CGHS Library

32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom

This video is an hour, and it takes them a bit to get going, but there are some great ideas here, and you will be able to see the possibilities for your own classroom once we start to roll with this. I found the first half hour most useful. It covers Docs, Calendar, and Gmail.  The second part covers Google Labs, their experimental tools, Chat, and Voice. I'm not keen on Labs because as much as I love Google, I'm not excited about being their guinea pig. Chat and Voice seem like tools that suck down bandwidth unnecessarily when it would be more efficient to send an email. I can see useful applications of Voice, but we would need to be pretty careful to keep focus in how we used it so that it actually improves student achievement instead of just wasting time.

Submit your own Google Apps Tip

Google Apps Transition Web Site

One of the fabulous things about moving to Google Apps is the resources available to us that we would never have the time or expertise to develop on our own. Google sent a web site template to me this week, and I tweaked it so it is applicable just for us. It is under the Google Apps link to the left of the CGHS Library blog under Library Web Page Links.

ISTE 2011 Teaching Theater Schedule Presentations

New! Click the session title links to view the presentations June 27 | June 28 | June 29 Monday, June 27 9:45 AM  Google Apps for Education Overview Jaime Casap: Google 10:45 AM  Schedule smarter with Google Calendar  Vinnie Vrotny: Google Certified Teacher,  Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 11:15 PM  App Inventor Mark Friedman,  Google 11:45 PM  Using Google Apps with grades 3-8 Diane Main: Google Certified Teacher,  Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 12:15 PM  Spreadsheets magic with Google Docs Bryan Carroll, Google 12:45 PM  Docs like a Rockstar Wendy Gorton: Google Certified Teacher,  Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 1:15 PM  Data collection with Google Forms Andy Crozier: Google Certified Teacher,  Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 2:15 PM  Customized Maps Classroom Projects Carol LaRow: Google Certified Teacher 2:45 PM  Using Blogger to Create Collaborative Projects Dr. Sheila Gersh: Google Certified Teacher 4:15 PM  Using Google Sites for your classroom website Lisa Thumann: Google Certified Teacher,  Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 4:45 PM  So you think you know how to search on Google? 10 things you didn't know about Search! Dan Russell: Google   Tuesday, June 28 9:45 AM  Google Tools for Professional Development Mark Wagner: Google Certified Teacher,  Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 10:15 AM  Using Google Earth in the Classroom Cindy Lane: Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 11:15 PM  Collaborative writing with Google Docs Dan McDowell: Google Certified Teacher 12:30 PM  Innovative Ways of using Google Forms Molly Schroeder: Google Certified Teacher Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 1:00 PM  Make Gmail Do the Work for You! Meghen Ehrich: Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 1:30 PM  Collaborative Curriculum Portal with Google Apps John Calvert & John Krouskoff Google Certified Teachers 2:00 PM  Demystifying Google Docs Sean Beaverson: Google Certified Teacher Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 2:30 PM  Google Sites in Elementary Classrooms Nic Finelli: Google Certified Teacher Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 3:00 PM  So you think you know how to search on Google? 10 things you don't know about Search! Dan Russell: Google 4:00 PM  I Didn't Know Google Could Do That! Jerry Crisci: Google Certified Teacher 4:30 PM  Google Apps for Education Overview Jaime Casap: Google Wednesday, June 29 9:45 AM  Google Apps for Education Overview Jaime Casap: Google 10:15 AM  Google Apps Secret Sauce Dana Nguyen: Google 10:45 AM  Search like a Superhero Molly Schroeder: Google Certified Teacher,  Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 11:15 PM  40 ways to use Google Apps in the Classroom Becky Evans: Google 12:00 PM  Google Earth in the Classroom Cindy Lane: Google Certified Teacher 12:30 PM  Introduction to Google Docs Rich Kiker: Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer 1:00 PM  Google Apps in High School Alice Barr: Google Certified Teacher 1:30 PM  App Inventor Mark Friedman: Google 2:00 PM  Google Maps Dr. Alice Christie: Google Certified Trainer

Google Apps Professional Development Webinars

Learn more about using Google Apps and other Google products at your school in this weekly webinar series. Upcoming webinars:

• Role playing with Google Apps for Education
  July 26, 2PM PT, 5PM ET - Register
• Doing more with Google Docs
  August 9, 2PM PT, 5PM ET - Register
• Digital Science Notebooks
  August 23, 1PM PT, 4PM ET - Register

Archived recordings from past Google Apps for Education webinars can be found in our resource center. Past webinars include 32 Ways to use Google Apps in the classroom, and Running your School on Google Apps. 

