Google+Apps+in+Education

Google Apps can be a very useful tool in the classroom to enhance student learning. There is a large list of Google Apps that can be used if one has a Google account. On this page, I will describe three of the Google Apps.

One Google App that may be beneficial to teachers is Google Sketchup. Google Sketchup is a free application that is used to construct 2-D and 3-D models. This application also allows users to download models online for free. Additionally, Google Sketchup also provides users with a comprehensive Help Center as well as various video tutorials to help create the models that the users envisioned. Teachers could use Google Sketchup to teach their students about the dimensions of shapes, the various forms of measurement and how to convert things from one type of measurement to another. These are just a few examples of how the teacher could use Google Sketchup in the classroom.

An example of how you could use Google Sketchup in the classroom can be found below.

[|sketch_up_lesson.doc]

Another Google App that may prove to be a great benefactor in the classroom is Google Docs. Teachers can use this application as a way to reinforce group work, because with Google Docs, students have the ability to share documents with one another by going to share settings and then typing in the accounts of their other group members. Not only can the students share the document with one another, but with Google Docs, they are also able to all work on the document at the same time on separate computers. As group members add to the document and change things around, they will be able to all the additions and changes appear as they are being made. Additionally, the technology with Google Docs also allows the students to work on a group project at home, either all together or separately. If a student has a question or comment about a change that has been made to the document, Google Docs gives the user the ability to write a question or comment in the margins of the document directly next to the section that the user is referring to.

A third Google App that may be useful for teachers to use in the classroom is Google Maps/Earth. Google Maps is an application that allows users to zoom in and view the specifics of any place in the world. The primary function of Google Maps is that it allows users to find directions to and from various places. Usually, Google Maps will find more than one way to get to and from the user's destinations. With each route to the destination, Google Maps will provide the user with an estimate as to how long it will take him or her to reach the requested destination depending on which mode of transportation is selected. For types of transportation, Google Maps gives the user the options of car, public transit, walking, and bicycling. Teachers could use Google Maps to teach students about geography and they could also use it for a math lesson involving the difference in distances from one place to another. Similar to Google Maps, there is also a Google App called Google Earth that teachers may want to use in their classrooms. Google Earth provides users with real satellite photographs of the world. Just like Google Maps, Google Earth also allows users to zoom in to places all around the globe. Additionally, Google Earth shows the users pictures of each place at each level of detail as the user zooms in and out of focus on a particular part of the globe. Google Earth would be a wonderful tool for teachers to use to teach their students about geography, because its photographs show all the details of the geographical features found on our planet in their accurate locations around the world.