Google Classroom and Google Apps for Education
Technology continues to evolve as an essential part of the 21st Century classroom. For those of us who have not grown up with a tablet or smartphone in our hands, Marc Prensky has coined two new terms that can be used to describe both ourselves and the students under our tutelage.36 He essentially suggests that, if the digital world were an actual land, those that use technology would be either natives or immigrants. Having grown up surrounded by technology, most of our students are the digital natives. Their interaction with electronic devices greatly impacts how they relate to their world and enables them to easily master new technologies. However, many teachers can be seen as the digital immigrants. As Prensky states, they are
...the latecomer in the technology revolution and as with any immigrant, there is a certain “accent” that is readily apparent to the native speakers. Examples of this “accent” are things like calling and asking if a recipient received the email that was just sent, typing out text messages with full words rather than the standard abbreviations (OMG ur my bff!), or going to the library before searching the Internet.
In short, if technology was a foreign language many teachers would always speak it with an accent. However, this should not deter our efforts to bring technology into our classrooms. Rather than sending the message “Welcome to school. Prior to takeoff, please stow all electronic devices”, we should take comfort in the fact that since our students adapt to new technologies so readily, all we usually need do is provide the most basic of introductions. In short order most of our students will be utilizing the technology far beyond what we imagined. Moments like this can provide empowerment and inspire far beyond our limited abilities in this arena.
To this end, the Google Apps for Education is a suite of products that promote collaboration and accessibility for our students. In line with San Jose Unified’s 21st century and lifelong learning strategies, students will use the Google Classroom environment to access assignments that involve close reading and annotation of primary and secondary sources, group and individual analysis of available evidence, structured academic conversations (such as Socratic seminars), and historical interpretations (written responses to the Unit Focus and Lesson Focus questions).
Google Classroom allows me to create and distribute a Google Doc or Slides presentation for each student. I can also post source documents, video clips and graphic organizers under the same assignment. Moreover, I can provide comments while students are working on their assignments, which streamlines the feedback and grading process. I want to ready my students for all that will be expected of them when they enter high school next year. Since this unit is early in the year, students will have ample time to master these strategies across the year.
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