Google Apps for Education has totally
transformed the way we teach and communicate inside and outside of the
classroom. Through tools like Google Drive, Google
Hangouts, Google Earth andBlogger, we can
create authentic learning experiences for our students more than ever by
promoting collaboration and helping them access their work anywhere and
anytime.
Curious
to learn more about how to better use Google in your classroom? Come to the
official EdSurge Tech for Schools Summit on Oct. 17-18 in St.
Louisand talk to Brown in person. Get your ticket here for
free!
Teachers can utilize all of Google’s
resources using Google Classroom, a simple management tool that
gives teachers the ability to stay organized, assign projects and give feedback
within the platform.
Google Chrome also has a library of special
tools you can access through the browser called Apps, Extensions and Add-ons
that can make your life in the classroom easier. Plus, when you use Chrome, all
of the apps, extensions and web history are stored in the cloud, so wherever
you login, they are literally at your fingertips.
Here are a few of the best additional Google
tools for educators that help make teaching easy!
Extensions
Extensions are mini programs that modify and
enhance the functionality of the Google Chrome browser. They extend Google
Chrome’s abilities by adding a button next to the address bar, which applies to
the current website being viewed.
A Pinterest extension button automatically pins
the page you are viewing to your Pinterest board. Symbaloo and Diigo extensions have the same capabilities.
How many times have you had 30 or more
"very important" tabs open in your browser at one time? The Onetab extension allows you take all of those
tabs and convert them into one list. You can save and restore the list anytime
you want, or send that list to others by sharing it as a webpage.
When grading assignments in Google Drive and
using a Google Chrome extension like Permanent Clipboard, teachers can store common
comments on student work, or create an answer template for discussion forums.
CleanPrint saves paper and helps the
environment by giving you the capability to print just what's important, or to
save it as a PDF or in Dropbox. It reduces page sizes and lets you remove
images.
Is YouTube blocked in your district?
Use Google Chrome YouTube downloader to save
YouTube video content to your computer, so that you can show videos to students
in your classroom.
Add-Ons
Add-ons are extra features within Google
Drive that enhance its functions. For example, teachers can give ongoing and
simultaneous feedback by using a spreadsheet add-on like Doctupus, a task-saving add-on that creates folders
for students’ work and sends an email directly to students with their
grade. Kaizena for
Google Docs allows you to track and rate feedback and add voice comments, whileFlubaroo works great with Google Sheets to
automatically grade quizzes and tests through forms.
Sometimes I want to share interesting
Twitter chats, or collect tweets from a workshop or conference to share with
colleagues that may not be on Twitter. WithTwitter Curator, you can collect tweets right
inside of a Google document and publish them by creating a PDF.
Avery Label Merge creates a mail merge using
Google spreadsheets to merge data. You can print it directly in Google docs,
and it is perfectly formatted to match Avery templates.
Easy Bib Bibliography Creator is an add-on
that creates a guide within Google docs that allows you to search for books,
journals, and websites to automatically generate citations in order to properly
format them in MLA, Chicago and APA for a bibliography or a work cited page.
(Show this one to your students writing research papers!)
Apps
Google Chrome Apps are like desktop software
programs you install on your computer, except that you use them directly within
your browser.
Create stunningly impressive content for
print, mobile or web with Lucidpress, an app that helps you easily produce
newsletters, flyers, brochures, photo books and more.
Newsela is an easy, creative way to build
reading comprehension with informational text that's always relevant through
articles on current events. The beautiful thing about this innovative tool is
that it allows you to take one article and differentiate it in up to five
different lexile levels, which Newsela does by changing vocabulary and sentence
structure. All of your students can read the same content at the level just
right for them.
Make your videos come to life with EdPuzzle. Using this tool, you can crop videos, add
your voice, and embed quizzes and open-ended discussion questions. Find videos
directly on the site through YouTube or Khan Academy, or upload your own
content, then embed them into your curriculum through other programs likeEdmodo or Schoology. You
can give feedback to your students and receive data yourself immediately.
VideoNote.es allows you to annotate notes and
embed them in the video. When reviewing the video, you can click in the notes
browser, and the video will jump to the section of the video that matches the
notes. Videonot.es is integrated with Google Drive, so you can manage and share
your annotated videos with students within the platform.
Use Wevideo to create collaborative video projects
online. Add text, effects, music and more, and invite others through Google
Drive to edit and share projects. Or, if you’re looking to create animated
video projects, immediately hook your audience through cartoon-explained videos
with PowToon.
Interested in flipping your classroom? Present.Me is
an awesome presentation production tool that allows you to simply add audio and
video to your presentation. Upload your Powerpoint, PDF, or Google presentation
to the Present.Me platform, and record audio and video on one side of the
screen as you navigate through the slides.
Google Apps for Education has become a very
practical tool for 1:1 technology initiatives with mobile devices, as it helps
programs meet ISTE standards, formerly called NETS, the framework
for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age. This article just
highlights a few of the best apps, extensions and add-ons Google Chrome has to
offer--check out their app store for more creative approaches to
learning, and tools that will help make your life easier.
Which tools do you think would make Google
more effective for educators? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section
below!
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