Success with Google Drive and Google Apps for Education

This week, I thought it would be important to address some questions I have had from many of you about using Google Apps for Education and Google Drive. When I present for groups of teachers, I usually have the same reaction: "This is a lot of information!!" Which is absolutely true. When I show up at a school, I try to present to everyone in the room, which means presenting to those people who have never used Google Drive or cloud computing to those who use it daily. As such, often people are left somewhat overwhelmed. In an effort to reduce some of the anxiety or confusion around Google Drive and Google Apps for Education, I wanted to pass along this advice: Keep It Simple.

Google Apps for Education is packed with a wide array of tools that are effective at promoting teaching and learning in a variety of ways. But, it takes time to get used to using them in the classroom. As such, I think if we can keep things simple for ourselves and become comfortable, we can then add other pieces to the puzzle. To be simple I have the following suggestions:

1. Set up folders in your Google Drive to share with the students in your class. I would create a folder for each one of the classes you teach. 
2. Share the folder with the students you teach and give them permission only to view the folder. That way, they cannot delete or modify any of the documents you put in there.
3. Put documents you want your students to have in this folder. That could include presentations, copies of teacher notes, handouts, etc. This will benefit the students who have an identified need to have copies of these materials. It will benefit all of the students because they will always have access to this material, which fosters their learning. You can create a shareable URL for the folder by following the instructions below.
4. The last thing to do is have each one of your students create a folder on their drive for your class and share it with you. They can put completed assignments in there so you have access to edit them and mark them online.

I really think if you do the above steps, it will streamline what you are doing in the classroom. It will make it easier for you to hand out materials to your students and it will be easy for them to keep track of it. As well, if they use their folder they shared with you to hand things in, it will help keep them organized.

Once you have done this for a while, we can talk about some other steps you can take to harness the power of Google Apps for Education. If you would like me to work with you on those steps now, let me know. Also, I would be happy to come help get your students all set up with their drive.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to read! Have a great weekend!

Sean