Google in The Classroom

GOOGLE IN THE CLASSROOM This document is a short how to setup on a few of Googles tools that can be used in the classroom.

Tools for the classroom: Volume 1

Google in The Classroom

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Google Groups A quick and easy way to create private or public discussions.

Step 1- If you do not have a Google account create one its easy and free.

If you

already have one click on “create group”.

Step 2 – Begin by naming your group, a unique group email is created automatically for your use. Here you can also type a description of the group if you would like. You also need to remember this page is where you can set the proper access to discussion groups. Make it Private.

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Step 3 – This page is where you send invites to your discussion groups.

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Here you

can write a short message for the invites to read.

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Step 4 – Finally your dashboard is where topics are created, invite additional students or teachers, and organize discussion groups if there is more than one.

Application for Education Google Groups can be created by teachers to host a discussion forum for their students. A teacher can post a “question of the day” or “question of the week” for students to respond to. Teachers can also use Google Groups to post reminders of important due dates.

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! Google Groups can also be used by administrators to hold an open forum with parents, teachers, and other people with interest in their school. Even different departments in a school can use Google Groups for sharing resources they’ve found. ! Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when creating a discussion forum for K-12 students through Google Groups.

- If you’re setting up a group for use with K-12 students, the “restricted access” level allows you to make sure that only invited members can read what you and your students write.

- If all of your students have email addresses assigned by your school, the quickest way to get all of your students into the group is to add them directly rather than inviting them and waiting for them to confirm their membership in the group.

Google Docs There is so much more to Google docs then just word processing, presentations, and calculations.

One really cool feature with docs is having the ability to create a quiz or test and embed it into a blog or web site. The basics are the same for creating any type of form.

Step 1 – Open Google docs and begin by creating a new form.

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Step 2 – This page the title can be typed.

Remember the first question should be students name or you won’t know who sent the quiz. You can also choose the type of question.

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There is a choice to check box to make question required so students can not skip question.

Step 3 – When adding more questions click the add item in upper left corner of page.

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Step 4 – How to embed into a blog? This is a simple step and once your quiz is done you can click more actions tab and choose embed. Highlight and copy code.

Now open up blog and in the new post window paste code into the edit HTML tab.

NOTE: change the width and height to fit page’s main column.

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Some things to remember:

! Make sure the first question is "student name." Otherwise you won't know who submitted which answers. ! You can mix question types (multiple choice, short answer, paragraph) but if you have too many types and too many students, the spreadsheet can become difficult to navigate. ! When embedding the form into a blog, make sure you edit the width to fit within your blog's main column.

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There are tons of other uses for Google docs and this is just one of them. The more you explore the more your knowledge will grow. I hope this will jump start your creative juices in using Google docs.

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