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Google Apps for Education (GAFE) is one of the more popular platforms that schools are integrating as part of their digital curriculum. Ensuring teachers are aware of all of the tool available and have sufficient professional development to be able to use them with their students to enhance their teaching and learning opportunities. GAFE is a cloud based computing option that is inexpensive for schools to implement. More importantly, it can be used on any type of device that has Google Chrome installed on it thus supporting the technological hardware platform of the school.

In order to maximise use by these apps by both the educators and students in your school, it is recommended that an Intranet page is created and used on all school and student devices as their designated home page. This will not only encourage all stakeholders to use the apps, but to make it much easier to access them regularly in class.

It is recommended that for complete success, the implementation of Google Apps For Education is a whole school initiative and is used by all teachers in every KLA. The school technology support officer will be required to work with the Head of Technology for streamlined integration.

What are the main apps that are used?

Google Classroom
Google Classroom is the online space for students to access and submit their classwork. Google Classroom now allows multiple teachers to team teach and add announcements and assignments (with due dates) for their students to view and download. More importantly, teachers can upload worksheets for their students to complete and Google Classrooms has the ability to create a file for each student. Each student receives their own worksheet that is automatically saved to their Google Drive. Google Classroom also allows students to post comments and communicate with their teacher about any work that is posted. Additionally, students can submit their work by using the ‘turn in’ function which allows their teacher to mark and grade the work and provide the student with immediate feedback.

Google Drive
Google Drive is online storage. All teachers and students save their work here and are able to share their work with one another (pending they use a school based email account). This is an alternative to using Google Classroom to share work. However, encouraging students to use Google Drive to create new files (docs, sheets and forms) will streamline how students create and complete their work in every lesson.

Google Sites
Google Sites is a great tool that can be used as an alternative or as a compliment to Google Classroom. This online website creation tool gives teachers the flexibility to generate their own digital resources for a particular lesson or for an entire course. With the correct teacher management software, Google Sites can also be used as an eFolio as it permits students to embed Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Forms. It must be noted that in NSW DET, only students in years 9-12 are able to create a Google Site from scratch (all other students can only add to a website once a template is created by their teacher).

Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Forms
Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets and Google Forms are available to all school stakeholders. Google Docs, Slides and Sheets are the Office alternatives for Word, Powerpoint and Excel. These online documents contain almost all of the functionality as their alternatives. Add-ons for each of these tools can be downloaded via the Chrome Store. The best part of these tools is that they connect to one another allowing the student to link and embed their work together forming a larger scale piece of work.

Increased Productivity
GAFE is renowned for increasing productivity as teachers and their students can collaborate in real time and are able take the initiative to self-direct their own work and by taking ownership of their work. Educators who use GAFE report that their students now enter class and without any prompting from the teacher automatically turn their devices on and access their work via Google Classroom. Others are using GAFE to support their Flipped Classrooms and project Based Learning activities. Ultimately, teachers are encouraging their own students to create more of their own work as opposed to simply complete worksheets and the tasks that are set by teachers.

If you are interested in using GAFE at your school, there are many sources that you can contact for assistance, case studies and training. GAFE also offer an online community that helps you stay connected with the latest developments of their tools and the latest resources created by teachers that you can use. There is also a Peer Community connecting educators with one another.

There have been several exciting updates to Google Classroom over the last few weeks.

Google classroom Updates:

Google Calendar: Each class has a calendar, and work with a due date is automatically added to the calendar. Teachers and students can view the calendar in Classroom, or in Google Calendar on their computers and mobile devices.

Share to Classroom with Chrome: Students and teachers can use the Share to Classroom Chrome extension to share web content to to their classes. Teachers can use the extension to instantly push web pages to all students in a class, or create an assignment or announcement in Classroom.

Ask and answer a question: Teachers can post a short answer question to students in the class stream at any time, with options to allow students to edit their own answer, and to see and reply to classmates’ answers. Students answer the question in the class stream, and teachers have the option to grade answers.

Reuse a post: Teachers can reuse existing posts (announcements, assignments, questions) from a current or previous class.

Move a post to the top of the class stream: Teachers can change the order of posts in the class stream by moving any item to the top of the stream to give it priority.

