In the Technology Groove with Google

I am totally in the technology groove these days. I love it when technology tools exactly fit the learning need, and especially when one tool just keeps on giving. This has been my experience lately with Google Classroom, Google Documents, and Lucidcharts.

I'm loving Google Classroom. I set up an assignment, I attach documents, and I give each student a copy of the Google doc to use which is already named and put into a folder for the student and me. No longer are Google docs "lost" because they didn't get placed into a folder. No longer do I get shared on 23 "Untitled Documents" or "Fantasy Story" documents without knowing who it belongs to. No longer do I send out a group email with attachments. Everything is organized and right at everyone's fingertips.

Google Docs is my best friend when it comes to formative feedback. For some reason, giving feedback to 46 documents feels much easier than facing a towering stack of 46 paper notebooks. Maybe it's the sheer weight, or the challenge of bad handwriting, or the difficulty of transporting all those bulky notebooks home that make them feel so intimidating. Maybe it's knowing that I have to take the notebooks away from the students to grade them (not quickly), which means they can't use them in the meantime, that feels bad. Google Docs fixes all those problems. I can dip in and out of the documents several times over the course of the unit, looking at draft work, making suggestions, staying on top of who is completing things on time and who is not, lifting everyone's level without taking their tool away from them to do it. 

image from commons.wikimedia.com

My new friend is Lucidcharts. I first asked students to use them in the fantasy reading unit as a way to track ideas across a longer text: character development, character interactions, setting and plot events, how elements interact. I had some kids who took off with this, adding shapes, color and keys to make everything connect:

When we moved from fantasy reading to fantasy writing, and we got to the planning stage, I casually suggested, "You know, a Lucidchart could be a good tool for this work. Or you can use paper, or make a timeline in your notebook document. But whatever way you do it, please make sure you get it into your notebook so I can see it and give you feedback." Many kids loved the Lucidchart idea and eagerly jumped in and even figured out on their own how to embed the chart into the notebook instead of adding a link. Here's one that sort-of blew me away:

I have to give credit here to our fantastic tech integrator who regularly checks in with us and asks, "So what are you guys working on? Are you interested in adding a little tech to that? Here, let me show you this tool..." All of these ideas came from her. I am not a huge techie, but I can learn new tricks from time to time, and with the sophistication that our students bring to these tools, it is becoming easier and easier to bring technology into my lessons.

What technology tools do you use that keep on giving?