Wiscasset High School is using Google Apps for Education as a tool to prepare its students for a network-based world, according to Thomas Steele-Maley, a teacher and the technology coordinator for the school.
Google Apps is a suite of cloud-based computer applications that allow users to work alone or collaboratively in an online environment. Some – but certainly not all – of the apps it offers are a word processor, spreadsheet application, a presentation application similar to Microsoft’s PowerPoint, Gmail (Google’s email service), a calendar, Blogger, and hosting/creation of websites.
Sarah Sutter, Steele-Maley’s predecessor, was the one that first brought Google Apps to WHS in 2008 and started the district-wide conversation after Wiscasset joined RSU 12, Steele-Maley said. The “embrace” of the apps across the RSU has really happened in the last two years, he said.
Since WHS is a “one to one” school – one laptop per student – students have the ability to work collaboratively with other students in schools and from their homes using Google Apps, Steele-Maley said.
The co-editing of documents in Google Apps lets students and teachers work simultaneously on a document from different computers, or student groups can work together in the same way, Steele-Maley said.
A learning management system called Canvas that integrates with Google Apps allows teaches to lay out their courses in a forum where the students can access their assignments, relevant resources and information, and provides a record of what they turn in for the class, Steele-Maley said.
In some courses, students are required to read and access lecture information via Canvas on their own time, and class time is spent doing more hands-on and creative work, Steele-Maley said. “That is the trend at the school and is what many teachers are doing,” he said.
The electronic records that are kept of students work provides a tool to teachers to both hold them accountable and measure their progress over time, Steele-Maley said.
Rather than simply having a letter grade recorded in a grading book after a teacher returns a student’s work to them, the retained electronic copies lets the teacher show students and parents how progress is – or isn’t – being made, he said.
The electronic system “eliminates the idea of kids doing surface work” like scribbling an assignment down on paper just before class and handing it in, Steele-Maley said.
Students could still try to complete an assignment just before class, but having a word processor open and needing to craft something on the computer to turn in produces better results, Steele-Maley said. “Many more young people not only try but accomplish more in that environment,” he said.
Using Google Apps provides a way for students to acquire knowledge about working in a network-based environment after they leave school, Steele-Maley said. “There isn’t a 21st century company out there… that’s trying to manage with paper anymore,” he said.
Steele-Maley pointed to Google Apps for Business as the direct example of that knowledge, whose website touts five million businesses as users. “I know that businesses will appreciate us putting out young, capable, and in some way experienced people that they don’t have to retrain,” he said.
In preparation for college or the workforce, students at WHS start working “e-portfolios” as freshman. The students create their own Google website where they display benchmarks for their education, put multimedia of their school work and explain how the work meets the standards that they chose.
“When they leave Wiscasset High School and go to university or the work world, they can actually show their best work,” which can carry more weight than just a paper résumé, Steele-Maley said.
By coupling the e-portfolio of the student’s work and their statements of why it’s important with their school transcript, it will provide “a very full picture of that person and their learning,” he said.
Google Apps helps meet the WHS goal of education focused on the students, Steele-Maley said. “These tools are meant to benefit the learner on their future path.”
“For us there’s still a good bit to grow into,” but Google Apps for Education is “a good fit for the innovative atmosphere” at WHS, Steele-Maley said.