookbook and documenting recipes that were successful to building toothbrush powered robots that had their own little battle ring. Using their google drive accounts students were able to do a weekly reflection talking about what they have learned along with create a way of presenting it. The great part about this project is that these weekly reflections were shared via our edu accounts, so no paper was wasted and we could comment directly on their google doc. The ability to do formative assessment using our google drive accounts was something I never thought possible at the start of year. To top it all off, we even had students help create a google form to help assess their final product of their work.
I feel using google drive to work on projects like Genius Hour is meeting the needs of our students in both their learning and assessment. Our edu accounts have opened the doors for so many learning opportunities, we just need to hold on for the ride.
[https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/DrgqmKzdSRFfx--KpNQC-qoq9pmyo-u4BDNKBLLET3Yi2kL0RZQEielBrnwhUP_PAuSSxjOmhomK0hpFhr4R6RKWJUsDr_HAMJRq4r-S4SppT54zBkpwAMVU3QGHDK8Uew]
Shane Spriggs, wanna be tech geek, outdoor enthusiast, family man, and loves a good cup of coffee.