GAIN-Sites

I found Google Sites relatively simple to use and figure out, although I was not able to spend the time that I would have liked in order to make my website more visually pleasing (which I will do when I have a real elementary school classroom!) Sites maintains a history of your revisions, which is helpful if one wants to go back and make changes. It has an option to have your tabs on the side, which I chose, for easy navigation from the home page. Inserting images was easy as well, although editing them once on the site was difficult. Adding pages was quite simple too. I opted to make my home screen two columns, although many more can be added. I am sure much more can be accomplished with Google Sites than I currently have the time or knowledge to do. Again, with more time, creating a page for my class could be very fun as well as useful.

To view my site, please click HERE.

GAIN-Forms

Setting up a quiz in Google forms is very simple. Although I looked at rpollack's tutorial about making quizzes, it was pretty much self-explanatory. I easily sent my short quiz by email, took the quiz myself to have an answer key, and was able to view the results in Google Spreadsheet. So far so good! However, when I got to the part where I needed to set up the self-grading, I had to read the tutorial several times to understand the formula (math is not my strongest point!)When I entered the formula, I got a result of 0 for both of my students, but I should have gotten a 3 for the first, for 3 out of 3 correct, and a 1 on the second, for 1 out of 3 correct, so I am not sure exactly what I am doing wrong. Hopefully it is an easy fix. Like I said, Google forms was easy to use up to this point for me.

To see my spreadsheet results, click
HERE.

Google Forms can be a great tool for teachers to use for tests, quizzes, and surveys, and to quickly and easily grade. Graham also mentioned several ways to use Google forms which I had not thought of; surveys can be sent out to teachers, parents, and the community in order to gather data to make decisions. It can even collect personal information such as phone numbers and emails, and Graham even suggested using it as a discipline form, or for counselors to let students submit information privately. Google Forms is a quick and easy way for teachers to collect data.

Students can also use Google Forms. Two Common Core Standards are for students to be able to "Present information, findings, and supporting evidence..." and to "Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information..." Google Forms, being a great way to organize and present data, could help students to meet these standards. Forms could even help students to understand and compare the data that they have gathered, possibly through sending out surveys and quizzes.

GAIN-Spreadsheets

I have some, although not much, experience with Microsoft Excel, and it seems that Google Spreadsheet is fairly similar, with the biggest differences being in cost and collaboration capability. I do not particularly enjoy working with Excel or with numbers, so this program can be frustrating for me. I expected Google Spreadsheet to be easier to use, but it seemed pretty much the same to me. I had fun doing the colors and lines to make my work look pretty (which was easy), but I did not enjoy the tedious work of entering the numbers. Using the averaging tool was easy once I got the hang of it. It seems that this program is fairly simple to use once one practices a bit, but can be confusing at first (especially for the mathematically challenged!)

To view my grade spreadsheet, please click HERE.

Spreadsheets can not only be useful for teachers in their grading, but also for students' learning, and for meeting Common Core Standards. Google Spreadsheets can help students to understand and organize their data, and can be a great tool in math lessons, as well as other subjects. In elementary school, students do a lot of graphing, and spreadsheets can help them organize the data for their graphs. One third grade Common Core requirement is to "Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers...Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units..." A spreadsheet can be used before making the graph. It is also good for elementary students to have basic knowledge of a spreadsheet so that they can be prepared for the upper grades.

GAIN-Google Drawings

Google Drawings is a neat program which allows the user to create pictures, graphs, and charts, using different shapes, lines, colors, and text. It allows students to be creative with the information that they are learning. Just like Google Docs and Google Presentations, Google Drawings allows users to collaborate, as well as share and save online. Google Drawings can even help students and teachers to meet Common Core requirements, such as "Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively...and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears."

Google Drawings is a great tool for teachers to use to create visually stimulating presentations. This is especially helpful for students who are visual learners, and helps students in general to remember lessons. One Common Core requirement that Google Drawings can help students meet is to "Draw (freehand, with ruler and protractor, and with technology) geometric shapes with given conditions..." Google Drawings makes creating geometric shapes easy. Students can choose from shapes in the program, change their size and color, or even draw the shapes themselves with the lines or scribble tools. Google Drawings can be a great tool for math lessons.

Google Drawings can even help students with writing by, as Graham says, "helping them organize their ideas." They can easily create flow charts about stories they are reading or information they are learning, or teachers can create charts for the students to fill in. A Common Core standard to meet is to "Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text." Google Drawings easily helps to creatively meet this standard.

I had a good first experience with Google Drawings. Once one gets the hang of the different tools, it is quite simple to use, and quite similar to Google Docs and Presentations. I examined the elementary school lesson in Google Drawings, which was a geometry lesson asking students to manipulate (flip, etc.) different shapes, and to add more shapes as well to create a picture. I love that art can be incorporated to a math lesson, and I think that this would be a lesson that elementary school students would really enjoy. For an example of the picture that I created while experimenting with Google Drawing, please click HERE.

GAIN: Google Presentations

Google Presentations is a wonderful new program that is part of Google Apps for Education, which allows users to create interesting presentations with ease. It is very similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, a bonus since most people are familiar with this program. Google Presentations also meets many of the Common Core standards, even better than does Microsoft PowerPoint.

