Link to Google Drive:
Screenshots and links to example(s) of Google Drive Services:
- Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12WA69d904o2J9evLKP7eF_4t64uSQz3RtqpHrz-DbsA/edit?usp=sharing
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| Student resume sample for admission into specialty creative arts middle school program. |
- Google Forms: https://drive.google.com/openid=1AVRTOp4R8IT0IX3xkoo9ihix6QjnJS57A5I0T_5pteU
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| Google Form for parents/guardians to enroll students in the Instrumental Music program. |
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| Student enrollment information collected via the Google Form above. |
- Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1suYTsJq1gh4zSu-j-zwBwjnL3MqXGplZEaB7rJz8fnk/present?slide=id.p
Google Drive is essentially a cloud-based storage system that all Gmail users have access to for free through the email service. This storage system run by Google houses a variety of document types and allows users to create original documents through a suite of Microsoft Office like web programs -- Google Docs, Slides, Forms, and Sheets. This suite of web programs offers users the ability to organize, create on and offline, collaborate, edit, collect, share, etc. information. Google Docs is akin to Microsoft Word; Slides, to PowerPoint; Sheets, to Excel. Google Forms is the only outlier, as there is nothing else comparable to it in Microsoft Office. The data collection possibilities that Google Forms affords users are simply endless, which is why it alone is is a very attractive feature to educators and businessmen/women alike. Finally, three features that make these Google web programs exceedingly wonderful are their real-time collaboration tools, third-party apps, and automatic synchronization across devices. Groups of users can come together together live to create or edit documents/slides/spreadsheets. Third-party apps can be installed to use with the programs to enhance them in many ways. Finally, the entire suite of services synchronize across devices as they are "cloud" based; there are both computer and mobile apps, supporting Android and Apple systems, to allow for the access and editing of files on/offline.
The screenshots and links to Google Drive services examples included above are just a few ways that I have incorporated these multifaceted creation web programs into my classroom. I will briefly describe each one in the bulleted list below:
- The Google Doc is a sample student resume for my sixth grade students to look at. All students that plan to audition for entry into the local Creative and Performing Arts Middle School for seventh grade are required to create an audition packet with a number of important documents included: a resume is one of them. I share this and other sample resumes with interested students to help them gather ideas and maintain a certain formatting for their own. Every March, I create and share individual resume documents with the interested students; as a group, we go to the school's computer lab to work on them. Furthermore, students can email me, add comments, etc. for assistance at home, outside of normal school hours.
- The Google Slides presentation was a collaboration between myself and another M. Ed. student in this program as part of the course requirement in EDTC 615 - Using Technology for Instructional Improvement: Research, Data, and Best Practices. Together, we created the above Google Slides to share a summary of our first Data Meeting with classmates. This web program permitted both my partner and I to add content in real-time, shift and/or add objects at will, create tables with highlights, insert pictures, make graphs, etc. The possibilities are endless.
- My primary use for Google Forms is to gather instrumental music enrollment information from students/parents at all three schools I teach in. I include links to a Google Form in English and in Spanish for each school on the preliminary information packets I send home with interested students at the beginning of every school year. I explain to students during my recruitment presentation that signing up online using the Google Form is the fastest way to get added to the class; on average, around 20 families between the three schools choose to sign up this way. The other 220 sum-odd responses I receive each September are completed the old-fashioned way --with a pen and paper enrollment form.
- The included Google Spreadsheet is a collection of student enrollment data that was automatically compiled from responses to the Google Form above. As mentioned, not many families decide to enroll their students online, so I end up using the Google Form myself to enter in and record every paper enrollment form I receive. Now, you may be thinking, " ... but that's a lot of extra work!" -- and you are right. However, the benefits of imputing this student data via Google Forms which will turn around and automatically compile the responses for me into a Google Sheet totally outweighs however tedious the entry process may be. I wholeheartedly believe that manually entering via a Google Form is a timesaver, and after all is said and done, I can focus more of my time organizing responses in a way that is meaningful to the program.
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