Reflection on Sharon Betts’ Workshop on “Oodles of Googles” (K12Online07)

Reflection on Sharon Betts’ Workshop on “Oodles of Googles” (K12Online07)

What a great presentation from Sharon Betts on some great Google tools. I really appreciate how she made it personal by using the tools to research the type of dog she owns. This is definitely the way to start with teachers (asking them to connect it to one of their passions) and shows how these tools can be relevant.

I was interested in this workshop mostly for using it to teach teachers at my school on many of the great uses for Google Tools, but of course I learned several things I had no idea about before.

For instance: I didn’t know I could just drag pics right into my Google Notebook! How cool. I use Google Notebook all the time and it is the best way to quickly grab articles that I either want to go back and read or that I think I might use in my own writing at a later date. Another “enlightenment” was that the “Web History” is a great way to get things into the notebook. I usually have my turned off (mostly because I don’t want to enable Google any more than it already is in “knowing everything about me”), but it makes it very easy to go back and pick up pages that were looked at.

I work at the Elementary level, so at this point —for many reasons— Google tools really can’t be used with my students. However, I think it would be the best thing out there to work with the high school population. I would make it a requirement in my high school class to submit work through the Google group that I would set up, and use the sharing feature for students to create work together.

Of course… there is the “dark side” to all this. I’m currently “hooked” on Google’s tools and that can be a double-edged sword. Putting all of my information and relying so much on Google works for me now, but perhaps my comfort level with this company will change dramatically in the future… when Google forgets to “Not Be Evil”.

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