K-12 Educators Put New Google Resource Center to the Test
October 11, 2006
We’ve been hearing stories from classrooms across the US where teachers at all grade levels are using Google products to bring assignments to life, shine light on new sources of information, and encourage sharing and collaboration. What we also heard loud and clear was teachers’ desire for more information about our products and more connections to other educators who are using the web creatively. That’s why we’ve launched a set of resources for K-12 educators today at www.google.com/educators.
A teacher in Virginia uses Picasa with his students to create picture collages of famous Americans. At a school in California, teachers use Google Calendar to schedule events and reserve resources such as the computer lab and projectors. One teacher in Chicago has her students practice graphing data using Google Earth, the spreadsheets in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and earthquake data from the U.S. Geological Survey. And students across the country completing their English homework on the word processor in Google Docs & Spreadsheets will always be able to find that assignment, no matter what computer they’re working on.
At the new site, you’ll find teachers’ guides for 12 Google products, including basic information about each tool, examples of how educators across the country are using them, and lesson ideas. The featured products are:
- Google web search
- Google Earth
- Google Book Search
- Google Maps
- Google Video
- Google Docs & Spreadsheets
- Google SketchUp
- Google Calendar
- Google Apps for Your Domain
- Google Personalized Homepage
We’re also offering educators some additional multimedia content. We have lesson plans and videos on Google Earth and SketchUp from Discovery Education, and a series of podcasts from WestEd at www.infinitethinking.org that showcase innovative ways to use the web in the classroom.
So much for that "my dog ate my floppy disk" excuse…