The tools offered by google for teaching and learning that we have discussed the past couple of months are google classroom, google Expedition, google suite for education, and google Chromebook.  This week we will focus our discussion on the accessibility for google tools for teaching and learning.  

Accessibility for students with disabilities is critical for any website, product, or service as a good percentage of Americans have a disability.  According to an article by Oblinger and Ruby, 20 percent of the U.S. population have some sort of disability.  Google for Education focuses on creating their products with accessibility to allow every learner to take advantage of these products and services that they offer.

Below is a link for the G Suite user guide to accessibility.  Each of the products offered under the G Suite for Education has a guide on how to use their products to make accessibility and usability better and easier.  For example, the guides offer how to use screen readers for each product, how-to setup keyboard shortcuts for each product, changing text, images, and video sizes, and many other services.   
https://www.google.com/accessibility/products-features/

Below is an official blog about how Google is using AI to improve products for people with impaired speech:

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/

Below is the link to the main website for Google Accessibility if you would like to learn more.

https://www.google.com/accessibility/

Looking forward to your opinions and input on Google Accessibility.

Billy

So far, the tools that I have discussed and shared are google classroom, google Expedition, and google suite for education.  The next tool I will discuss, and share, is the google Chromebook. Google Chromebooks come in all kinds of sizes, shapes, and prices.  They are durable for the use in school and can withstand the wear and tear of everyday use.  

One of the benefits of having Chromebooks within a school is that the students can use their personal profiles from their google accounts.  Regardless where they login, they will be able to access their information.  This can include accessing emails, classroom assignments, grades, drive information, or other information from the classroom, library or at home.  If the student can take the device home, all the same security policies apply at home as well.  These devices can be shared throughout the classroom from one student to another, providing additional online resources for learning and collaborating.  Currently there are several school districts utilizing google Chromebooks in their institution.  

The link below has an article on the use of Google Chromebooks in the Huntsville Independent School District.  They have over 6,300 students in 9 different campuses, ranging from ages 3-18.  They currently have approximately 800 Chromebooks and are continuing to purchase more.  With Google Chromebooks and with G Suite for Education, this school district has given more resources to the teacher and student, making learning more effective and efficient.  

https://edu.google.com/why-google/case-studies/huntsville-independent-school-district/?modal_active=none

Looking forward for additional comments on Google Chromebooks for teaching and learning.

Billy

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