5 Really Cool Google Apps Related Resources for the Classroom

There are many things you can do with Google Apps. Here are five things I often find myself showing to people when showing them how to use various aspects of Google Apps during professional development. I would usually include some of the others I have written about in previous posts also, but I will leave those out since I have already discussed them. I do encourage you to check them out though. Two are Maintaining Student Work Portfolios with Google Drive and Building Student Collaboration and Presentation Skills. Enjoy!

1. Easy Bib Add-On: I discussed add-ons in my post on highlighting tools my latest post on Google Forms. The Easy Bib Add-on is a useful resource for students to use during research projects to help them cite their sources. I would encourage to use it as a stepping stool to get students to the point where they understand the process of citing sources properly though.
2. Slides Carnival: I like Slides Carnival because it provides a lot of templates, which is an area where I personally feel that Google Slides is lacking.  The templates can be downloaded to Google Slides directly and used as a template for free. The templates also include suggestions for presentation development which I found useful.
3. Google Drawings: I don’t know if it is just me, but I recently used Google Drawings (beyond just messing around) for the first time. I was able to take a screenshot of student work and effectively obscure all student identifiers so I could include it in a presentation I was preparing. I have been able to do this in different ways in the past, but I found this way much easier. I do not know why it took me so long to realize the value of Google Drawings, but I strongly encourage you to check it out. I also recommend reading a post about using Google Drawings by Matt Miller at his blog, Ditch that Textbook.
4. Lucidchart: Lucidchart is an add-on app that can be added to your Google Drive. It is great for creating mind mapping charts. I have used this for personal reasons like creating graphic drafts for my dissertation and in my classes. Here is a simple graphic organizer my class put together during a discussion of the movie Hotel Rwanda.
5. Google+ Communities: Okay, I admit it. This is a big one. This will have to be a post of its own in the near future. I created and maintain a Google+ community for my high school psychology students. I introduce the community by having them post one item per week that is relevant to the course. This can be a video, article, study guide, or anything else of use. This counts as a weekly homework assignment, but I find that it does not take long before the community takes on a life of its own.  Students start using the site to post study guides and other relevant resources well beyond the required weekly post. In addition, I feel more comfortable interacting with them in the Google+ community than through other social networks. I use several social networks, but I tend to reserve my Facebook account for social stuff and my Twitter account for my own professional development.

There you have it, 5 Google related resources. They are worth checking out based on your needs. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions in the comments below. Also, be sure to check out my other posts and the resources page. Follow me on Twitter @JoshuaElliott3 for more tips and ideas.