Google is the most influential and prevalent of the commercially available internet search engines, featuring hundreds of products to meet needs in presenting, creating, locating, and preserving information in a digital format.

Google Tools is the brand of most current programs for data and digital solutions in the classroom since the pandemic. Because Google is one of the most used, commercially available internet search engine, it easily connects parents, educators, students, and pertinent other resources.

In the realm of education and edtech, Google’s impact is monumental. Its constant updates and innovations make technology indispensable in the delivery of educational services in the virtual, traditional, and hybrid classroom.

How can Tech Impact Course Delivery?

Blended Classrooms

Blended classrooms are composed of virtual, traditional, and hybrid classrooms and feature online interaction between students and educators, usually structured around non-traditional modalities including interactive off-site presentations, demonstrations, and simulated experiences.

In a blended classroom educators give feedback to the students in a timely manner. The teacher can grade students’ work immediately which frees up the teacher to attend to other responsibilities. This makes course delivery easier and can increase quantity of course delivery since the teacher has more time in their schedule.

Educational technology had begun to bridge the communication gap between parents, educators, the districts, and its’ students before the pandemic started. Still, the suddenness and unpredictability of the shutdowns necessitated a coherent and practical option for instruction delivery. The solution had to expedite the resumption of school while appealing parents’ willingness to enter into dynamic partnerships with the district, administrators, and educators.

The blended classroom was the model solution that was launched within six months of the national quarantine, rolling out dozens of iterations of the model now indispensable to educators worldwide.

Most gratifying is the impact of technology in the classroom on the quality, quantity, timeliness, and diversity of source material and perspectives as a result of the information communicated by technology’s many platforms and utilities.

Because of the reliance upon technology in all aspects of our routines, parents and students can avail themselves to content and curriculum presented in multiple formats, packaged into online classes which meet the standards and include links and references apropos to interested viewers. The boon to all parties is the ease of establishing and maintaining effective communication and advocacy for the student.

Technology has encouraged participation of students and parents in the educational processes by appealing to and accommodating variances in learning styles, assessment methods, problem solving, and expedient responses. Conducting the blended classroom was unimaginable before technology appeared as the best option in a crisis which reset our ways of living.

Tech can remove stigmas and obstacles from education for any motivated learner, and prescient personal benefits aid both educator and student when attending daily and lifelong learning. The possibilities are endless when exploiting the limitless availability of world-class instruction available to and through globally-informed and well-prepared professional educators.

Ways to Enrich Course Delivery with Google Tools

We are going to discuss some Google tools that educators can use to send materials, assignments, and monitor student progress. Educators can use these tools to collaborate with their students and the outcome will be improved student achievement. For many, Google is simple to use, so using this platform help teachers free up some more time to teach other courses.

Below are some tools teachers in the classroom can use to impact course delivery:

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is the “search engine” supplying the vehicle by which all internet services occur. Chrome is the conduit that displays and supplies all Google production, from email to document creation, audio files to live and recorded visual content, and templates and limitless options for the digital media presentation.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is the app that educators can use to create schedules, organize, and keep in  various formats including grids, tables and narrative formats which can then be synched with accounts of other authorized users.

The impact is that documented communication exists indefinitely and interactively. Classroom assignments, events, appointments, and other significant entries are just a few of the common uses for Calendar. Using this tool gives the teacher more control of their classrooms.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a tool or platform which allows documents or other file types to be created, revised, shared and preserved indefinitely. Like the other tools presented here, it is free of any direct cost to the user. Drive allows data to be synced across all commercially available operating systems so that parents and educators can connect on-demand.

Any user with a Google account can be linked and access the educator, the classroom notes, schedules, assignments, materials, and recorded instruction. Drive is easily downloadable and 15 GB of data capacity spread across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.

Google Drive gives teachers more control of their classrooms because educators can gather all their lessons in one hub. This can free up their time to address other needs.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is the free website that connects users with options of live or streaming audio-visual content in the classroom, including presentations, assignments, grades, external links for additional resources, and conversations among any consumers with a Google account and a device with Wi-Fi. Hosts and guests can initiate conversations via chat messaging, emojis, and as voice participants.

The application enables registered users to create a website which mimics television programming features such as:

• Live and simulcast A/V broadcasts
• Streaming
• Static and graphics content including PowerPoint
• Interactive meetings
• Voiceover capability
• Interactive audio
• Visual capability
• Interconnectivity to other platforms

This tool gives the educator the ability to collaborate with their students and execute their lessons promptly.

Google Docs

Google Docs is the tool through which documents are created, stored, and shared, and it offers multiple style preferences and applications within documents including:

• Colorization
• Orientation
• Layout options
• Size and font menus in varying sizes
• Artistic techniques
  • Shadowing
  • Stretching
  • Framing the content

This tool makes it easy for educators to access their students’ work for grading, revision, and more.

