Mawahib Obaid Alsuwayhiri

Module #8
16 Apr 2016

Description of Five Google Apps could be used in education:

1-

Gmail:
Gmail is a great free communication tool that Google provides to their users. I chose Gmail as

my number one Google App because it is essential to use all other Google apps. I also like the
way that Gmail allows their user to storage and organize their Emails. In addition, there is a
really helpful feature that Gmail provide, which is the translating tool. I really like this feature
because in the school there are students from different countries, who their first language may
not be English. So Google translate feature at Gmail will make the job much easier for the
teacher to communicate with students. Finally, Gmail has a mobile app that will help both
teachers and students stay connected anytime anywhere.
2-

Drive:

Google drive is a useful and productive tool for educators. Teacher and student could share
anything easily from word documents, presentation, pictures, etc. Also, the teacher could create
files to share with their students, and they could control if the file shared is adjustable or only for
reading. Throughout out using Google Drive teachers could save time on sending the same file to
each student individually. Instead, they could share it on Google drive and allow the students to
collaborate in the same time. Finally, teachers and students will not be using USB and flash drive
to save their work, they could easily save it on Google Drive and access the files anytime and
anywhere.

3-

Google+:

Google + is a great tool to communicates with people around us and around the world. However,
Google + is also a great classroom management tool. There are many communities online that
teachers and students could join and take the advantage of them. Also, teachers could build and
design their own community and only their student, so it stays private. Throughout these
community, teachers could add a reminder, post assignments, and communicate effectively with
students.
4- Translate:
Google Translate tool is one of the most valuable tools for me as an international student.
Throughout my academic studying years here in the United States, I used Google Translate a lot.
It provides instant and efficient translating for any text, and it is free. I think many students could
benefit from this educational app to learn a new language or communicate with others. Also,
Google provides Google Translate app on smartphones, which have really cool features. One of
these great features is the picture to text feature. Users could use the camera on their smartphone
to translate any text to the language desired. I believe that would be extremely helpful in the
classroom to learn a new language.
5-

Sites:

Google Sites is the last Google Apps for education I will talk about in this paper. Google Sites is
a great tool for teachers to build and design their own website. Also, they could use it to teach
students how to build and design websites. Google Site is easy and simple to use, and it is the
perfect introduction for the student to learn how to create a website from scratch.

Informal reflection:

In the article, Is it responsible for schools to teach Google Docs instead of Microsoft
Office? by Eric Curt, the author talked about the reasons why schools should teach Google
Docs apps instead of the traditional Microsoft Office. In his argument, Mr. Curt first explain
what Google Docs are really is, and how they could be used in similar but yet more efficient
ways. The first argument Mr. Curt states is that Google Docs app are FREE to use so that the
school budget will benefit from that. Throughout the article, the author states in details many
compelling reasons to teach the new generation Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office.
From my point of view, I think Google Docs is an excellent choice for schools because it is a
free, powerful and student and teachers could use it anytime, anywhere. It is also a great tool for
accessing files and collaborate with students.