Samantha


 * Re: Google Article**

This article made me think of some other ways this technology could be used. My Journalism class could complete their newsletter(s) using this technology. Once we had completed the first together, and they knew better what they were doing. They could work independent of me, yet together, to create monthly or bi-monthly newsletters instead of just one or two a semester. All students could also use this technology to create a portfolio for virtually any class. This would be excellent in an English classroom because students could pick their best work to display in their portfolios. Then we could burn them onto a cd for them to keep. This would also be excellent for seniors applying to multiple colleges. They could create one portfolio displaying whatever work, academic or not, over the course of their high school career; burn the portfolio to multiple cd's, then mail them to any college admissions office. Learning how to do this would also inable them to create one for their college career, which would help them job hunting years after they have left us.

I think this would be a fantastic tool to use in our Exploring Tennessee projects next year. It would offer another way for students to back up their work. This would eliminate the "I lost my jump drive," "My computer crashed," "My printer didn't have ink," and so many other excuses. It would also allow them to work together in groups and not have to be together. Everyone could still work on the project, but at a time that worked for each of them. Furthermore, this would also allow teachers the ability to check up on progress being made on any assignment, especially with rough drafts and works cited pages that often have to be revised multiple times by students. This could allow students more one-on-one feedback from teachers and time to correct or improve work before they work in. If students were willing to collaborate more with teacher and make revisions, they would make better grades on the final version and learn more in the process.

NOTE FROM JANET: Check out these links too for some more info on Google Docs in education...

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This contains a printable guide that I think is very useful...[]