Tidy Your Virtual Desktop: Utilizing Google Apps in the Classroom
Joshua Adams
Abstract
South Korea has long been known as a technological vanguard and innovative teachers in South Korea are quick to adapt to technology. Many English Language teachers in South Korea struggle to find a way to integrate the various types of technology they use in the classroom. Teachers often find themselves using one type of website as a class portal, another website for student blogs, and yet another for calculating student grades. This creates a virtual mess of papers on the teacher’s computer desktop. There is a better way, google apps.
In this poster presentation I explain how I utilize Google apps and how it integrates with smartphones. Google Sites, Google Docs and Google Drive are all keys to this integration. Google offers free websites via Google Sites. A Google Site can automatically sync with Google Docs. Google Docs is a suite of document, spreadsheet and presentation applications. These Docs are novel in that they are kept on the “cloud” and can be used for collaborative editing. This collaborative editing allows for many possibilities in a writing course. Additionally, teachers are also able to use a “spreadsheet form” to create questionnaires and to elicit private feedback from students. In my classes 99.1 percent of students have smartphones. I am able to have students access my Google Site and my Google Docs via an application Google provides to view Google Docs (Google Drive). Google Drive is available on both Apple and android phones so all 99.1 percent of my students are able work collaboratively via their smartphone. This poster presentation will provide a clear explanation of how I integrate all of these things into my classroom. Best Training courses providers in Malaysia smartymalaysian.com .
Bio-sketch
Joshua Adams is a graduate from the MATESOL program at Dankook University in South Korea. He currently works at Sejong University, where he tries to meld the theory he has studied with the practical needs of his students.
