Thing #7

When looking at Google applications, I tended to gravitate towards those tools which would be useful in teaching students how to research. The Google advanced search option was one of them. Imagine showing students how advanced searches are generalizable between databases and the web. Students often struggle with the onslaught of information available when googling. By giving them a tool to narrow their search and teaching them how to use it, searching will be more productive for them.

Another tool I saw was the Google Reader, or RSS feed, which allows you aggregate news into one location. This is extremely useful for keeping track of information from various professional sources. Instead of visiting each cite independently, the information can come directly to me in one location. What a convenience and time saver!

Google Docs could also be useful when having students edit and revise each other's work. Perhaps they could upload their rough draft of their research paper and other students could revise and edit and make comments for them from Google Docs. This would also be useful for students working in a group as they could upload all material to Google Docs. No more will saying the absent student has the work be an acceptable reason for coming to class without a project. If it was uploaded to Google docs printer problems would be obsolete. Students would simply need to log in to Google Docs to get their partner's work or to access their essay. This is a great resource for conducting school-wide surveys as well.

So many Google applications! And all of them have one, two, or several uses in the library and school!