MY EVALUATION OF GOOGLE FOR EDUCATORS:
http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

Whenever considering a new technology resource (software, hardware, website, etc.), I look for these 4 basic criteria when evaluating its potential use in my classroom: 1. Time—will this resource help delivery or assessment of the civics content within the time constraints of my Sol pacing guide. 2. How effective will this resource be in terms of delivering the content, assessing student understanding of content, improving efficiency of one or both of the previous, and engaging students in the content while engaging their higher order thinking. 3. ease of use in relation to delivering and assessing content to improve student achievement. 4. 1-3 considered—will this resource improve student achievement in my content area? Will the resource engage student’s higher order thinking? Will the resource help with differentiation for students with learning disabilities?

Although some of the applications provided by Google for educators have the potential to allow students some worthy educational experiences (Many of the applications will meet some of your needs for Virtual Collaboration with your students) that will improve understanding of content in some curriculum areas , most do not meet my criteria to determine usable technology resources for my classroom. That is not to say that other teachers would not find the same applications useful in their classroom, most of the applications simply do not fit in with my criteria.

Some applications have met my criteria and will be used effectively in my classroom (when possible). Blogger will allow my students to respond simultaneously to a content question/discussion thread, and will enable me to give instantaneous feedback on the topic responses by the students. Also, Blogger will allow virtual collaboration by students at a distance. “Docs & Spreadsheets” is a file sharing / editing program that will allow virtual collaboration to create digital assignments. All students involved in a particular assignment will be able to edit the work of others as they progress through assignments via the Internet.

The greatest barriers for my using many of these applications involves the amount of time required to use them effectively, ease of use, and our school’s network firewalls and Internet acceptable use policies. I was simply not allowed to open some of the applications from my school computer. (these will be problems for many other teachers in core classrooms).

“Google Earth” and “Sketch up” can be combined to enhance and enrich the study of geography and foreign cultures. Students studying ancient eastern cultures could present innovative technology based content. “Sketch up” will allow them to create/build an ancient architectural artifact, and they could use “Google Earth” to place their design into the landscape of the correct region. (Build the Great Wall of China and place it into the landscape). However, these creative methods of content presentation are quite time consuming and often will not fit within time constraints created by Sol tests. In order for these lessons to be effective, teachers need to allow students the time to explore and use the technology to make the use of the technology as much a part of the lesson as the content. As a result, most teachers will rarely have time to explore these resources with their students.

Rather than simply evaluating Google for educators, I have compiled a series of technology enhanced lessons related to my civics content. In order to align with the Google for educators project assignment it would be logical to use the “Docs & Spreadsheets” application provided by Google for Educators. However, I already have created a way to share my files with students and colleagues through my Quia.com site. (that is how I share the documents/lessons I have compiled)

The links on this word document attachment are to civics content lesson plans and digital assessment samples for the lessons. Feel free to modify lessons as needed, and use the student sample assessments as templates or examples during your lessons.

When you refer to the specific lesson plans, notice in the lessons that there are specific NETS S requirements that are addressed by each lesson as well as specific Va Civics and Economics SOLs.

Click here for lesson plans (.doc).