In Google Presentations, one can create a presentation with many slides using different fonts, hyperlinks, pictures, and animations. There are several tools, however, that Presentations has which PowerPoint does not. First of all, just like Google Docs, one's presentation can be stored on the internet in the "cloud," which means it can be accessed from anywhere with internet and on any device. Secondly, also like Google Docs, Presentations can be collaborated on; many people can easily work on a presentation together, from their own device. Third, Google Presentations can be stored in different forms such as PowerPoint, which makes it easy for users who are more comfortable with PowerPoint. Next, presentations can be shared on the web for others to view. Last, Google Presentations is free!

Google Presentations helps to meet several Common Core State Standards. According to the Graham text, in Common Core students are expected to "Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations," and standard that is clearly met through use of Google Presentations. Another Common Core standard that Google presentations helps to meet is the one that says students must be able to "Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words." Students must be able to see and understand information in all forms. They need to be able to understand the text in a presentation, as well as the pictures, videos, charts, graphs, etc.

Google Presentations has many wonderful implications for classroom usage, even in elementary school, which is my area. The Graham text points out that "Preparing students to make high-quality presentations in the early grades will hone their skills as they progress in school." Graham makes an excellent point that in order to succeed later on in school, students must begin at a young age developing computer and technological skills required for this technological age that we live in. Google Presentations is also a great tool to teach students collaboration skills, as it allows students to work together on presentations. Teachers can also be involved in the process of creating a presentation, guiding students through the process (which is very important, especially at the elementary school level!) Google Presentations can also be a great tool for teachers when creating presentations for use in teaching their classes; it can be easily stored to work on in another location, such as home, easily shared with other teachers, and collaboration in lesson planning with other teachers is also possible.

Google Presentations is a great program; although it is very similar to Microsoft PowerPoint, it has several advantages over PowerPoint. Google Presentations can be stored online, and accessed from any device. Presentations can be stored in nearly any form. Presentations are easily shared and collaborated on. Students can use it to meet the rigorous Common Core standards, and learn skills necessary to succeed in this technological age. Teachers can use it for easy lesson planning, and even aiding students on assignments. I can see no major cons with Google Presentations. It seems to me a step above Microsoft PowerPoint, a tool of the future, and something that will be a marvelous classroom tool, helping to meet Common Core Standards.

For a sample Google Presentation, please click HERE.

GAIN

Google Docs is an impressive new word processing system, which allows multiple people to work on a document at once, and to be stored in the "cloud," called Google Drive, or Google's server; this means that it can be accessed anywhere through the internet. Google Docs is very different than the word processor that I am accustomed to using, Microsoft Word, in many ways. Most of these differences are improvements. First of all, Google Docs is free, as opposed to Microsoft Word, a benefit many schools are taking advantage of. Secondly, as mentioned previously, because Google Docs stores its documents on the internet, your documents can be accessed anytime, anywhere, on any device with internet capabilities. One of the biggest differences between Word and Google Docs is that on Google Docs up to 50 people can work on the same document, at the same time. This makes collaboration with others extremely easy and efficient. Students can work together on projects, and teacher can quickly give feedback in a way not possible before with Microsoft Word. Also, Google Docs saves one's work every two seconds, and one can go back and look at a history, "revision history," of all the saves, as well as who made the revisions. Therefore, work is never lost. Also, hyperlinks, research, and pictures are inserted with ease. Students can place these in their projects, and teachers can place them in assignments for the students. Lastly, students can turn in homework assignments through Google Docs, and there are therefore no more excuses such as lost or forgotten homework. These are the major strengths of Google Docs that Microsoft Word does not have that stood out to me.

One weakness of Google Docs is that one must be connected to the internet in order to use it and work on a document, unless one has saved it to another device, in which case it would have to be copied into the Google Doc. Another problem could be simply teaching employees or students to use this new program instead of Microsoft Word. Otherwise, there are not many weaknesses in comparison with Word.

Google Docs could change and improve so much of the learning and collaboration processes in schools, and even help to meet the Common Core Standards. For example, one of the Common Core Standards is to "Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach." Google Docs can help students meet this standard because of their history capabilities; students can easily erase parts of their work, and then go back and look at them again, and then edit and revise as needed. Teachers can even be a part of this process, giving feedback in real time as students are working.

Another Common Core Standard states that students must "Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others." Using Google Docs, students can easily insert hyperlinks and research into their papers, as well as work together on a project through Google Docs, even if they are not physically together. When they go home from school, they can continue working on their project together from their own homes.

Common Core Standards for third grade state that students must be able to use technology to produce and publish writing "with guidance and support from adults," (fourth and fifth graders must do the same with "some" adult guidance and support); with Google Docs, as mentioned previously, teachers can quickly give feedback even as the students are working, guiding them through the writing process.

In Common Core, students are expected to be practicing their keyboarding skills, as well as collaboration skills, and through Google Docs, students can see just how important these skills are, and they can be put to practice. Students must understand the importance of keyboarding and collaboration skills in order to be a part of the global marketplace; what better way to learn than to actually use those skills in the classroom? Students can even take notes on the same document, and in that way help each other understand the major points of a lesson.

Google Docs can even help with meeting Common Core math requirements, as math symbols and graphs are a part of Google Docs.

In using Google Docs, I found the program to be easy to use and navigate. There is a clear tool bar at the top, and much of it is actually quite similar to Microsoft Word. It is easy, however, to type over others' work on a shared document, and collaborators must therefore have a clear idea what their job is, or work in different areas of the document. The chat and comment functions do, however, allow collaborators to communicate with one another outside of the document. While Google Docs allows up to 50 people to work on a document at once, this could cause chaos and confusion. Other than that concern, I had a very good first experience with Google Docs; I am very impressed and look forward to using it in the classroom.