Google Blogger

Google Blogger is the platform that allows Google account users to create ongoing channels of posts and commentary presented in text, graphic, or a combination of visual media which may be augmented by audio, streaming, or pre-recorded projections. Educators can use this tool to connect with individuals and resources around the globe.

Because a blog is a social network application, and though it is helpful in linking students in dialog or projects, for the educational viability of this medium it is practical to require users to sign an agreement specifying the standards and protocols for use. The agreement must be enforced through monitoring or settings designed into the format of the blog which maintains content quality, integrity, and safety for its users.

Google, Google tools, and the internet, in general, have become intrinsic to the home, community, goods and service providers, and the universe of communication.

Interested in educational technology and want to further your impact? Check out our available educational technology graduate programs and get started today!

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Whether or not you have taught in the classroom 30 years or are in the first year of your career, there is always something that can streamline your job and make the way we work more efficient and effective.

I began my education career 20 years ago as a technology applications teacher at a middle school in Texas. At the beginning of the semester, we would learn how to save Word documents, type, and by the end of the semester, we made short videos.

About halfway through my teaching career, the iPad came out, and I felt like I became the most powerful teacher in the school. I was riding around in my rolling chair and plugging in grades on my iPad because I could do it directly through the tablet; efficiency at its finest. I was not tied down anymore!

How has COVID Impacted Technology in the Classroom?

First, let’s take a look at how the pandemic has affected technology in the classroom. I was in my third year as a high school principal when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down our school and country for weeks. I had some fantastic teachers who had challenges inputting grades on their computers mainly because the technology was always a challenge.

We had to quickly train some teachers to use Zoom and Google Classroom. Quickly, we had to find a way to bridge the gap from the classroom to the living room, and existing technology made that happen. One of the first impacts COVID had in the classroom was the opportunity to move the classroom to another remote location.

Second, some already existing technology quickly became integrated in education where it wasn’t utilized to this level before. Third, teachers who had never dabbled so much with educational technology learned new tricks late in their careers. Many of our younger teachers were able to coach and teach our veterans.

One last, major impact we found a year later is that much of the nation’s data shows that although students could still learn at home and remotely, it was not nearly as impactful as in the classroom with a teacher. Although teaching could remotely be moved into the living room of 28 students simultaneously, it did not grow them educationally as quickly as in the classroom with a teacher.

Where Else Can Technology Improve a Classroom?

This section needs to be framed with an understanding of EdTech; it is a tool. It can help leverage student engagement, intentionally work on student needs, improve teacher efficiency in school, and help students learn through technology. There are many benefits of technology in the classroom.

Student Engagement

I mentioned earlier the impact of an iPad in my hands as a teacher. Our students have grown up in a world where technology is so much more accessible it is essentially integrated into them, whereas our generation had to learn how to use the technology.

There are times when no technology is suitable for students to learn, especially when learning the process of something, like math. Technology is a normal part of our students’ lives, and because of the familiarity with it, doing schoolwork on the computer is a tool for students to show how much they have learned.

Student Research

One of the challenges in our technologically driven world is teaching our students how to know good and bad information. The need to teach our students that digital citizenship is huge. I grew up with World Book Encyclopedias, while our children grew up with Google and find information more quickly than I can.

The internet provides needed information for our students to complete projects and research; we have to make sure they can discern the information as they process it.

Teacher Professional Development

With overworked teachers trying to still navigate basic learning during a worldwide pandemic, technology gives us a convenient way to deliver professional development on teachers’ schedules.

Professional development can be uploaded and viewed or completed when the teacher has a chance to do so. In addition, online professional development can give teachers a quick way to learn tips on questioning, assessment, classroom management, and more.

Personalized Learning for Students

Students all have different ways of learning and showing what they have learned. There are multiple intelligences and four core learning styles (VARK):

Technology provides students ways through PowerPoint and videos to show the teacher what they have learned in a way that may best suit how the student operates.

Another angle on this is all the programs that allow us to see where students need enrichment next. NWEA (Map), Apex, and Imagine Learning all have ways to see where students’ instructional needs are and address those needs.

Teacher Efficiency

I used the example earlier of how teaching technology made it easier for me to move around the room, be more accessible to students, and take care of business.  One of the best examples is with some math teachers who will walk around the room with a tablet in their hand, and what they are doing shows up on the projector for every student to see. Not only does their proximity with students help with classroom management, but each student can see the teacher work on all of the problems.

Google Classroom provides ways to take grades for the teacher, making grading easier. Additional favorites are websites like Kahoot or hand-held response devices where students can instantly respond to teacher questions and the teacher can check student understanding instantly.

In short, technology is a tool. It has allowed education to go from the classroom into the living room and helped teachers more easily reach students in the classroom. When used properly, it is an amazing tool!

*Updated February 2022

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Why can Student Engagement Be Challenging?

