Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Some Google Fun

Our school is currently in the middle of a pilot for Google Apps for Education. What's really fun about this are all the things that we are uncovering as we work alongside our students. Elementary - High School students are trying out different parts of GAFE (Google Apps for Education). Now it is not like we haven't been using the Google apps with our students or that our students on their own hadn't been using them. But now we are utilizing those tools within the GAFE environment and learning how it can facilitate communication, sharing, student submission of work, etc. One thing that we have uncovered is the ability for anything in your Google Drive to have a URL. Then, anyone within our Google Apps environment can access it to view. Students are working on ePortfolios using Google Sites within GAFE. They can upload their created videos to their Google Drive, go to edit a Google Sites page and go to Insert -- Video -- Google Docs Video. This will allow you to choose the uploaded video file and embed it within a player right on the Google Sites page. Wow! Makes doing this type of thing so much more seamless for the kids. I'm excited about the doors this could open for the GACS students. Please share your experiences and "aha" moments with Google Apps for Education through the comments on this post.