In the past couple of weeks, we have discussed google classroom and google expedition, which were two amazing tools. To get an update on these two topics, feel free to visit my previous post.
This week’s topic will be Google’s G Suite for Education. This suite encompasses several tools that can assist and empower the educator and the student. The tools listed below are the tools that are in the G Suite for Education.
Gmail can be used as an individual, business or school. Educators can setup school-wide email systems or just use to exchange emails within a classroom. The basic free email service comes with 15GB of storage (Drive Storage included). I have used Gmail for about the last 10 years and have no complaints.
Drive allows the educator and the student the ability to store and organize files, photos and documents that will be available from any location or device. Your free google account comes with 15GB of storage. Google also offers more storage for additional fees. I have 100GB of storage and pay 19.99 a year. I save all my college work on the Drive and access it on any device. There are also other plans available from 100GB to 30TB.
Calendar allows the user the ability to either share a calendar or create a group/joint calendar for a classroom or institution. I use google calendar for my household and works great with tracking and scheduling events. It is directly linked to your Gmail and will update reservations or events that you receive through email as well.
Docs, Sheets, and Slides allows students to work together at the same time on future required collaborative projects. I have not had an opportunity to use these specific documents as of yet but I am sure they work great for a classroom environment.
Forms allows users to create documents such as quizzes and surveys. This is a great tool to use as an educator to not only create but to share the forms through any device throughout the classroom.
Jamboard is a collaborative, digital whiteboard. The digital whiteboard can be accessed on your computer, tablet or phone. I have downloaded the app and played with it slightly, seems to be a great collaborative tool to work on group projects.
Sites allows users to create sites for projects or events. Did not know this actually existed. This could have come in handy in one of our other courses as we will be required to share a knowledge base online. It is a little more user friendly as well then, some other sites. I will probably consider changing from WordPress to google sites for my knowledge base.
Hangouts Meet allows users to collaborate with each other using either messaging or video calls. Great application to use to communicate with students, parents or teams outside of schedule school hours.
Groups allows the educator to create group discussions/forums to communicate and collaborate about specific topics.
Vault allows the users to manage who has access to the content that is being shared and distributed throughout the classroom or group. Helps keep the information safe and secure.
Classroom – Read my post from 04 September for the full details of this tool.
The G Suite for Education is free for schools and can assist in managing a classroom, sharing information, and collaborating. These tools can enhance the classroom outside of school hours and can be accessed from any location or device. To read more about these tools or get these tools, visit the below website:
https://edu.google.com/products/gsuite-for-education/?modal_active=none
Billy
Billy,
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog, I never heard of google classroom or the G Suite for Education before reading your blog posts, but my family and I use our google drive to store information. This allows us to organize that information and access it any time we need to. This came in hand particularly when I was attended USASMA as a student. Often email would not deliver my paper to our government email and out of frustration my wife assisted me in creating an account and gave me a short class on its usage. Thankfully it worked out for me in the end and I never had to email another paper to class. I am interested in learning more about Jamboard, it appears to be a great tool in sharing information with students. As we work through our IDDE and prepare to serve as instructors at USASMA I am interested in finding other tools to assist me in facilitation with my students.
Tony
Tony,
DeleteThanks for taking time visiting and reading my blog! Like you, I never heard or knew these products existed until conducting research on the google tools for teaching and learning. Using the drive to store information is a great tool, especially as you mentioned, transferring work from one computer to another.
Billy
Billy,
ReplyDeleteG Suite has some great tools to assist me as a student. I have had a Gmail account for years. I also have a One Drive that I put my school work on as well. It is really helpful to get to your files from any device. The 15GB of storage it comes with is sufficient enough for me. I have never come close to reaching my limit. The only thing I put on there is my school work. The calendar works great as well. I have not used the other tool like Doc, Sheets, Sites, or Hangouts but I can see how they can be useful for collaborative projects. Thanks
Mark
Mark,
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking time visiting and reading my blog! The great thing about the tools that you mentioned, is that they are free. Especially with the free 15GB of storage. Works great in our profession as we are limited to storage device usage.
Billy
Billy,
ReplyDeleteI often use Google Docs,Google Sheet, and Google Sites. For google docs, I collaborate with other researchers to work on a common research paper. For example, I write my parts and others also write their parts. I can also see who write what parts because google docs showed me that information.
For google sheet, I often use it to create an online survey. Using google sheet, I create a survey for a research purpose and all the participant responses are recorded in a format of excel file so that I can integrate it in statistical software.
For google sites, I had teacher candidates use it to develop a lesson plan or online learning environments for future students and families.
Google classroom also supports the teachers to create a blackboard style online learning management system.
Thank you for sharing the information with us. I look forward to seeing your other posts.
Moon-Heum
Dr. Cho,
DeleteThanks for visiting my blog and for your comments. This blog and along with the other blogs from other students, has helped me develop a foundation of the various tools available for the educator and the learner. With my research on google tools, I have incorporated these tools in this course and others as well.
Billy
Billy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for listing these Google's G suit for education. I use Google Docs, sheets, Drive a lot. They are really user-friendly for team collaboration and research. I feel that there might be many potential features that I haven't discovered yet, your post and Dr. Cho's comment encourage me to explore the Google products further. Look forward to reading your next post!
Yang
Yang,
DeleteThanks for visiting my blog and for the comments. With this activity, I have discovered a lot about the various tools google offers for teaching and learning.
Billy
Hi Billy,
ReplyDeleteBefore coming to America, I haven't used Google Docs,sheets, Drive, etc. But now, I think I can't do without them. They provide great convenience for teamwork. Thanks for your post and look forward to next one.
Jialu
Jialu,
DeleteThanks for visiting my blog and for the comments. I agree, these tools make collaborating with team members easier and more efficient. I have been using google tools in both of my projects to collaborate with team members.
Billy
Billy,
ReplyDeleteMy son had a Chromebook at his last school. I thought it worked great. It worked better than the MacBook Air he has now. Like you said, it linked everything together. He still uses his Google account and One Drive for the MacBook but the operating system does not work as well. The MacBook is harder to operate then the Chromebook. If I had my choice, I would use the Chromebook with Google Classroom.
Thanks
Mark
Billy,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Very informative! We use most of these applications within the program I work in. Our students love using these applications. I also use many of these myself. I use google calendar, docs, classroom, sheets, slides, hangout, gmail and drive. I really enjoy googles applications.
Marianna