My Brave New World

Welcome, colleagues!

I discovered GoogleDrive a little less than a year ago, and since then, I have become a full-fledged dweller in the GoogleUniverse. I'm going to show you how I navigate this brave new world (to the extent that I've explored the terrain); then, we will do a little navigating together.

Blogs

I have a blog for each of my classes; the blogs are one-stop-shops for lesson plans, daily activities, access to resources, etc. If district folks need to know what's happening in my classes, see my lesson plans, evaluate...it's all here. If a kid misses class, he or she knows better than to ask me what we did. . . it's all in the blogs.

Within the blogs, I embed links to GoogleDrive documents or folders they need to access for assignments or flipped lessons. Let's go to my Research Skills blog, where we will look at how the GU helps me manage content and assessment:

1) Quizzes using GoogleForms (9.28.14 lesson)

2) Class management tools using GoogleForms (9.26.14 lesson)

3) Formative assessments, reflections, mini-writing assignments, etc. (9.24.14)

4) Links to content (9.22.14 and 9.12.14)

MC@EKU Research Skills

I also use blogs to deliver professional development!

AAER Presentation - 2014


Google Drive 

I use Drive to house my own writing, instructional documents, surveys, and lesson content, to collaborate with students on writing, and to provide students a place to collaborate with each other. (Ask me about my words of caution about moving stuff around in Drive and copying and pasting in shared folders...)

(I can't insert a link to my private Drive, but I will show you now!)

Quizzes and Flubaroo Grading


Now, let's. . . 

Flubaroo will grade multiple choice assessments and, after you click a few buttons, send students an email with their grades.

1) Go back to the Google homepage. Click on those little squares at the top right. This is your "Google Universe Dashboard." (If you want to get to Blogger, click "More" at the bottom.)

2) Click on your drive button on the dashboard.

3) In your Drive, click "New," then "Folder." Call it whatever you want. (Mine is "Flipping Practice.")

4) Within the folder you just created, click "New," then "Google Forms."

5)  Name your "quiz."

6) Insert a couple different kinds of questions.

7) Get emails from at least two Flippers in the room.

8) Click "Share" in the top right, enter those folks' emails, and send.

9) Tell them to check their mail and take your quiz, then, go take it yourself. This is a very important step because you are creating the answer key. You can do this from the document, itself; just click "View Form" at the top left.

10) After all three of you are finished taking your quiz, refresh your Drive folder, click on the "Responses" document that was automatically generated when you developed your quiz, and click on "Add Ons" at the top. Click on "Get Add Ons" and add "Flubaroo."

11) Go back to the Response sheet and click Add Ons, again, then Flubaroo.

12) Click "Grade Assignment."

13) Follow the steps; the grade submission you want to use as the key is your own.

14) A new sheet will appear in the form called Grades.

15) To send emails, simply return to the "Add On" button, click "Flubaroo," then click "Email." You can also view reports from here.

Ta-da!

As you can see, the Google Universe can be used much like Blackboard and other online content delivery platforms but with far fewer clicks and steps involved in the creation and sharing process. The fact that I can use consistent formats for all my lives makes all my jobs much easier.  Additionally, the ease of editing and the fact that Google is automatically saving my work, and, barring a solar event and the collapse of the entire technological grid, I can't lose anything, is priceless. 

Please take two minutes to complete the following evaluation; your time and consideration have been much appreciated! Thank you!

Evaluation