The last ten weeks I have been involved with an online class "Taking Google Apps to the Next Level". I have been exposed to a plethora of ideas that I can use to make my classes more appealing to my students, and easier to manage for myself. There were so many ides shared that it will take me some time to incorporate the different skills into my classes. After looking over the last ten weeks I have come up with a list of the ten best skills I picked up during this time.
# 1
Interactive Vocab Book
Vocabulary Book is a multimedia way students can present and study content terms.
Below is an example of some student created slides.
This Vocabulary book contains terms dealing with the physical properties of water.
# 2
Creating Animated Gifs
Animated Gifs are a fun way to capture student attention. I am using Gifs in my warm ups.
Below is an example of some Gifs I have created for my classes.
# 3
One Tab
One Tab is a Google Extension that takes all of your open tabs and puts them into one tab. No more screen clutter! This tool has been amazing. My computer is much faster and I feel more organized.
Below is an screenshot of my open pages from today.
# 4
Google Translate
Google Translate is a tool that allows the world to open up to your students. According to Wikipedia: Google Translate is a free multilingual machine translation service developed by Google, to translate text, speech, images, sites, or real-time video from one language into another. It offers a web interface, mobile apps for Android and iOS, and an API that helps developers build browser extensions and software applications. Google Translate supports over 100 languages at various levels.
Below is an example of some ideas for Translate.
# 5
Office Editing for Docs, Sheets and Slides
This tool lets you take any Microsoft created item and turn it into a Google item. For those working with the Google educational tools this is a must have. I have been able to take my old powerpoints and word documents and bring them back to life. Now my students have easy access to these files and I do not need to recreate them.
Below is an example of a powerpoint turned Google Slide.
# 6
Google Forms New Quiz Tools
Flubaroo was a good extension and worked fairly well, but not having to go through the extra steps has been a time saver.
Below is an example of a new Google quiz in forms.
# 7
Activity Choice Board
The Choice Board is a fun way to have your students complete assignments while having a choice.
Below is an example of a choice board I used in class.
# 8
Create Your Own Adventure
I have just touched the surface on this idea. This is another way to give students choice while still covering the material. Here is a link to several ideas on this topic:
https://padlet.com/christicollins1/quest33
Below is an example of a brief adventure I created for the Google Apps class.
# 9
Flippity.net
This quiz show application has a ton of extras that “Jeopardy” style games of the past lack.
Below is an example of a game I created.
# 10
Google Moon
One of the add ons to Google Earth, Google Moon lets students navigate the Moon as easily as they can navigate their home city in Google Earth.
I hope you enjoyed looking at some of the tools I discovered in my class. If you are interested in this class, check out UVA Wise and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
