Students in grades 3-8 use Google Education across all subject areas. Google Education is a free, cloud based platform designed specifically for school settings, allowing collaboration of information via the Internet, secure from Internet users outside the school. A unique feature of Google Ed is that projects, presentations and documents can be shared with others, allowing work to be done simultaneously by more than one person. For example, two students can work on a presentation together while each is at home on their family’s computer.
Google Education has several components to accommodate the types of work that students do. Writing assignments use Google Docs, which is Google’s version of Word. Students keep their work in their own Google Drive, which is a cloud-based location to ‘save’ documents, pictures, and other items. Google Forms is a feature that collects information and analyses the results in a variety of ways. Google Forms may be used by students to take surveys, or design challenges for others. Teachers can design their own tests and quizzes. Google Slides is similar to Power Point, but because of the collaborative feature, allows more than one student to work on the same presentation at one time. Google Calendar is a calendar feature that allows entries to be made by everyone who is included when the calendar is shared. Google Classroom is a central place where teachers can post information, assignments, homework, make announcements, ask questions, or ‘chat’ with students.
Google Ed fosters learning at St. Matthews in the following ways:
Students can work together without being in the same room or building. This has tremendous possibilities for ‘distance learning’.
Students are never without the work they saved in Google Ed. Their work is aways available to them by just logging into their account and accessing the items saved to their Google Drive.
Student work is submitted without ever having to print a piece of paper. The teacher can edit, comment, and grade student work without printing, and return it to the students.
Students can access anything the teacher has posted in the Classroom at any time. For example, a student can’t find the study guide for tomorrow’s Social Studies test. No problem – just log into the Classroom and there is the copy that the teacher posted.
Teachers can extend the learning by posting questions that all students must respond to. For example, this question is posted at 6 PM for all to respond by 8 PM: What character from today’s reading in LA was the most self-aware? Support your answer with specifics.
All St. Matthew School students are required to abide by our Technology Use Agreement, which students and their parents agree to, and sign. Teachers monitor student use very closely to ensure that technology is used in appropriate ways that follow the confines of assignments. In addition, all settings and student activity is monitored by the principal. We guide the students to understand and accept their responsibility in learning how to safely use the Internet and Google Education.
Google Education is a dynamic way to engage students, foster 21st century skills needed for success in a global society, and utilizes technology to its fullest. The students and the teachers at St. Matthews take full advantage of the benefits that Google Ed has to offer.