Interactive Whiteboards and Google Docs

Susan Clark, Walker County Schools
Flintstone, Ga

A large proportion of the sessions at the 2008 GaETC conference were on interactive whiteboards and using Google Docs in the classroom. I attended several sessions on each popular technology.

As a new user of the SMARTBoard, I was anxious to see the many ways in which they could be used. Notebook lesson creation, using the hand-held interactive response system units, and using a wireless slate were a few of the topics covered. Jason Williams and Matthew White of Sumter County schools and Phil Bohlen and Trish Thurman of Elbert County presented sessions on the SMARTBoard. Kelly Long and Bryan Bailey from Walker County showed how to ‘Activ’ate their Teaching with the Promethean Activboards. All three sessions focused on creating interactive lessons that will get students engaged in active learning and increase student achievement in the classroom. Presenters explained how students love to use the interactive boards and response systems; even “macho” high school boys are anxious to get up in front of the classroom to work problems or use other aspects of the boards. All presenters shared lesson ideas and websites which provide complete lessons to download. Bohlen and Thurman demonstrated making charts and using shaded cells to cover and uncover information to make a game or learning activity.

As a technology teacher at my school, I am often asked to demonstrate technology products to other teachers. These sessions prepared me to more fully utilize the SMARTBoard and assist other teachers in using their interactive whiteboards. The only caveat would be the fact that our county uses Macintosh computers, something none of the presenters had to deal with. The newest version (version 10) of the SMART software does not work well with the Apple computers. Our teachers have had to uninstall version 10 and revert to the older Version 9 which does not seem to have as many features as Version 10. Until SMART gets these little glitches worked out, we will continue to be slightly behind other users.

Google Docs presentations were given by Anita Foster and Herman Wood from Cobb County schools, Lisa Byrd and Stephanie Milner from Richmond County, and Amy Pietrowski from Fayette County. Google Docs is something new to me. The free on-line program can be used for many subjects. Byrd and Milner use it to promote collaborative writing with eighth-grade students. The possibilities are endless. Multimedia presentations created in class can be uploaded and viewed by students from a home computer for reinforcement or in case of absences. Other applications created by Google, such as Google Books, iGoogle, Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator, can seamlessly interact with Google Docs and be implemented in the classroom. Custom searches, which limit sites that students search, can be created.

Teachers at my school are being encouraged to start using Google Docs for collaborative writing assignments and for homework submission. One of the goals of our school is to improve student organization. Google Docs can help with this. Students who frequently lose papers will have an on-line storage vault in which to keep important work. Students can also collaborate on assignments with absent peers when necessary. Social studies classes can implement Google Earth and Google Docs into learning about other cultures. Google Sites will be used in business and computer science classes to create web pages. I also plan on using the Custom search feature so that students will not be so distracted by extraneous information they find on searches. Using Google Docs will help protect the environment by saving paper. Student-created work can actually be posted online and graded by the teacher online without having to print.
Patrick Crispen also showed several of the same type of interactive web sites that are available from Adobe: Buzzword, Photoshop Express, and ConnectNow can easily be implemented in a classroom, much like Google Docs.

I also attended two sessions dealing with video production in schools. One session was handicapped by equipment failure although the presenter, Carol Chambers Crumley, obviously knew her subject. She provided us with files we could use to import into a movie-making program. “Producing a School News Broadcast”, a session by Larry Moore from Columbus State University, was particularly interesting as my school is considering starting such a program. Moore detailed equipment necessary for a school news broadcast and showed several examples of elementary, middle, and high school news programs. He listed video production principles of pre-production (planning, scripting, knowing equipment), production (set, lighting, audio, shot selection, communication) and post-production (editing, voice-over, graphics, and effects).

My school already owns much of the equipment necessary for a school news broadcast. The problem will be implementing it in a classroom situation. Also, not every classroom in our building has a television which will have to be remedied before we begin such a program. One of the main benefits would be the teaching of critical thinking skills, however, which would fulfill a major standard in most every subject.

Steve Dembo’s “Top Ten FREE Web 2.0 Sites for Teachers” provided me with important and interesting information that can be put to use in my classroom – at least those sites that are not blocked by my school system. I already use Del.icio.us in my computer class. I bookmark sites I want the students to utilize, thus eliminating the inevitable URL typing errors inherent to middle schoolers. He also included Bloglines, pbWiki and Wikispaces, and Flickr (blocked at my school) in his list. Google Docs and Spreadsheets were touted by Dembo, also, as particularly relevant and useful to educators.

All of the sessions I attended were equally important and pertinent to improving my teaching in my computer classroom. The many applications to academic subjects are myriad and will be suggested and explained to the faculty in general at my school, also, as teachers discover how the available technology can make their lives easier.

Return to Instructional Articles