I am going to be working through learning a little bit more about differentG-Suite tools in an educational context. My end goal is to be Google for Education level 1 certified- and learn some more about these powerful tools along the way. First up, is Google Drive.

Google Drive is a powerful online cloud storage. You can store photos, documents, spreadsheets, forms, slideshows, and more in the Drive and access it from any computer or device connected to the internet. You can also download files to be able to view them offline.

Information can be organized into colour-coded and labeled folders. This can really help keep things organized.

Documents and folders can be shared with others to view, and collaborate. One way that I am doing this is by creating a shared google drive folder for our PDPP cohort to add resources too. This way we can all benefit from each other’s work throughout the program.

I think being able to give access to your materials to co-teachers, substitute teachers and other staff can be useful to streamline communication. You can also all store data in the same document or folder and edit it concurrently in real time.

Teachers can give students view only access to documents and worksheets. The students can then make a copy of the document in their own drive and complete the worksheet/document/activity. This can then be shared with the teacher who can leave comments and suggestions. Bonus- trees are saved and impossible to loose your assignment as it is always stored in the cloud. A log of all edits made also allows teachers to understand student’s thinking and prevent cheating.

“folder” from Creative Commons Clipart