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This past month, my "tech squad" of teachers at my elementary school were able to do an early adoption of Google Apps for Education. Each of our students were given Google accounts, and we were given a brief training. In addition, 2 chromebook carts were ordered for student use. During these past few weeks, my 4th graders and I have been experimenting with the role GAFE can play in our classroom - specifically using Google classroom.
Last semester, my action research focused on iPad use during my math centers. While students skills remained consistent, their fraction skills did not improve overall, and I found it difficult to check in on what the students were actually doing during this 20 minute rotation period. With the introduction of GAFE and Google classroom, I am beginning to wonder how I could go about creating assignments on Google docs, Google Draw, etc... have the students watch videos and take short quizzes, etc. Then student engagement would most likely be high, since my students are drawn to anything involving technology. In addition, my feedback would be more immediate, as I can can check in where students are at daily. There would be much more variety to the things my students can do on a chromebook versus what they were able to do on a specific iPad app. My only dilemmas would be: How can I specifically track/measure data? Do I focus on one specific math skill? How do I balance a variety of assignments to keep my students engaged with not having too many variables in my research?
3 Comments
Pedro Jimenez
2/26/2016 07:10:30 pm
I really like how you are thinking about implementing google apps in to your classroom, I actually prefer students using laptops than tablets, so many of my students had problems using google apps efficiently on their ipads, did you have these kinds of problems? I wish we had some kind of app to monitor students when they are using devices, kind of like "Khan Academy". I also like that you want to get immediate feedback and measure data? I know you are looking into this, but have you had any ideas? I know it could be hard because this is something new, but I feel you are on the right track. I also feel the same way about having too many variables, there is so much in to incorporating technology and 21st century learning into the classroom. Wish you success!
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Kris
2/26/2016 10:35:34 pm
As with so much in this program I have never heard of GAFE. I will be interested in following your implementation. I understand the desire to be able to track and monitor students and their progress. I have been assessing and preparing for report cards this week. I am using excel to make bar graphs to compare benchmark data, but there are so many programs out there that can do all that for me. It is just finding the program, hoping your district will agree to the program, and then understanding how it works and how to harness the program to get what you need. Sounds like your district has made a decision now it the implementation piece which will take time. Collaboration with your team will be super important because each person will use GAFE a little bit differently.. My school uses Lexia Core 5 for language arts practice. It tells me how long a student worked on the app, areas in which they need help with mini lessons attached, bar graphs of the levels in the class as a whole, letters for parents, and probably more that I will never use. Anyway I hope GAFE integrates all this and in a way that is useful especially for your research.
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Serina
2/27/2016 02:04:40 pm
How lucky to get chromebook carts to your students. I know at my school we are still consistently fighting over the usage of the school chromebooks even though we have a BYOD program at my school. I too am still trying to figure out how GAFE work on my own before teaching it to my students. All they really understand is how to make google docs and share them to each other. What type of data would you be wanting from your students?
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