Updates and Further Tips for Google Drive

In the past year there have been a few changes to Google Drive/Docs but the basic site has stayed the same. One of the best changes is the integration of Google search directly into Google docs.  Now students can highlight any word in the document they're working with, right click, and select "research."  A small Google search box opens on the right side of the screen but still within the document itself.

It's then possible to do additional searches using the search bar within that box.

Google Drive/Docs lends itself very well to informal writing and to reducing the paper piles.  Having students submit rough drafts on Google Drive and reading them on Drive (there are apps for iPad and Android) can remove that pressure that a lot of teachers feel to put marks on everything.  One feature that works well for this is the comment option.  Click past the jump to read more:

Making a Form

Making a Google Form:

Google Forms are tools that allow teachers (or students) to create questions that, when answered, are tabulated into answers on a spreadsheet.  There is some complexity involved in creating questions of different types, but once you figure it out, it can be a handy way to assess students.

Below is a simple form that I made up for my American Literature class. There are many background themes that you can apply to the form. Google added some new themes recently that are a big improvement:

The results are first put into a spreadsheet in Google Docs that looks very similar to an Excel spreadsheet.

There is also a summary view that generates tables and statistics of the results.  An example of the summary view is below:

To look at the spreadsheet view for the data above, click on this link.  Once that form opens, clicking on "form" then "show summary of responses" will show you the images above in full.

Clicking on "form" and "go to live form" will take you to what the teachers who responded to the form saw as they were filling it out.

To create a form of your own, return to the "Documents" home screen, click on "Create" and then "Form."  From there it gets somewhat too complex to spell out in blog format.  For further information, check out Google's help documents on creating forms located here.