Recently, our district decided to make the switch to become a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) school. We are in the middle of the transition and are slowly adding teachers to our district account, one site at a time. This transition has made things simpler for me, and the discussion that I have had with several teachers has gotten them in the mode of thinking about how Google could be leveraged to making their lives easier too.
The difficulty I have had is helping them understand just why they should use Google Apps. The biggest and best answer I can give is that Google allows the following:
- Free Cloud Storage – 15GB for a Free user, 30GB for a GAFE Teacher
- Access to Google Drive
- Real Time collaboration – share docs and collaborate from anywhere at anytime with an Internet Connection
- Google Docs – word processing in the cloud
- Google Forms – for quizzes and tests
- Google Sheets – for collecting and sharing data
- Google Slides – convert your PowerPoints into slides and access them from anywhere.
- …and the biggest…NO NEED TO CARRY AROUND FLASH DRIVES ANYMORE!
Google: An Introduction
Google Docs
Google Forms
Google Slides
Beyond these videos, there are several links that will help new users keep up with Google News:
Google Gooru – http://www.googlegooru.com/
Google Educators – Sand Springs – https://www.facebook.com/groups/GoogleSSPS/
The Official Google Blog – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Hopefully the videos and the links will help you as you Go Google!
The Techy Coach 