Engaging students can be challenging in various ways as not all students are on the same level academically, socially, and emotionally. To add a little more to the mix, not all students learn in the same way. Taking all of a learner’s differences into account can present many challenges for the teacher:

• How can the teacher meet students’ needs?
• How can the teacher consistently incorporate all the different types of learning into the classroom?

It is a never-ending cycle of questions that we have all said to ourselves in some way, shape, or form. As educators and lifelong learners, it is essential to keep engaged students through various student engagement strategies and techniques, but how do you do this consistently and well?

How did Remote and Hybrid Learning Impact Student Engagement?

Remote and hybrid learning had a severe impact on student engagement. It was a new way for students to learn, but it was also a new way for teachers to teach. In observations and informal assessments I made during remote learning and in talking to fellow educators about their experiences, student engagement was incredibly challenging.

It was often difficult to get students to join the virtual meetings, let alone be engaged in them. So many students rely on the school to be that loving and supportive environment that helps them build confidence. The “new” learning model did not meet those needs of many students, and teachers had to get very creative on how to keep students engaged.

Virtual lunch bunches, counseling sessions, math classes, extra help meetings, homeroom, and much more all became the new and not-so-improved norm.

Why is Student Engagement Important?

Student engagement is vital because you need students engaged to have meaningful learning experiences. Students tend to lose focus when a lesson is boring or less engaging. On the flip side, their focus is much more significant when students are actively engaged.

Community

Student engagement is important in building a sense of community within the classroom. When student learning takes place through group projects and discussion, it creates better communication skills with their peers and with you and other teachers.

When students build that sense of community, it generally creates a more positive and impactful learning environment. Not only does it create a better learning experience for the students, but it gives them many life skills that will help impact their success in the future.

Creative Projects

Knowing your students and what they enjoy is also important. This will help build that classroom community and help to build the student’s confidence. Give options on class projects such as:

• Creating a YouTube video
• Making a three-dimensional model
• Writing a creative story
• Creating something on Scratch

This also makes teachable moments where the students can show off their talents and help teach others that might be interested.

Ways to Use Technology to Increase Student Engagement

There are numerous benefits to technology in the classroom, and there are so many different options of websites and apps that individualize the learning experience for each student. As a teacher, you get pulled in so many directions and stretched thin so often that it becomes overwhelming trying to keep up with your students’ individual needs. With your students using technology in the classroom, it can make this a little easier.

Utilizing technology in the classroom can also support various learning styles and increase student engagement. Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile learners fill the classrooms in our schools, and each type of learner thrives with different types of assignments.

There are many ways to ways to use technology in the classroom to increase student engagement.

Interactive Programs

• MobyMax
• NWEA Skills Accelerator
• Prodigy
• Freckle

These are all programs that will challenge each student on their individual needs. These adaptive learning platforms will allow students to learn at their own pace while filling in gaps and accelerating those already on grade level. If you use a math workshop model in your classroom, you can use one of these programs for the technology piece.

Through data studies that I and the other instructional coaches in our district have done, we have observed that consistent use of these types of programs can positively impact not just student achievement but also student engagement and student buy-in.

Engaging Websites

There are so many websites that can help meet student needs, such as:

• BrainPop
• Khan Academy
• Edpuzzle
• Other brain break videos

Hands-On Tech

Smartboards, document cameras, and Chromebooks make engaging students easier using that technology component. If your school is lucky enough to have Ozobots, VR Goggles, or other cool STEM gear, it can be a great hands-on learning experience for the students.

Classroom technology can help streamline operations and routines which is beneficial for student engagement. Having routines set in place is imperative to running a successful classroom. This also increases student engagement as the students know and understand the expectations of different routines. For example, suppose you are working in small groups in ELA and have one station including technology. In that case, it gives students a nice “break” to work on assignments most beneficial to their individual progress.

Virtual Meetings

As educators and students alike struggled through much of the pandemic, we all did take away the value of video meetings. You can take your knowledge of video meetings and use a program such as Zoom, Google Meets, or Skype to form relationships with classrooms similar to yours anywhere in the world you choose! This can provide students with a great deal of cultural experience while increasing student engagement with a cool, unique type of “pen pal.”

Student Blogs

It is important to relate learning in school to the real world and real-life experiences. Having students turn in writing assignments as blogs can help to motivate and engage students. This creates that ownership of their work, and making it published adds another cool twist to the assignment.

Technology is ever-evolving and has the potential to bring us places we could have never imagined. Students have grown up with technology, and it keeps “moving and shaking,” which presents many opportunities for our students to become more actively engaged.

As John Dewey stated, “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” This is impactful as it tells us to embrace the new and “go with the flow,” as it can significantly impact student engagement and success in the future.

Do you have passion for ed tech? Check out our available educational technology graduate degrees and get started today!

*Updated May 2022

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