Setting Up Your iGoogle Page in Google Apps

When you log into Google Apps, click on the Web option in the lefthand corner of the black bar at the top of your browser. If "Web" does not show up there, click on "more" and access it from there. You can customize your opening page to suit your needs.

Just as an example of how individualistic these pages can be, take a look at mine below. I especially like the "Tasks" gadget. Yes, it's just a To Do list, but it sure beats my former legal pad system! I never knew what was going on with that, except that I had a lot of legal pads.

To search the Gadgets, click on Add Gadgets where I put the arrow farthest to the right on the screenshot below.

As you can see in the following screenshot, you have lots and lots of gadgets (of varying quality) to choose from. Don't worry about picking something you hate. They are easy to remove and replace with something you will like better.

I'll be the first to admit that some of the iGoogle page themes are dreadful, but there are lots of them to choose from. If anybody figures out how to make customized themes themselves, let me know. There has to be a way to do that because some of these themes look as if they were done by a sixth grade boy with extremely bad taste. (No offense to sixth grade boys.)

Google Apps Mail Web Clips

You may have noticed that at the top of your email page, there is a varying link to some news, entertainment, sports, or lifestyle story. You can control what shows up there so those links are more closely aligned with your interests (or remove them altogether.) Sign into your Google Apps account, and when you are in Mail, go to the Gear icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen. In the drop down menu under the Gear icon, click on "Mail settings." Click on the Web Clips tab and add or remove the web clips according to what is most useful to you. You can also turn that feature off completely by removing the check in the "Show my web clips above the Inbox" box.

Google Mail Conversations

By default, your Google Mail is automatically arranged in what Google calls, "Conversations." In other words, if I send you an email, and you reply to me, and we chat back and forth several times, that email is all in one place in my inbox with a number in parenthesis after it so I know how many exchanges there have been. This feature is really nice because it keeps all the email about particular subjects in one place. While I think I will probably get used to Conversations eventually, for now, I turned off the Conversations feature until I can organize my mail to my satisfaction.

If you want to do the same, sign into your Google Apps account, and when you are in Mail, go to the Gear icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen. In the drop down menu under the Gear icon, click on "Mail settings." Under the General tab a little bit down the page where I have the arrow icon on the following screenshot, you can turn the Conversation view off.

Google Mail Folders

In Google Mail, folders don't really exist. You label your email, and it serves the same purpose a folder would. Now that you know that, I will refer to "labels" from now on.

Sign into your Google Apps account, and when you are in Mail, go to the Gear icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen. In the drop down menu under the Gear icon, click on "Mail settings." Under the Labels tab, go down and click on the Create New Label button.

A simpler way to do the same thing is to click on the Labels tab, Manage Labels from within Mail. Of course, depending on your style, you can just search your mail to find what you want and not label a thing ever!

Once your labels are set up, (you can see mine at the left of the screenshots) all you have to do to move an email to the correct place is select the email and click on Move to and move your mouse down to the proper label.

Google Apps Mail Settings

If you have more than one email address, you might want to check all your email in one place. To do this in Google Apps, sign into your account and when you are in Mail, go to the Gear icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen. In the drop down menu under the Gear icon, click on "Mail settings."

Then, click on Accounts under Settings. You can see how I set three separate email accounts to all come into one account, and I set all three to send with the default send address as mhouse@cgrove417.org. So, if I happen to be in my personal account, martha.house214@gmail.com, and I send a message, it looks as if it came from mhouse@cgrove417.org. That way, I don't confuse people with too many addresses, and I don't have to keep close watch on all my accounts because everything always comes to the same place. I do have to check all three accounts on occasion just to keep my subsidiary accounts cleaned out. 

You may or may not want to do this depending on how separate you want to keep your lives. For example, Jan has separate accounts for USD 417 and for her photography business. She does not want the email mixed together so she checks each account separately. You have to decide what will work best for you, but it is an option to check all your accounts in one place.