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Using G Suite for Education to Capture the Whole Learner

May 18, 2018

 

Authentic Pedagogical Documentation

When we discuss pedagogical documentation we immediately think of capturing a child’s learning through photos, videos, audio and anecdotal notes. This documentation is then looked at, discussed between teacher and may be posted on a blog or around the classroom somewhere. What educators often forget is the next two important phases of this process. We need to remember to move beyond the “observation” phase into the “document” and “interpretation” phases. Phase 2 of this process asks educators to not only individually reflect on the child’s learning, but to bring the learning back to the child to co-reflect and co-construct new learning with that child. Phase 3 is one step that educators often forget or leave out of their own process. This phase is asking educators to look beyond their reflection and the student’s reflection on the learning by tapping into outside voices or other stakeholders. This brings more insight and different perspectives to the child’s thinking, learning and to help create next steps for the student. With the demands of the classroom and of education as a whole bearing down on the everyday educator, I asked myself, is there an easy to use technology that could support phases 2 and 3 of pedagogical documentation? I then made the connection between Google Apps for Education and its easy to use interfaces and connective features as the way for educators to authentically go through this process.

Setting Up Google Drive As Your Digital Filing Cabinet

The next step in my learning journey was harnessing the storage capabilities of Google Drive to act as my digital filing cabinet. A week later I actually asked the school’s custodian to remove my old, falling apart and clunky filing cabinets from my room. The storage features of Drive allowed me to have a place to organize and put all of the documentation that I was collecting. Before making this leap, my own personal phone, as well as my classroom teacher iPad, was full of photos and videos. It got to the point where it was almost too daunting a task to organize all of the media. I started by creating a classroom folder. Within my classroom folder, I created a folder for each student in my class. This was great because at the end of each day, I would take a few minutes to push all of the media from my devices into their appropriate student folders on Drive.

Using Slides Or Docs As Digital Portfolios

So I realized I had managed to get myself organized. The media and documentation were in the correct folders in Drive, but how did I further organize the evidence of learning so that it was chronological, easy to understand and also space where I could add my own reflections on the student learning. I created a template within Google Docs and Google Slides, that allowed me to easily add photos into a working document where I could comment, make notes and also use a presentation tool for parents and any other stakeholders in this child’s learning journey. My goal was almost complete; I had my digital filing cabinet and I created individualized digital portfolios for each of my students. I was proud of myself because I was able to really do Phase 1 and 2 of the pedagogical documentation process successfully. However, I was still missing that final piece. Phase 3? How could I use Google Apps for Education to ensure that it was not only the student’s voice and my voice guiding the learning journey? How could I bring in many voices to reflect upon and develop next steps in learning for a child?

Connecting It All Together With Google Keep

Finally, Google Keep was the glue that truly held this vision altogether. This tool allowed me to take photos, videos, audio, and notes in real time and take those artifacts that and push them directly into the student’s folder from the interface of the app. I created a template containing assessment information and key questions for reflection that I would just “copy” and attach any media to. Once this was done, I would often record some audio onto the Google note. Another quick tip is to create “labels” in Google Keep, one of each child’s name. That way you label the correct documentation with the correct name. This makes it easy to search for all of that child’s documentation within the app itself. The final step was the one that saved so much time for me as an educator. I no longer had to sift through countless photos and drop each media item or note into the correct folder one at a time. I could just “send” all of the information from one note, directly to a child’s Google folder. This was a game changer for me as an educator and it allowed me to have more time for reflection on the child’s learning.

The Results Of This Digital Learning Journey

My journey through the 3 phases of pedagogical documentation led me down a technological journey like no other. I was able to really see the power of Google Apps for Education in regards to my own practice and my ability to “authentically” document student learning. These apps afforded me a process which eased me into the 3 phases and created a digital world where I was able to reflect, plan and provide next steps for the learners in my classroom. These apps opened up a world of new insights into each of my students by allowing me to “share” their thinking to parents, other teachers, administration and other stakeholders who began reflecting on the child’s thinking. This not only pushed me to plan differently and better for each of my students, but it also managed to benefit the most important aspect of education, the students themselves.

 

 

Michael Mohammed
K-12 Learning Coach
Toronto, Ontario
@michael_tdsb

 

 

[themify_button bgcolor=”green” size=”large” link=”https://www.edtechteam.com/summits/”]Learn more about how to engage all learners with G Suite for Education at a Summit near you![/themify_button]

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Google for Education, Pedagogy Tagged: #GoogleEdu #gsuiteedu 2 Comments

Dazzling Classroom Creations with Google Draw!

