This week's guest blog post comes from our Technology Director, Bailey Rigg.
For well over five years, the Raymond school district has been using the ultimate 21st Century technology tool in the classroom and it’s called Google Apps for Education, (GAFE). Teachers, students, staff and administrators all use GAFE for email, word processing, file storage, project collaboration, and much much more. GAFE has transformed how we think and use computer technology in our schools both in and out of the classroom. According to Google, over 30 million staff and students use GAFE as part of their technology and communication efforts within their educational facilities and that number is quickly growing every day.
GAFE brings email to all our staff and students and productivity tools like Google Docs and Google Sheets. When you tie all these programs together with Google Classroom, you really can see the power Google gives our teachers and students. Google Classroom offers each classroom a spot in cyberspace where teachers can post assignments and students can submit their work electronically. Feedback on student assignments are in real time, class communication is improved via the announcement and assignment areas, and Google classroom automatically reminds students when assignments are not completed.
Over the past two years, we have also used Google Classroom to provide professional development opportunities to the Raymond School District staff. Feedback from those who took part in these Google Classroom professional development opportunities was overwhelmingly positive. Staff commented on the busy lives they have and that having these professional development opportunities through Google classroom provided them the flexibility to complete assignments when time was available. Also, most commented that if this training was not offered online through Google Classroom, they would not have had the time to participate.
I encourage parents to create a Gmail account so you can experience what your children are using every day in our school district. Google allows anyone to have a free Gmail account (go to gmail.com to sign up for a free account) that comes with most of the tools I have mentioned here. By creating this account, you can use it to become familiar with the productivity tools your child uses while at school. There are endless video tutorials online to help users to learn how to use the many tools your Gmail account provides which makes learning faster and easier. Give it a try and discover some of the productivity tools available to you through Google.
