I’ve been saying for so long that I should check out Google Docs & figure out how I can use them with my students. Why, oh why, did it take me so long>
In setting up my new class blog for 2010 I’ve decided to use Google Docs to post my week’s Word study words & tasks, to post our Lifestyle Homework grid, to gather information from parents, such as Contact details, and to see what books my students are reading. Gathering contact details in this way is so much more efficient than having piles of paper coming into the class at different times. Not to mention the ones that don’t even complete the journey but get lost somewhere between the house and the classroom!
We’ve decided, at school, that we will do the Student Technology Audit from the government Cybersmart website. Printing this up for about 120 students seemed like an awful waste of paper – plus, who was going to collate it all? Google forms to the rescue! I just used the survey as a base and then emailed the link to the survey to al of the students. It even looks good! All I have to do now is wait and watch the results come in – oh, and hope that they do get collated!
I can see lots of opportunities for using this in class. We could even get the students to create their own surveys and embed them on our class blog, or even their own blogs.
I’ve been a big fan of G Docs for a long time. It steadily improves and offers more functionality.
I, too, am a fan of Google Docs and can’t stop talking with others about how much more efficient I am with my work! One thing I do have to get better at is using the folders and the organization system so that when I open it I know where to look for older documents.
I loved the examples you gave that you will be using for your classroom!! Please keep sharing so that I can share with other teachers!!!
Isn’t it wonderful? I remember the first time I used Google Docs with my students and I thought, my classroom just got 10 times more efficient!
My colleagues and I were asked my our adminster to create a powerpoint presentation to outline our program to a quality review team that was visiting. A huge task no doubt, but it was made so much easier by using google documents. We could work at home but still instantly see changes others were making and we also used the chat feature in google talk to collaborate in real time. I love that those endless paper notes that come home from school may one day disappear too!