If you have the older version, it looks like this:
If you have the new version, it looks like this:
When you click on this button, you might be transported to a land of Microsoft Nostalgia, if you like that sort of thing. What you basically get is access to all your favorite word processing programs. As with anything technology, though, there is always a catch. Remember when you had to just buckle down and accept the fact that Open Office was just a little different than the original Microsoft Office Suite you were so accustomed to?
Well, you will probably get that same kind of "not so warm and fuzzy feeling" this time as well, but I assure you that your students know these programs and they are wizards with them. They are the real focus anyway right? So let's get started.
Revision History tool.
Just a few encounters from teaching my classes in the past that Google Drive solves:
- Student did not name the document and did not type name anywhere in the document
- Student does not remember where the document was saved.
- Students copy and paste from the internet.
- "Do I save this in "My Documents" "Desktop" or "The C Drive"?
- "I lost my flash drive."
- "I did my work on another computer."
- "I don't remember which computer I used to do my work."
- "My flash drive broke."
- "My dog ate my flash drive."
- "My flash drive fell in the toilet."
- "I forgot to save my document."
- "I accidentally kicked the plug out of the wall before I saved."
- Uh oh! Power outage in the entire school. "Did anyone remember to save?"
- "I did my work, but it deleted or erased."
- "I can't complete assignments at home because I don't have internet access."
- "I made this awesome video for my project, but the file is too big to email to you."
What a relief to know that not ONE of the situations above will occur while using Google Drive. Even if the internet drops, students still have the ability to use their Google Drives with their Chromebooks offline. Whenever the internet is restored, the documents will refresh and update including any changes.
Most importantly though, in my opinion, Google Drive was created as a collaboration tool. Hundreds of people could work with the same document at the same time! Even though you would not want 100 people editing one document, it is possible.
In reality, 4 students could work on the same power point in or out of school. With or without internet. Everyone chips in and works together, or not. They might just work alone. This just might prepare them to work on a team in the business world. Additionally, remember when you had to assign special jobs to students because some would carry the weight of others? That's what revision history is for. Just check what a student typed and what time they typed it, BY EACH EDIT! So exciting!
Remember from Activity #1, whenever you create a document or anything for that matter, you have the option to SHARE it. Let's review the 3 options with regard to sharing rights and some classroom implementations.
Please walk through the following tutorial videos:
Have you ever wondered just exactly how much effort your students are putting into their assignments? Now, you have the option to track their work every single time they edit any document, power point, drawing, etc... in Google Drive.
It's called "Revision History" and it's wonderful!
**Note: A student can "hide" their revisions by just making a copy of their original work and sharing that copy with you, but just make it a requirement that they share their original and that will take care of any sneakiness.
The videos below will show you just how this works.
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Next Post:
Next Post:
12/18/14
- Creating student contact lists in Gmail and using them to share documents.
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