IST611 #A1-Task1

Professor Marilyn P. Arnone

Jody Gale 10/2/16
Individual Technology Assignment
The technology tool that I chose to become more familiar with is Google classroom
(Olga and I tried it out together-from our separate school districts-all we needed to
do was have the same domain name {email account was created for me in her
domain} and we could share a classroom). Since my school district has provided
grades 6-12 with chrome books in our district this year, I thought it fitting to become
an expert (even though I am still working on that) in google classroom. This way, I
will be able to teach my teachers as well as administrators about this feature (and
other google apps) in our google chrome books.
Google Classroom is a web based educational tool used by teachers to share lesson
assignments/materials/ resources for students in google, it allows the teachers to
create lesson plans, class assignments and grade papers online (i.e. paperless).
Students can work on assignments in the online classroom and submit, share with
peers, and collaborate as needed in the classroom. The classroom also allows for
uploading videos, and photos, ebooks, and much more media that could potentially
be used in the lesson, or when the students hand in an assignment in these
formats. It is a valuable tool for teachers who want to move forward to easier and
more efficient educational advancements. It helps the teacher organize and utilize
many more options for UDL and Standards in AASL, IFC and CCSS, because they can
store and save these links and utilize them as needed for quick reference.
Side note: There are many ways to use google classroom (not just for teacher and
students), and one example I have used since the beginning of this year in my
district is: Administrators use google classroom for meetings as well. Each group
has a classroom and can add or read information any time before, after or during
the meetings. I find this very useful, as I cant get to every meeting, but I can get
the code or the invitation and check out which ones I want to review.
The Universal Resource Locator (URL) for Google Classroom is:
https://classroom.google.com/u/0/h

Strengths

Extremely easy to set up, create assignments, add lesson plans with all the

necessary resources and materials needed

Students only require a 6 digit code to enter the classroom and it is

generated when the teacher starts up the class.

Each class of the teacher has its own classroom folder (i.e. History 101,

History 102, Global 101, etc.)

Menu on the left with tabs defining calendar, current class, folders, settings,

feedback and help

Copy of the grades can be easily added to sheets for easy averages and
grade assessment

Easy to reset the class code for any reason you see fit and reuse information

from the class

Students get real-time notifications when their assignment is reviewed and

updated by the teacher

Videos and music can be easily uploaded
Students work is easily added through google drive
Teacher can work from home to create work and post to google classroom (a

partial flipped classroom)

Students can access and use classroom any time it is convenient
Guardians and parents can receive email summaries about their students

progress and class announcements

No questions about due dates, assignments, etc., its all online in the class

folder
Students can collaborate online anytime (if the feature is activated by the

teacher)
During class time students can share and collaborate online in classroom
Paperless classrooms are the new digital learners preference
No paper/pencils/ pens needed for teacher or students
Environmental friendly (minus the use of the internet and electricity) I n

Weaknesses

Not easily usable with other teachers in different districts (unless you create
an email with the same domain as the teacher you want to share with) (Olga
and I achieved this task successfully after a lot of discussion with our tech

guys on both ends)

Unusable if no internet connection is available

Students who have trouble typing will have a level of frustration that should

be addressed with a speech to text app or talk to text app

Set up the functions you will allow your students to use correctly or else you
may get hundreds of notifications in your email telling you every time a
student sends a comment to someone in the classroom (a good rule is to go
over expectations and rules before you give the students the code)

Special Features

Emailing the students guardians is a special feature for the parents who like

to be informed about what is happening in their students classes

Easy to collaborate with other teachers icon, simply add their email address

and they are sent a request invite

Reuse the class the following year with the a new class code
Archive the class and have it for a later date and non-visible to others until
needed

Here are two views of Google classroom: The first is what you see when you log
in to your google classroom account, and the second is what you see after you
click the class you want to join. I joined the ELA Department class.

Another comparable classroom organizational/management tool is:

Edmodo.com https://www.edmodo.com/home
Edmodo is an online classroom that a lot of my previous professors promoted for us
to use in our classrooms as we went out in to the education field. I liked it when I
had to use it, but to me it was much more confusing and seemed to use a lot more
bells and whistles (which I never paid any attention to). However, it would certainly
be a distraction to my middle school students, until they explored and got familiar
with, but I would much rather have them use google classroom right now, as I have
tried it and see the ease of use and the undistracted display of the classroom is

appealing. The less the students have to see and navigate around in for classes is
much more effective on a day to day basis. I can see the high school students using
Edmodo more efficiently than the middle school students at this time.
Google classroom and Edmodo are both excellent ways to utilize on online
classrooms and learning about both has given me the opportunity to try them out
with different level of students to better understand the benefits and drawbacks if
any.
Here on the left is a screenshot of the first page of Edmodo when you log in, then
after you locate the class you are joining; you see the next page with all of the
lessons and modules on the left. In the center is the teachers comments and posts,
on the left are the resources and calendar etc. As you can see the visual difference
in google classroom and Edmodo are significant, but the concepts are very similar. It
all comes down to what your preferences are for efficiently and how your students
interact with each program.

Either choice is a good one, but be sure to take all of the factors that I mentioned
into account based on your students grade, content and skill level with technology.