On a Monday, when I was feeling rejuvenated (!), I introduced Google Docs to my students. I had them each log in. Using the projector, I showed them how I could create a document, and then how I could share it. I simply shared with one student in the class, and he edited/commented (depending on what I allowed). The students were hooked.
They had finished researching for an upcoming project, so collaborating to get and give feedback was the exciting reward. They opened their Word research document, and then copied it to a new Google doc.
They re-titled it with their first name and "Project Design", which would make it easy for other students and me to find in our own documents list. It was funny to watch them ask each other how to spell names, and then getting up to check if their document showed up in their peer's list. We discussed the differences between "edit" and "comment" and "view" rights, and students were inconsistent at how they handled these with their peers. (I wasn't too concerned, since we still had the original Word document as a back-up.)
Once they had commented and received comments, I encouraged them to make improvements. The following day, after corrections/improvements, they were instructed to "share" with me. The one confusion was that my name didn't match the student naming pattern, and some were confused.
Following that, they were encouraged to start planning for their project, and getting some insight and support from peers using their Google Apps.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Account Management
Student Accounts
Once all the staff members had accounts, it was time to create accounts for students. I decided that I would start with my three year-long classes, since they were the most ready for collaboration. I also didn't want to deal with hand-entering all the students' information, so I created a fairly simple form. The students created their usernames (FirstLast@___.___), passwords, and then gave me some other info that will help me ultimately delete accounts as they move to high school. (Of course, there were students who spelled their names wrong, or wrote someone else's name in the space, but fixing a few was far easier than creating 100 accounts one at a time.)Once I had the spreadsheet from the Google form, I created the account spreadsheet and simply uploaded it over the course of an evening. When it was finished, I received an e-mail that the records had processed, and if there were any error records. It was easy to correct and reload the records.
Organizations/Sub-organizations
My other challenge was that I wanted to keep the staff e-mail access intact, but not yet implement student e-mail (per the district admin). I figured out that I could create two sub-organizations called staff and students. Both would only be able to access features I had turned on through the Dashboard, and I could turn off whatever features I didn't want to enable for each of them. Thus, e-mail was still accessible for staff, and inaccessible for students. It took a while to re-designate each group, and I will have to figure out if there's a way to do this easily before I next upload student accounts.
Once all the staff members had accounts, it was time to create accounts for students. I decided that I would start with my three year-long classes, since they were the most ready for collaboration. I also didn't want to deal with hand-entering all the students' information, so I created a fairly simple form. The students created their usernames (FirstLast@___.___), passwords, and then gave me some other info that will help me ultimately delete accounts as they move to high school. (Of course, there were students who spelled their names wrong, or wrote someone else's name in the space, but fixing a few was far easier than creating 100 accounts one at a time.)Once I had the spreadsheet from the Google form, I created the account spreadsheet and simply uploaded it over the course of an evening. When it was finished, I received an e-mail that the records had processed, and if there were any error records. It was easy to correct and reload the records.
Organizations/Sub-organizations
My other challenge was that I wanted to keep the staff e-mail access intact, but not yet implement student e-mail (per the district admin). I figured out that I could create two sub-organizations called staff and students. Both would only be able to access features I had turned on through the Dashboard, and I could turn off whatever features I didn't want to enable for each of them. Thus, e-mail was still accessible for staff, and inaccessible for students. It took a while to re-designate each group, and I will have to figure out if there's a way to do this easily before I next upload student accounts.
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