Why and How Should Educators and Administrators Use Google Apps

The use of Google Apps for your education institution is increasing. This free and amazing service by Google enables Ed leaders to give chances to channelize academic efforts. Google apps are highly interactive and encourage collaboration among students and teachers.

Let’s dig out some of reasons why Ed leaders and administrators should use Google Apps.

Why

Google apps for education have really supported educators to improve their student’s academic performance. “I use Google apps in my classroom. It has really enhanced my students learning. Students can easily collaborate on assignments and share documents. I also use Google forms to administer formative assessments”, says one of the educators in a LinkedIn discussion.

Money has always been one of the key considerations for schools while enforcing any reform in the classroom. Google Apps for education is free of cost. The Maine Township District 207 and the Oregon Department of Education are two schools that have embraced Google Apps and both schools have reported momentous savings, $160,000 and $1.5 million respectively.

Many Google apps offer enriching learning experience to students that straight influence the academic performance of students. School administrations that have implemented Google Apps have seen an instant development in the learner’s reading, writing and memorising ability. Many researches also show that use of technology in the classroom has enhanced engagement of students. With technology, they enjoy more and take interest more in studies.

Google apps or other similar apps prepare students for real-life digital communication in the online space. If school admin adopts Google Apps and students are open to it in early stage of their life, they will learn the art of digital communication perfectly. They will learn to make resumes, e-portfolios, and much more. They will become tech-savvy and develop technical skills.

How

A number of Google apps facilitates teachers to perform a lot of activities in a very short period of time. Apps like Google Form is also a very cool assessment piece that educators are using frequently.

Teachers can create virtual learning environments for their students through Google app. Stephen Trask- ICT Development Director at Burgess Hill School for Girls said on online discussion, “For the past two years we have been using a large Google Site as a VLE – mainly to disseminate classroom resources to our students. The beauty of a Google Site is that it can feature multiple editors, so teachers can share the editing of a page relating to, say, History.”

He further added, “We have been piloting Google Classroom since September, and it has several advantages. Firstly it is responsive and it therefore displays really well on an assortment of different mobile devices.”

“Secondly it has excellent forum capabilities and it syncs seamlessly with Google Drive and Docs, so students can post links and documents very easily into it. Thirdly it allows teachers to set, receive and electronically mark work – perfect in an ICT or Computing class.”

Google Apps such as Google Docs are being used to collaborate, develop writing skills, track student assignment, share, collect, as well as analyze data. Other apps such as Google Calendar can be used to schedule appointment, teach time management and much more. 

Which one is your favorite? Share your experience and practices with the educators reading this through the comment box.