Google Classroom

As part of my first design experiment, I was asked to explore Google classroom and additional Google apps of choice. Coming from a higher education, community college setting to be specific, background my knowledge of Google classroom is very limited; therefore, I have posted a video compliments of YouTube that I used as a resource. Many community college institutions still rely heavily on IT departments to build shells for academia needs when it comes to learning managment systems.

Google classroom appears to be a learning platform able to be used with any device (Apple, Android, etc.) that helps make the classroom "green" or paperless and easier for the teacher and student to manage. By using Google classroom, teachers are able to share an unlimited amount of resources: documents, videos, links; communicate with students in real-time and set clear expectations by having all classroom material into an easily accessible folder on the Google drive.

In addition, Google classroom allows the teacher the flexibility to view all courses on the homepage as well as archive courses not being taught that semester.

Some challenges presented by using Google classroom include: the different viewing abilities between the student and the teacher and the inability to search Google drive for an assignment (teacher is only able to search within folders). If an English teacher wanted to incorporate Google apps within the classroom they would possible consider the following: hangouts, drawing, and docs.

Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts is a FREE shared video chat that allows a teacher and students (maximum of 10) the ability to use cellular data or WiFi for communication. An English teacher could use Google hangouts as part of a monthly review for book discussions. The initial discussion would be hosted via Google hangouts to give an overall review of the book and discuss any important information the teacher would like to cover.

Google Drawing

Google drawing will allow the students to work in groups to make an illustration recapping information learned from the monthly assigned book. By working collaboratively and being able to view edits in real-time, students will retain the information better. If need be, for assessment purposes the teacher can turn the created documents into PDF files and print for entry in to contests and institutional data needs.

Google Docs

To quiz the students knowledge on the subject matter, Google forms can be utilized. Through Google docs, the teacher is able to use forms to create interactive quizzes and test. While creating electronic forms are a plus, when it comes to classroom use not being able to randomize the test questions could be a challenge for teachers. Nevertheless, Google forms can save a teacher a lot of time because it automatically stores student feedback in a spreadsheet and computes the data.

Overall, I see institutions of higher education benefiting from the easy accessibility and financial aspect of incorporating Google classroom and apps in postsecondary education. Because I desire to build courses of my own in the near future future for leisure, I look forward to learning more about what all Google classroom and apps can do.

#photo