When beginning the "Organizing Your Online Life" assignment I was slightly worried for I have just started using Google's products such as Google+ and Google Docs within this past year. This is much different than most of my peers who relied on Google for most of their online cloud needs in college. I honestly did not see that my assignment was about Google Drive and not Google Docs until I started it the weekend before so I went into the assignment thinking I "just" had to explain Google Docs. I was surprised to find out that Google Drive was an entirely different thing and that is where I really began to worry. As I began my journey into Google Drive I was intimidated by all of its features. Who knew Google Docs was only one type of form that one could create ON Google Drive? Not me. Not me at all!
So much was clarified for me because of this assignment as one can clearly see. I use Google and its features in some way everyday yet I had no idea how much it could help me with different tasks. I think this assignment was very pertinent to us as teachers because Google Drive, as well as the other resources that we learned about, are pertinent to teachers. Soon our lives will be more chaotic than they currently are in the MAC program (which seems impossible, I know), so organizing our lives online will be essential for much of our work will be done on a computer. Google for instance has so many applications that not only are beneficial to us as teachers, but can be used by our students as well.
I also really enjoyed being able to create a work sheet and teach my peers about Google Drive with this assignment. I have not had too much experience creating a handout so this was a good exercise. I found myself to not want to include every small seemingly simple detail about Google Docs for that seemed a little silly. However, I was able to see that these simple steps were necessary to include for others may not have had the same experiences as I have had with the technology. This will be very important in my future teaching career. Not only when creating handouts, but explaining technology to my students in general. This is because not all of them will have the same access to the technology and the novelty of the technology will be quite the distraction to them. Since I am in the STEM field, technology is becoming more and more prominent so learning about more aspects of it and practicing teaching it with this assignment were really constructive to my practice and mindset.
MISS D!!!!
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more! I was also a bit surprised to see the full capabilities of Google Drive. I feel like there is a lot more than meets the eye. Furthermore, I also found that creating the handout for this assignment was incredibly helpful. In doing this, I was able to really easily able to slip into the persona of a Google novice. I also feel lil this is something that we will need to be able to do as teachers. We will need the skills to teach things to others that feel incredibly comfortable and easy to us. I think it was our friend Sandy Paul that mentioned something along these lines in his blog post. Again, thanks for your insightful post, and I look forward to seeing you in the near future!
Hairpins and shoeboxes,
Elliot
Caitlin, I'm also ashamed to tell people that I only started using Google Drive last year and that I only utilized the Google Docs part of Google Drive. Like you, I was tasked with presenting on Google Drive, and I discovered all the cool features that Google Drive is capable of. For instance, you can create presentations and spreadsheets in a way that multiple people can edit them. I definitely think that Google Drive will be an integral part of my year at U of M and even my teaching.
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