February 14, 2018

The artistic flare and graphic design capacity of Google Draw are largely underrated by educators and students. Google Draw is innovative and visionary- it will take student expression and creativity to a whole new unimaginable level. Quick access to Google Draw is available through your the blue “New” menu in your drive and simply scrolling down to see the “more” options menu where you will find “Google’s Best Hidden Secret” red icon with an overlapping circle and square. I started dabbling with the Google Draw features just a couple short months ago and have absolutely been blown away by the creative possibilities for my diverse middle school classroom. With a few quick steps, you can easily create sharp looking visuals that are professional in appearance, high resolution, and compatible with any other application of Google or Social Media platform.  So sit back, relax, and check out this Google Draw Art classroom showcase to demonstrate just a few of the ingenious ideas that you can incorporate into your teaching practice to engage and spark student creativity.

Inspirational Portraits

        Malala Yousafzai

This portrait of Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and female education activist, is created primarily with the curve and polyline tools. The curve tool works great for the basic colour outline and shape, and the polyline tool works great to great the contours of both the face and head covering. A slight gradient background compliments the portrait and creates a nice finished look.

                Lily Singh

The portrait of Lily Singh, Canadian YouTuber, and Actress, is created with the same combination of the curve and polyline tools. An effective way to get a 3-Dimensional look on a 2-Dimensional graphic. These portraits can then be exported as either .jpeg’s or .png’s and printed and shared any way you like! These make for great wall hangings in the classroom.

Replica Paintings

Ted Harrison

Ted Harrison is one of Canada’s most popular artists and is known for his distinct colours and layering of scenes relating to his love of the land and people of the Yukon Territory. The secret behind this masterpiece is to continually layer your curve tool closed shapes and select colours that are vibrant and related to each other in the colour Google colour schemes (ie. columns in the fill colour paint palette).

Character Slides

Students can easily bring their novel characters to life with the help of Google Draw! Customize your Google slide decks with your very own self-created images in Draw, which can be easily grouped, copied, and pasted into Google Slides. When portraits or drawings start getting multiple layers and complex details, it is great to highlight the entire image and group together to ensure that everything is connected when you move around the portrait or image.

Learning Representations

Google Draw is a versatile learning tool for students to create learning representations based on any curriculum topic. This is an example of a European explorer ship that a student studied during our exploration unit. The amount of detail and precision in this drawing is absolutely incredible. The great thing also is that Google Docs has Google Draw built right in so you can easily integrate custom images into any project or assignment.

As you can see through this Google Art classroom showcase there is plenty of room for Google Draw in your modern day classroom. The creative possibilities are absolutely endless and students love the option to demonstrate learning in new and original ways.  I encourage all educators to explore the unique features of Google Draw to inspire and motivate their learners. Trust me, you will be blown away by the high-level detailed visuals that are shared your way!  

 

 

Emma Cottier
Certified Google Trainer & Innovator
Middle School Teacher & Technology Support
Saanich School District 63
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Google for Education, Tip Tagged: #GoogleEdu #gsuiteedu 1 Comment

EdTechTeam Impact Report- Google PD Partner

February 13, 2018

EdTechTeam is a Google for Education Professional Development Partner and the global leader in Google for Education Certification. Having been involved in leading the Google Teacher Academy from its inception in 2006, EdTechTeam continues to manage the Google for Education Innovation Academy, inducting 181 new innovators from cohorts in London, Washington DC, Sydney, Stockholm, and São Paulo in 2017. The team is best known for a world-wide series of Summits featuring Google for Education, with over 400 conference-style events produced to date, and 115 around the globe in 2017 alone.The Bootcamp program produced another 165 workshops globally, most focused on helping educators achieve level 1, level 2, or Trainer level certification with Google.

“The instructor was well prepared and energetic. It’s apparent that she knows her craft and she relayed the subject matter really well to Google newbies like me.”

– Brandman University Bootcamp Participant

“I just passed my Google Level 2 certification, thank you @edtechteam and my fellow classmates in the Teacher Leader Cohort!”

– EdTechTeam Online Participant

Read our #ImpactStory series for the next two weeks and share your own #impactstory. If you’re the first person to reply with your own #impactstory on either Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Google +, you’ll receive your own EdTechTeam book of your choice to continue your great impact as an educator!

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