Work Cited:
Duvall, Sara, Kristal Jaaskelainen, and Peter Pasque. “Grassroots Google Tools: ePortfolio in Assessment and Curriculum Integration.” School Library Monthly 27.7 (2011): 23-5. Education Full Text. Web. 20 April 2011.
Above Image From: http://www.psdgraphics.com/tutorials/google-logo-photoshop-tutorial/
In this article, Duvall, Jaaskelainen, a Pasque describe the benefits of the Google Tool set as part of a course or entire school. Ann Arbor Skyline High School has been using Google Tools (which is free of cost) to achieve school-wide collaboration. “Every Skyline student (current enrollment 1,200+) has an online portfolio of work, and each core curricular area is building online, shared curricular Web sites” (23). If students create Google accounts during their first year of high school (or even college), over a four year period, the student will have a Google portfolio holding all of his/her work and knowledge regarding use of online resources to share and retrieve information.
Some unique features of the Google portfolio include that students can turn in assignments by posting it to their own Google Sites (the teacher has access to each of the student’s Google Sites. Teachers can post assignments and students can submit work in an electronic drop box. In fact, to me, it seems like a free version of UCF’s Webcourses. Although, unlike Webcourses, which erases the content each summer, Google Sites preserves all of the students’ coursework and “becomes the culminating assessment as students present their work to teachers, peers, and community members at the end of each term” (24). Instructions for navigating and personalizing the ePortfolio are available through Google, and teachers at Anne Arbor Skyline High School seem to have caught on quickly. The article suggests that such technology is the new direction of 21st-century education, one which instructors can build upon as they gain familiarity and confidence.
I definitely will keep Google Tools in mind as a resource in the future. If my next teaching job does not have a Blackboard or Webcourse site, I will definitely attempt to implement Google Tools. It seems like a great way for students to get organized. I love that the teachers can comment on the students’ work directly on their Google page. The authors include their e-mails at the end of the article, and I think I may just e-mail them for more information.
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