Google Drive - a free tool communicating, collaborating, and sharing
Community Review for Google Drive
My Take
Besides the unlimited uses for teachers and students, Google Drive Apps can also promote parent communication and interaction.
Docs: Inviting parents in as commenters - What a great way for working parents who would love to volunteer time to the classroom, but need to be able to help virtually rather in the classroom during school hours! Using text comments, voice comments (Kaizena), and/or video comments (MoveNote), working parents can easily mentor young writers.
Slides: By combining clip art, speech bubbles, text boxes, and some animations, young students can explain vocabulary, illustrate a concept, create eBooks, and present - collaboratively.
Drawings: Using shapes, lines, and call-outs, young students can create their own characters and avatars.
Forms/Sheets: From simple formative assessments to “choose your own adventure,” primary grade teachers recognize the possibilities of Google Forms. For many, the option of embedding student assessments and parent surveys on their websites has proven to be a powerful school-to-home/home-to-school communication tool. Having all data automatically recorded onto a spreadsheets provides teachers with an online, manageable “In Box.”
How I Use It
This school year, one of my focuses is on technology integration for primary students. This review (see below in My Take section), therefore, is based on powerful ways primary grade teachers in my district are extending learning with Google Apps. As we move through the school year, I plan to update this review with more of their tips and insights.