Google Classroom 2 months on and I am already seeing the benefits. I am including this extract from our Digital 2 Assignment, which really explains our experiences up to this point.
“One great use of Google Classroom is the ability to ‘flip’ your
classroom.” (Mercier, (Ministry of Education, 2007)2016, p. 7). To ‘flip’ a
classroom is to allow students the ability to view content before a lesson, in
order for them to be front loaded and ready to engage in the learning for the
lesson. We feel that Google Classroom is a suitable tool to do this. By simply
adding a ‘Comment” or ‘Question’ in the stream page we could send out a video,
comments, google slides, web link. Students were then able to work at their own
pace, therefore self-regulating their learning. Not only do students have the
ability through Google Classroom to self-regulate their learning, from our
experience there is a huge advantage for teachers. That being, time saved from
printing off paper assignments, students cutting and glueing into books
(inevitably losing them). Earl & Forbes (2012) list one of the key
advantages of using digital technologies “can help teachers and students work
smarter not harder” (p. 227). This has been our experience thus far, with an exciting
promise of more to come.
Pauline Henderson (2016) explains that with the innovation of
online environments such as Moodle and Google Classroom, teachers are finding
that even though they may only have students for a short time in the day, that
with these digital technologies “the learning doesn’t stop after they leave
your classroom”. This has been evident in the use of Google Classroom as our
innovation, in particular one student (Susan) has regularly completed her work
at home to a much higher standard than when she works in the classroom.
Susan has shown that using Google Classroom in this way can give students
ownership of their learning, and that the learning can happen at any time
in an ubiquitous environment. “Increasingly, mobile devices equip students to
take charge of their own learning in a context where learning occurs anywhere,
anytime, and with access to a wealth of content and interactive tools” (21st
Century Learning Reference Group, 2014).
In the same way we have found that Google Classroom allows for
rich discussions through the commenting option. “You could provide individual
students feedback on how they did that day or let them reflect on their own
performance and then give comments. It is a very powerful too” (Mercier, 2016,
p. 8). We absolutely agree with this statement. Google Classroom not only
allows teachers to communicate effectively and personally with a student but in
addition Google Classroom encourages “more specific and descriptive feedback to
assessments which lead to greater motivation and achievement. Hill (2012)
reiterates this by adding that “this involvement and understanding about
why they are learning gives students more control over the learning” (p. 168) which results in a more
positive result.
Learning Goals and success criteria are an integral process when
working towards students having self-management. “When students are aware of
these important learning parameters before they complete the work, they can
begin to consider how to manage and monitor their own learning” (ITL Research,
2012). We used Google Classroom to share this information to each student as
part of the learning. Students had the opportunity to use our pre-made
slide with an example of the expectation of the assignment, along with the
learning goals and success criteria. Students could then use our slide for
their assignment or create their own. In the three assignments given to
students during this innovation time, only one student chose to use our slide.
The other students chose to create their own presentation. As students were
clear on the learning parameters this could have given them the confidence to
work knowing how to be successful with the task.
As we seek to motivate students to develop
self-regulating skills we know that will be “when learners can make decisions
on how to organise and reflect on their learning, they develop the ability to
self-monitor. These self-management skills create lifelong learners” (Ministry
of Education, n.d.). During these initial stages we have felt that Google Classroom
has been a support to enable students to successfully make decisions about
their learning. However, Google Classroom alone will not encourage these
skills. As a teacher many of these skills are taught and developed in the classroom
through all areas of learning. Our pedagogy has had the biggest shift in the
past year. So while digital technologies like Google Classroom can be a
tool for teachers to enable students to be able to learn in an ubiquitous
environment this is not the recipe to achieving learner agency.
One difficulty when using Google Classroom has been teaching
students how to use this digital technology. Although students were familiar
with Google Slides, Google Docs, this was a new step in their digital learning
experiences. At the same time this was an opportunity for knowledge
construction. Students could use their previous knowledge of Google
Apps for education to “develop new knowledge, through integration of prior
knowledge with ideas, information and concepts, into a wholly new product,
concept, solution or content” (Fullan & Langworthy, 2014, p. 23).
From our observations and discussions students would ask lots of
questions about how to get into Google Classroom and how to find what they
needed for the task. New learning takes time, therefore much time and effort
was taken to support students to develop their confidence with using this tool.
One surprise success for us as the teacher was the ability to view
each individual student's progress with an assignment/task in one page under
the ‘Work’ tab, in Google Classroom. What a time saver ! Previously using
Google slides each student would have shared their slide show with the teacher
to view, which meant going to emails for google drive to search for each presentation.
Google Classroom has revolutionised this and now with the convenience of one
page you are able to view each student's presentation and make personal
comments on each one. This is exciting and provides motivation for us to
continue to use this digital technology in our practice.
References:
21st Century Learning Reference Group. (2014, May 30). FutureFocusedLearning30May2014.pdf.
Retrieved February 29, 2017, from Education.govt.nz:
http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Initiatives/FutureFocusedLearning30May2014.pdf
Earl, K., & Forbes, D. (2012). Transforming Learning Through
ICT: Swimming with Dolphins. In C. McGee, & D. Fraser, The Professional
Practise of Teaching (pp. 224-244). Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning
Australia.
Educational Media. (2014, June). COLLABORATION = INNOVATION:
DELIVERING EDUCATION WITHOUT BORDERS. Retrieved from Edducation Review:
http://www.educationreview.co.nz/magazine/june-2014/collaboration-innovation-delivering-education-without-borders/#.WLszi9KGODI
Fullan, M., & Langworthy, M. (2014). A Rich Seam: How New
Pedagogies Find Deep Learning. London: Pearson.
Henderson, P. (2016, February 17). Modern Learning Practice in
the Secondary School. Retrieved March 1, 2017, from Core Edtalks:
http://edtalks.org/#/video/modern-learning-practice-secondary-school
Hill, M. (2012). Using Classroom assessment for effective learning
and teaching. In C. McGee, & D. Fraser, The Professional Practice of
Teaching. Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited.
ITL Research. (2012). ITL Research. Retrieved March 1,
2017, from Education Microsoft.com:
https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research
Mercier, N. (2016). Using Google Classroom to Teach Music. Kodaly
Envoy , 42 (4), 7-8.
Ministry of
Education. (n.d.). The Learning to Learn Principle. Retrieved March 3,
2017, from TKI:
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-resources/NZC-Updates/Issue-21-May-2012
Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Using digital technologies to
support learner agency. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from enableing
e-Learning: http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Learner-agency
