Technology not only makes it easy to create and edit instructional materials, it is a great venue to allow for group collaboration and idea sharing. Our reading centered on technology literacy at all levels and this week’s assignment focused on developing four projects that are typically a part of classroom planning. The videos showed the basics of Microsoft Office, something that I have used for many years as they were major elements of my undergraduate degree in Administrative Communication. We were then asked to use the online tools of Google docs to create a lesson plan, technology survey, a one-page word document, a series of slides and a grade book to track student progress. Google docs have one particular advantage over traditional word processing in that changes are automatically saved. We’ve all pulled out a few hairs at least once after realizing that we forgot to save our latest changes.
When I created my survey and selected the “share” option, my group members could respond directly to my survey and the results were automatically placed in spreadsheet format. This was a great time saver and as simple as sharing a link. This was my first attempt at using the survey maker in Google docs and I have grown rather fond of it. Another first for me was my attempt to create slides in this manner. I must admit that it took me a while to stop looking for the “save” button and I was amazed at how fast the changes became part of my projects. Getting input from my group members was easy as we could login and edit as needed. Collaboration among group members often consists of bouncing ideas off of each other, sharing frustrations, and even cheering each other on when the finished products look amazing!
Projects:
Lesson Plan
Tech Survey
Word Doc
Presentation
Grade Book
weather_study_lesson_plan_revised.docx |