Google Tools

-
Google has come a long way since 1996. According to Google, their company officially began in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergery Brin. Now Google has over 60,000 employees in 50 different countries. Their products have transformed the way we use technology and have given millions the ability to use their tools to communicate. Google Drive is a personal cloud storage, allowing users to synchronize digital content. Within Drive there are numerous apps such as Docs, Sheets, Forms and Slides to name a few. 

 In this post we will be exploring a couple of helpful tips to keep in mind while using the Google apps.After exploring and watching the YouTube video below by Teacher's Tech I found a feature called OCR. OCR is called optical character recognition feature. This feature allows you to take a mostly text PDF and convert it to text. What you do is right click on the title of the PDF and select "open with" then "Google Docs." Then the PDF should convert to text and open up in a new Google Doc. Sometimes the Google Doc is not exactly the same as the PDF so be sure to proofread the text.

 Check out this video with more information about OCR.


Below is a screen shot showing how to find the OCR feature.
Here is a PDF I was able to convert into a Google Doc.


Another feature is the ability to embed documents so they can be shared on a website like a blog. If you are interested in sharing any file from Drive on a blog like this one, follow these steps. If you click on share, you will not be able to find the embed icon. Instead you have to click on file then publish to the web. Once you click publish to the web you will find the word embed. Then copy the embed code and embed it into your blog.


Did you know that within each app there are add on features? These add on features can help with translating documents, editing documents, adding graphic organizers, etc. One Doc add on is called GradeProof. GradeProof is an add-on that will proofread your documents. Check out this video and graphic with more information about GradeProof.



Lastly, Google Forms is a great way to give your students a quiz or get feedback from parents or students. For the past couple of weeks I wanted to send out an end of the year survey to my parents. Google Forms was the perfect app to use to communicate with my parents. I sent an e-mail to my parents and had immediate feedback from 10 parents. (I am hoping more complete the survey this week.) The questions I asked provided me with some honest feedback from parents. I gave parents the opportunity to give me feedback on something to change for next year, how they child felt about this year and something they wanted me to know. Some of the feedback was encouraging while other feedback gave me an opportunity to reflect on what I am doing as a professional and how I can be a better teacher. It was scary to put myself out there and ask for feedback, but I am glad I did. Below is a screen shot of part of the survey I sent out.


Good luck using Google to better yourself as an educator! The opportunities are endless!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Google Chrome and Google+

-
Image
When using my Mac at home my default browser has always been Safari. It has been known for years at our house that my husband uses Chrome and I use Safari. We never wanted to mess with logging in and out of all the websites and switching accounts, so we stuck with our plan. After researching Chrome I discovered many reasons why, I too should be using Chrome. Also, I discovered how I we could easily switch back and forth between our accounts. Who knew it could be so easy! This blog post is going to explore some features of Google Chrome and Google+. Google Chrome should be your web browser of choice. For so many reasons, but especially because of Google Extensions! Here are two videos about Google Extensions and some examples of Extensions you can download and use on Chrome. Extensions are a great way to improve your browsing experience. The Google Extensions store will look like this. When searching through the Extensions, I looked for the highest rated and most
Read more

YouTube + Google Tools

-
Image
YouTube can be such a daunting resource, especially for teachers. Often times I feel overwhelmed with the amount of videos available on YouTube and find myself nervous my students will see something inappropriate. My co-workers and I often have difficulties remembering which videos we used for a unit the previous year and find ourselves searching through e-mails trying to find a link. After spending some time researching YouTube, I found a couple of incredible resources that can help teachers more  efficiently  use YouTube to enhance their instruction. Safeshare.tv   is a free online resource to help the user safely watch and share YouTube videos without all of the ads and distractions. Simply copy and paste a YouTube video link into the   SafeShare.tv website . You can even edit the start and stop position of the video. I always worry about all of the other videos my students will see when showing them a YouTube video. Using Safeshare.tv is a simple way to guarantee they will only s
Read more

Google Classroom + Google Calendar + Google Keep

-
Image
Have you ever felt stuck in your classroom? Unable to interact and connect with your students and struggling to figure out the best way to efficiently share documents and have your students turn in work electronically? Google Classroom is the perfect tool for you. Check out this video about Google Classroom from Flipped Classroom Tutorials. Google classroom is a great way to interact with students electronically. One of my favorite features of Google Classroom is the capability to add videos, documents and links under the about tab. Click on "add class materials" and you can add a variety of things. These materials will stay on the about page while the classroom is active. I was able to add some beginning of the year documents, a coin song we watch on a regular basis and a link to one of my favorite classroom social media sites Flip Grid. Another feature I love is the ability to add Google Forms to Google Classroom. Check out this video with more information
Read more