Friday, January 25, 2013

Google Workflow for iPads in the Classroom

Google Apps for education allows for a whole new way to manage the classroom workflow and create a paperless environment.  This is especially powerful on the iPad where Google Drive is instrumental in creating an uncomplicated paperless system that eliminates the need for multiple apps to collect student work.  

Sharing material and collecting papers can all be done digitally by taking advantage of the shared folders feature in Google Apps for Education.  Shared folders creates a seamless workflow between student and teacher.  Not only can assignments be created, shared, and graded without a single exchange of paper, it can be done anywhere in the world that can access the web.  Have materials to share with students? With a click of the mouse and a simple drag into a shared class folder, the document is available to all students.

Let’s talk about the details.  Here is how to get started on the iPad.

Apps Needed: Google Drive

Initial Setup

Students:

1.  Students personalize the iPad with their gmail account and login with Google credential into the Drive app.
2.  Students drag the Mail and Drive apps to the doc for easy access.
3.  Students create a folder in Drive.  Students share the folder with the teacher so the teacher can view and edit all material in the folder.  Students will submit work to the teacher via this shared folder.


Teacher:
1.  Set up gmail and Drive on the iPad.
2.  Create a folder for the class.  Drag all the folders students have share with you from Share With Me to My Drive in the folder created for the class.  Then drag all student folders into one folder called, for example, Period 1.
3.  Create a folder in My Drive to share material with students. Set the share settings to View Only.  As you, the teacher, share information, student can view the material but do not have rights to edit or delete items.  Their workflow is to copy/paste content to drive.

Classroom Workflow now looks like this!


 

Written by Ann Feldmann

@annfeldmann1




15 comments:

  1. Very Enjoyable! I hope you write more on this subject! I found your website perfect for my needs. Thanks for sharing the great ideas. I hope you write more on this subject!

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  2. I usually have students create a folder of notes, worksheets, and bell work to help keep them organized and give them a study aide for tests. If it is all online it is legible, already organized, and easily accessible to all parties.

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  3. I would absolutely love to bring Work Flow to my classroom. We have discussed having 3rd grade email addresses available at the end of the year to our 3rd graders to help prep them for their upcoming year in 4th using IPad Academy!

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  4. Looks like a very streamlined, organized system!

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  5. Thanks for the post in regard to Google Drive. Using Google Drive in the classroom has been extremely helpful when creating a smooth work flow. As a traveling teacher, using Drive has created a wonderful opportunity for students to make connections between the classroom, home, and HAL classroom. I now have students who work on projects for my class during their regular class time, computer lab, and at home because they can access it through Drive wherever they may be! Having less paper makes life much easier AND Drive makes it easier for me to think on my feet while teaching. Check out my blog post on Google Drive (and any others): http://halipadacademy.blogspot.com/2013/02/google-doc-mania.html

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  6. I like the ideas of using google to create a paperless classroom. It can save so much time and all the hassle of dealing with papers. You will eliminate the chances of losing any papers, and you will be able to watch what each student has accomplished each day in your room. I also like the idea of being able to use this as notes so you as a teacher can also monitor what students are recording for notes.

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  7. Art classroom means never paperless, but I do see how I can apply it in my classroom. This would be great for presentations on different artists! I think I might try to work this in whenever the district has ipads or computers for every student.

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  8. I would love to be able to share information easily more effectively. I think it would be be great to start this in 8th grade so they can get used to it before they go to high school.

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    Replies
    1. My question is how do you show work on math with mobile learning. What would be your plan on that?

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    2. A couple of apps that might work well for that are Notability and Doceri. Both allow students to write with a stylus pen or finger; Notability also allows students to type. With Notability, I believe you can upload documents to the drive.

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    3. Yes, AND Explain Everything is very similar to Doceri and other whiteboard apps, but has built in interaction with Google Docs and allows you to record video from with in the app. I recommend spending some time giving it a good look too! Wordflow --> Video to YouTube Channel--> Add to Playlists and share out via GoogleDoc, Twitter, E-mail, Site, etc.
      Ann

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  9. I would love to use work flow in my classroom. I am not sure how I will use it with my kindergarteners yet, but I can see using the document sharing piece with parents for newsletters, etc.

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  10. I love this idea and going paperless! I took my students to a lab to do a google form worksheet on the preterite irregulars. It was so nice for me to see who got it and who didn't. I could go help those who didn't get it while other students moved on to another assignment. If there was more lab time or wireless worked better, I would do this all the time!!!

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  11. Each student has an ISN that contains unit notes, vocabulary, and other items we cover in each unit. Being able to have each student create that notebook via technology would leave the paper trail behind and make the information more accessible to them wherever they roam.

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  12. I've thought about using something like this to administer quizzes, tests, checkpoints, etc. What feature of Google docs would I use to administer and grade these types of assessments. If this is possible, I would LOVE this feature because I would help eliminate paper clutter and make more efficient use of my time by spending less time grading papers! I've thought about using Google survey to accomplish this, but I think that would only collect the data, not grade it. Suggestions?

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