THE PAPERLESS CLASSROOM: USING GOOGLE
DRIVE TO CONDUCT A PAPERLESS RESEARCH
PAPER:
BENEFITS OF USING GOOGLE DRIVE TO CONDUCT A PAPERLESS
RESEARCH PAPER, AND OTHER INTERNET COMMUNICATION AND
PAPERLESS GRADING IN AN ELAR CLASSROOM.
Presenter: Taryn Robertson Co-Presenter: Billy Mitchell
Azle High School, Azle ISD
Trobertson@azleisd.net
GOOGLE DOCS PROVIDES MANY WAYS TO GO PAPERLESS THROUGH SHARING
AND COLLABORATION OPTIONS. THERE IS NOT JUST ONE SINGLE RIGHT WAY
TO USE GOOGLE DOCS FOR A PAPERLESS CLASSROOM. RATHER THERE ARE
MANY TOOLS AND FEATURES THAT CAN BE USED ON THEIR OWN OR IN
COMBINATION TO MEET YOUR VARYING NEEDS. THIS GUIDE WILL COVER
MANY OF THE MOST COMMON WAYS THAT GOOGLE DOCS CAN HELP
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS MOVE AWAY FROM PAPER AND INTO A DIGITAL ONLY ENVIRONMENT.
What is a “Google Doc”?
GOOGLE DOCS IS AN ONLINE WORD PROCESSOR THAT LETS YOU CREATE AND FORMAT TEX T
DOCUMENTS AND COLLABORATE WITH OTHER PEOPLE IN REAL TIME.
GOOGLE SHEETS IS AN ONLINE SPREADSHEET APPLICATION (APP) THAT LETS YOU CREATE AND
FORMAT SPREADSHEETS AND SIMULTANEOUSLY WORK WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
GOOGLE SLIDES IS AN ONLINE PRESENTATIONS APP THAT ALLOWS YOU TO SHOW YOUR WORK IN A
VISUAL WAY.
GOOGLE FORMS ARE A SPECIAL EXTENSION OF GOOGLE SHEETS. WITH FORMS, USERS CAN CREATE A
FORM DOCUMENT TO PUBLISH TO THE WEB THAT WILL ACCEPT DATA AND POPULATE A SPREADSHEET
BEHIND THE SCENES.
GOOGLE DRAWINGS LETS YOU EASILY CREATE, EDIT AND SHARE DRAWINGS ONLINE.
GOOGLE DRIVE LETS YOU STORE AND SHARE ALL YOUR STUFF, INCLUDING DOCUMENTS, V IDEOS,
IMAGES AND OTHER FILES THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU. YOU CAN SYNC, STORE AND ACCESS YOUR
FILES ANYWHERE – ON THE WEB, ON YOUR HARD DRIVE OR ON THE GO.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF
USING GOOGLE DOCS?
COLLABORATION: EDITS APPEAR IN REAL TIME SO YOU
ALWAYS HAVE THE MOST UP-TO-DATE VERSION. EASILY
INSERT A COMMENT AND USE THE ‘+’ OR ‘@’ SYMBOL AND
A GMAIL ADDRESS TO LEAVE SPECIFIC COMMENTS FOR
SPECIFIC PEOPLE. YOU CAN COMMENT ON SPECIFIC WORDS
IN DOCS OR A SPECIFIC CELL IN SHEETS. TO HAVE
CONVERSATIONS FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS, CHAT RIGHT
IN THE DOCUMENT.
OFFICE COMPATIBILITY: QUICKOFFICE FOR GOOGLE
APPS WORKS ON YOUR ANDROID, IPHONE AND IPAD, GIVING
YOU A WAY TO CREATE AND EDIT MICROSOFT OFFICE FILES
WHEN YOU NEED TO MAKE A QUICK EDIT ON THE GO AND
DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO COSTLY SOFTWARE.
ACCESS YOUR FILES ANYWHERE: GOOGLE DRIVE IS
AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE ON THE WEB AND ON YOUR MOBILE
DEVICES. TO STORE AND SHARE ON THE GO, DOWNLOAD THE
MOBILE APP. DOWNLOAD DRIVE TO YOUR MAC OR PC TO
SYNC FILES FROM YOUR COMPUTER TO THE CLOUD.
SHARE FILES WITH ANYONE: SHARE INDIVIDUAL FILES
OR WHOLE FOLDERS WITH SPECIFIC PEOPLE, YOUR ENTIRE
CLASS OR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL DOMAIN.
AUTOSAVE: GOOGLE AUTOMATICALLY SAVES YOUR
DOCUMENT EVERY 3-4 MINUTES. SPREDSHEETS ARE SAVED
EVERY TIME YOU CHANGE A CELL AND THEN LEAVE IT.
EVERYTHING IS SAVED TO AND BACKED UP ON GOOGLE’S
SERVERS.
SET UP A GOOGLE FOLDER TO SHARE.
In Google
Drive, click
“New” and then
select “Folder.”
SET UP A GOOGLE FOLDER TO
SHARE.
Name your folder as shown below: Last Name,
First Initial - Class Period - Research Project
SET UP A GOOGLE FOLDER TO SHARE WITH ME.
Right click on your newly
created folder and
select “Share…”
**In the pop up window,
be SURE to select “can
edit”, then type your
gmail address.
GOOGLE DOC SETUP STEP 1
Next, you will need to
create a new
document. Open your
newly created folder
by double clicking on
it. Then, click “New” in
the upper, left corner
and select “New
Google Docs.”
IMPORTANT!!!
It is absolutely crucial that every new document you
make for this project be created WITHIN the folder
that you have shared with me. If the documents are
not in your SHARED folder, I CANNOT SEE THEM!!!
How to access a document that was shared
with you:
•From drive, select Incoming
How to use folders as student turn-in folders:
Another good use for shared folders is for students to create turn-in folders for a
teacher. Then to turn in an assignment, the student simply adds the document to the turnin folder and it will be available to the teacher. Here is how turn-in folders are made and
managed:
1) Have each student create a normal folder. You may want to do this all at once in a
lab setting.
2) Have the students name the folder something that makes sense to them and to you.
A good format might be year-period-student-turnin, such as 2016-3B-SmithJohnTurnIn.
3) Now the student goes to the sharing settings for that folder.
The student needs to add their teacher in the Invite section. To allow the teacher to
provide feedback, notes, suggestions, grades, and such, the student should give the
teacher Can edit rights. This is a one-time process the students will need to do to share
their turn-in folders with you.
Now as the teacher, all of the students’ shared folders
will show up in your list of shared folders under
Incoming in Google Drive. If you have a lot of
students, this can be quite a mess. So the best thing to
do now is to organize the students’ folders. This is a
one-time process you will need to do at the start of the
year.
Click in your My Drive section and create
a folder for the current school year, such as
2016.
Select that folder and now make subfolders under it for each of your class
periods, such as Per 1A, Per 2B, etc.
Now open up your Incoming section where
all your students’ shared folders are listed.
If the students have named the folders as
you instructed, you can sort them by name
to get them in order by class period (click
the Sort button in the top right).
Now select all of the students for a particular period, and then
drag and drop their folders into the period folder you created
for them.
Repeat for the rest of your students and the periods they are
in.
When done you will have all your students’ turn-in folders
arranged nicely within period folders inside
a year folder.
Anytime a student needs to turn in an assignment, they simply
add it to their turn-in folder for your class period and the
document will now be available for you to access.
QUESTIONS, COMMENTS,
SUGGESTIONS, ADDITIONS?