Google Classroom & Google Docs Review

This week my class was working on earning their tech licenses. In the computer lab they all logged in to Google Classroom and were able to open their separate documents and go through the list with their computer buddy. The assignment for Tech Licenses is a lot of tasks that make students learn how to use Google Docs, and the Google Classroom. The Tech Tools in this lesson were the Google Docs and Google Classroom features and I think that most Google products are user friendly. I believe the first and most important assessment to use for tech tools is to determine if it is something that you will enjoy using or not. If you are frustrated by technology and have trouble using the tool; odd are you will not use it very often. The Google Classroom makes it so that all students assignments (which are on Google Docs) are sent to one folder on the teacher’s version. The teacher can review all the student’s work together and there is no possibility of losing one student’s papers or spilling coffee on them as I remember frequently happening in my elementary school days. The teacher can easily give all the students a document with instructions and ensure all students will have it later because they cannot misplace it. I think that Google Docs are great for young students to start using when they need to write up reports or anything because it automatically saves their work for them in a place they can easily get back to. For students that go to after school programs or have separated parents, their work is accessible with just a couple clicks. The students are learning how to use these tools as a part of their Tech Licenses assignment, but the majority of the class can figure out what to do just by reading the buttons in Google Classroom and Google Docs. I would say these are exceptionally User Friendly tech tools.

Collaboration is necessary in education and unfortunately many tools do not lend themselves to collaboration. The cool thing about Google applications such as Docs is that the student can work on the doc and share it with another person and they can work on it at the same time either sitting next to each other or miles apart. The Google Classroom allows students to collaborate with the teacher and their peers in the same way.

Google Docs and Google Classroom can be used effectively to assess student’s work. When students submit assignments the teacher can immediately look at their work and see what was a challenge and what was easy for the student. The teacher can leave comments to help the student and can send immediate feedback so that students can change or revise their work before turning in “final drafts.” Google Classroom also shows the teacher very clearly how many students turned in the assignments. This is an assessment before even opening the documents.

Purpose of the tech tools is key to how a teacher can use it. If the purpose of a tool is to help students learn how to create documents and share information it should be accessible from multiple devices (computer, cell phone, tablet) and have features to help students track their growth. One of the cool things that I like about Google Docs is that you can review past drafts. When I was writing my thesis paper for my Bachelor’s program I discovered this feature. It was a lifesaver for me. I was able to restore older drafts and print them out for my portfolio to show my professor my growth. I also was able to retrieve parts of my drafts that I had deleted and rework them into my final paper. To my knowledge Microsoft Word, doesn't have a similar feature.

As for my final criteria for evaluating a tech tool, Google Docs and Google Classroom do not have much new to offer for Teacher Management.

一Hey four out of five is pretty good!