Visual refresh: Classroom has a new simplified design for creating and posting assignments, announcements, and questions and for viewing assignment details. The design updates enable quick and easy access for teachers and students.

Mobile notifications: Students can see immediately when a teacher creates a new assignment or announcement, comments on a student’s post, or grades or returns an assignment. Teachers can see immediately when a student comments on a post or sends the teacher a private note and when the teacher is invited to teach a class.

Google Apps for Education (GAFE) is one of the more popular platforms that schools are integrating as part of their digital curriculum. Ensuring teachers are aware of all of the tool available and have sufficient professional development to be able to use them with their students to enhance their teaching and learning opportunities. GAFE is a cloud based computing option that is inexpensive for schools to implement. More importantly, it can be used on any type of device that has Google Chrome installed on it thus supporting the technological hardware platform of the school.

In order to maximise use by these apps by both the educators and students in your school, it is recommended that an Intranet page is created and used on all school and student devices as their designated home page. This will not only encourage all stakeholders to use the apps, but to make it much easier to access them regularly in class.

It is recommended that for complete success, the implementation of Google Apps For Education is a whole school initiative and is used by all teachers in every KLA. The school technology support officer will be required to work with the Head of Technology for streamlined integration.

What are the main apps that are used?

Google Classroom
Google Classroom is the online space for students to access and submit their classwork. Google Classroom now allows multiple teachers to team teach and add announcements and assignments (with due dates) for their students to view and download. More importantly, teachers can upload worksheets for their students to complete and Google Classrooms has the ability to create a file for each student. Each student receives their own worksheet that is automatically saved to their Google Drive. Google Classroom also allows students to post comments and communicate with their teacher about any work that is posted. Additionally, students can submit their work by using the ‘turn in’ function which allows their teacher to mark and grade the work and provide the student with immediate feedback.

Google Drive
Google Drive is online storage. All teachers and students save their work here and are able to share their work with one another (pending they use a school based email account). This is an alternative to using Google Classroom to share work. However, encouraging students to use Google Drive to create new files (docs, sheets and forms) will streamline how students create and complete their work in every lesson.

Google Sites
Google Sites is a great tool that can be used as an alternative or as a compliment to Google Classroom. This online website creation tool gives teachers the flexibility to generate their own digital resources for a particular lesson or for an entire course. With the correct teacher management software, Google Sites can also be used as an eFolio as it permits students to embed Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Forms. It must be noted that in NSW DET, only students in years 9-12 are able to create a Google Site from scratch (all other students can only add to a website once a template is created by their teacher).

Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Forms
Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets and Google Forms are available to all school stakeholders. Google Docs, Slides and Sheets are the Office alternatives for Word, Powerpoint and Excel. These online documents contain almost all of the functionality as their alternatives. Add-ons for each of these tools can be downloaded via the Chrome Store. The best part of these tools is that they connect to one another allowing the student to link and embed their work together forming a larger scale piece of work.

Increased Productivity
GAFE is renowned for increasing productivity as teachers and their students can collaborate in real time and are able take the initiative to self-direct their own work and by taking ownership of their work. Educators who use GAFE report that their students now enter class and without any prompting from the teacher automatically turn their devices on and access their work via Google Classroom. Others are using GAFE to support their Flipped Classrooms and project Based Learning activities. Ultimately, teachers are encouraging their own students to create more of their own work as opposed to simply complete worksheets and the tasks that are set by teachers.

If you are interested in using GAFE at your school, there are many sources that you can contact for assistance, case studies and training. GAFE also offer an online community that helps you stay connected with the latest developments of their tools and the latest resources created by teachers that you can use. There is also a Peer Community connecting educators with one another.

Planning is a critical part of an educator’s role. However it doesn't go without saying that in order for an educator to successfully plan, they need to be completely equipped with the correct tools. Correct tools that enable self-learning, collaboration, and record keeping such as those offered by Office 365 and Google Docs.

My school has worked tirelessly to introduce a BYOD that will commence in 2015 and in order to do this successfully, extensive planning administratively as well as create digital curriculum and facilitate professional learning is vital. BYOD programs have proven popular in schools as;

1.) Students are already familiar and comfortable using their own technology so they can focus on actually learning with them than learning how to use the device.

2.) Students’ personal mobile devices tend to be more cutting-edge, so schools can more easily stay up-to-date with technology.

