Google Drive - A Dream Come True!

Picture source: Pixabay

Google has become the new way to do things! No more having to save a document on your flash drive and risk losing it, no more saving your work every five minutes in case your computer shuts off, gone are the days of emailing documents back and forth in order to collaborate, and best of all, having all Microsoft programs available at all times anywhere you go! Google Docs provide us with the flexibility to work on a project little by little from any device! I used to dream of having this type of opportunity! I remember many times saying to myself, after a long cry due to losing a paper I had spent hours writing, "why can't they just make it so that documents save themselves?" I finally developed the skill to automatically save my documents as I worked, and now I do not have to do that anymore! Mr. Google does it for me. It is a dream come true! 

Besides all the wonderful things that Google Drive has provided, there are so many other things we can do with Google Drive. As educators, our work has gotten more practical and at times even more effective. I wanted to learn more about all we cacn do with the wonderful tools Google has created for us. I read a wonderful article written by Jennifer Gonzales from Cult of Pedagogy on 16 ways to use Google Docs, Slides and Forms in the classroom. In this article we can see how far beyond we can go with Google Drive.  

Image Source: Pixabay

With Docs, Gonzales provides us with 6 great ideas! The first one is to have students do an annotated bibliography! This is so important for students to start learning at an early age because as we adults know, this is a skill that will be used over and over during our schooling journey and the better you get at it, the easier doing assignments will be. Google Docs provides research tools that allow students to locate, read and cite their sources in one place as Gonzalez stated in her article. This is definitely something I will do with my students because it will give them a head start in this important skill.

Another one of my favorite ideas is writing a collaborative story. How fun is this! and again, it is another skill that students will need for their higher studies and even careers. We need to learn how to work collaboratively and what a better and safer way to start than by writing a story. This activity will work their literacy, technology and group-work skills in a fun and engaging way. The  best part is that students can collaborate from their homes, at school or anywhere they can access google drive! It can be done as a one-class assignment or it can be a longer project. I wish I would have had this tool when I was teaching English as a foreign language in Colombia because I worked with adults who would have love to practice their writing skills in a fun engaging way as it is writing a story.

Here is an example of some kids working on story sequencing using slides:

The other ideas she provided were having students write a book review, a media-rich research paper where they can include images, video, links and more, beginning blogging and creating tables and charts. All of these are great ideas and I recommend to read more about them on her post.

I love using slides from Google Docs! They are beautiful, easy to use and practical. One of the ideas that I liked the most was having students create a short film. I think this is a great way for students to use their creativity and develop many skills at once. It is a great way to incorporate technology with writing, art, communication and other many skills that are required to make a short film. I learned that Google Docs offers a recorder called Screencastify which allows students to record their voices and background music. What a fun project! I will definetly do this when I get a chance! 

Now, I wanted to see some examples of this being done and I found this video of pure animation done using only Google slides! Now, this requires a lot of skills but just for fun, I invite you to watch it, just so you can see how far we can go! 

When I talk to my students about things they like to do at home, many of them tell me how they love watching YouTube even more so than T.V. Funny thing is that T.V.s are becoming things of the past. Most kids watch Netflix and Youtube. When I ask them what are some of their favorite things to watch on YouTube, they tell me they love to watch tutorials. Many of them even tell me they have YouTube channels! If you have never seen a kid's YouTube channel you should watch this adorable makeup tutorial! When reading Gonzales' ideas, I saw that you can also use Google Slides to make tutorials! The great thing about this is that we do not have to get YouTube and post them and all that, but students can teach each other topics, get the experience of making tutorials and learning from one another! Students can also use the screencasting tool Screencastify which works great with Chromebooks. I could divide an unit among the students and they can do tutorials reagarding their topic and watch each other topics to learn; as we know teaching is one o the best ways to learn something! I also think it would be fun to make these tutorials to teach classroom rules, procedures etc. 

Other ideas with slides that Gonzales mentions are making a magazine, a museum kiosk, and even an ebook! All wonderful ideas. 

Now, of the least used of Google Drive tools are forms, at least in my own experience. One of the ideas I will use from Gonzales is having students create their own tests using forms. I think that when you create your own test, it requires you to understand the material pretty well. I can even tie up the test to the tutorial project. The more we have kids teach, the more they can learn and this is a wonderful way to make them responsible of their own learning as well. Another idea I liked is to have students organize their data into graphs which they can use in their school work. This is great for investigations projects that require surveys which they can also make using forms. 

Overall, all the ideas I found in The Cult of Pedagogy are wonderful and I will use many of them. I think that Google Drive has made all of those crazy dreams I used to have come true! It only makes me wonder what will be next. Which  makes me think of another project to do with my students: "If Google Drive could do anything you wanted, what would it allow you to do?" It would be great to see what my students have to say. I used to dream of auto-saving and now it is a reality.

Read the article to find out more details on how to use Google Drive in the classroom and have fun! 

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