3.) Students are more likely to have remembered their beloved mobile devices than textbooks or notes.

4.) It’s a cost-effective way to save schools money on technology.

5.) With BYOD students are more likely to continue learning outside of schools hours.

I have been fortunate to have played a role in all three of these areas and as a result have been able to assist teachers in developing confidence and direction in their approach to use these tools in their own classroom. Furthermore, teachers are now able to use these new skills in their own planning and curriculum development.

The 6 hour professional learning session included hands-on sessions of how to use these collaborative tools as well as how to embed them within school programs. It is important that teachers know how to trouble shoot problems that either themselves or their students are encountering as it occurs. The sessions also provided that teachers time to learn the tools in a self-paced learning environment in order that teachers could fully grasp and play with their device and tools rather than be left to play with it in their own time (as you know, we all intend to do this, but don’t actually get too). By using a procedural approach (ie, first do this, then do that, then do this…), teachers were able to use rope learning techniques to master their own learning.

Overall, this professional learning session united teachers by their KLA in their commitment to achieving their outcomes. By completing the tasks in such a way, teachers were able share a variety of activities including sharing their vision, working and learning collaboratively, visiting and observing other classrooms, and participating in shared decision making. This structure also reduces isolation of teachers and creates better informed and committed teachers, and academic gains for students.

Help Desk: Google Apps

400 words

Q: How do I use Google Apps in the classroom?

Google Apps is entering the education domain and will transform the way teachers facilitate learning and the way their students collaborate and communicate in the classroom. Google Apps is revolutionising the way educators can create and deliver curriculum content. Their products permit teachers in both primary and secondary schools to remove their classroom walls, as boundaries and parameters that we have been working within are now removed.

Google Apps is more than just installing a few Apps on your iPad or Android Device, it is revolutionising the way we will email and formulate student timetables. Additionally, Google Apps have created tools that help facilitate collaborative learning in 21st century classrooms by giving access to numerous products via one login – a gmail account (this will soon be via a DEC email address as the DEC is rolling over to the Google Portal shortly).

There are 3 essential Apps that all teachers should familiarise themselves with:

Google + (Google Plus) is the hub of Google Apps. It is where individuals can access their chosen communities (teachers can create a class community for their students to access outside of class time), as well as communicate with their friends, play games and access other Apps.

Teachers can use Google Docs in the classroom to facilitate online collaboration. Although many educators have trialled (or used) Google Docs in the past, there have been significant upgrades to Google Docs permitting students who don’t have Microsoft Office installed on their PCs or Devices to access and use such programs. Additionally, everything is saved online permitting students to access their files from any computer.

Google Hangouts is an alternative to using Skype and the Collaborative Classroom. Google Hangouts permits students to communicate and collaborate in real time online with up to 10 students in other classrooms/schools, as well as with experts in your subject area in a safe learning environment. Google Hangouts is a fantastic tool which is engaging and can be customised to suit any student ability (from primary to higher ed).

Furthermore, all Google Apps are supported by the NSW DEC. For more information about Google Apps and the rollout, please go to https://sites.google.com/site/appsforeducationdec/ or contact the NSW DEC to speak to your Google Champion.

I have spent the last 2 days at the Google App Sydney Summit and have listened to many experts discuss the latest technological innovations that are available to educators and their students. I must admit, initially I was very resistant and really didn't see the point to leaving all of the apps that I already use to using a Google version instead. Then, I attended a session that was presented by a TEACHER and finally my needs were met. A teacher was was able to show us how to technology provided by Google in Department and Catholic departments that is compliant with our networks and privacy settings. The sessions became seriously increasingly and inspiringly better with more and more innovative ways shown to us regarding how to develop innovative pedagogues in our classroom.

Here are a bank of a few resources that I am keen to implement in the classroom;

• Google hangouts
• Google docs
• Cloud
• Blabberize
• Schoology
• Learnboost
• Bibme
• Photopeach
• Education Skype
• Google Alert
• Auomatic google email with filters

I believe that 2013, with Googles help and compliance from the NSW DEC (in that nothing will be blocked for teachers or students), will be a great teaching and learning year!

For more info on the Google Apps Summit, check out all the tweets via #gafesummit