Google Classroom Endangered Animal Research Project
1. What standard(s)/outcome(s) are being met?
1 A. Identification, selection, installation and maintenance of technology infrastructure, and hardware and software applications for school administration and instruction.
1 B. Integrating technology into curricular planning and instructional design.
1 D. Research, problem solving and product development of technological applications.
2. Identify 1-3 elements of the artifact and explain why/how they demonstrate mastery.
Google Classroom is an online platform that allows students and teachers to work together collaboratively. This application allows for technology to be integrated in infinite ways throughout the curriculum. Within Google, students have the ability to research and publish online documents as well as slideshows and other digital media presentations. Within this artifact, students demonstrate their abilities to research endangered animals within a controlled search environment that I provide. The class is given instructions on what and how to research both in class, and through Google Classroom. Once the research began, the students were directed to specific, safe websites to collect data. Afterward, the students were issued a template in Google Slides to complete using the facts they collected through research. To add a touch of excitement, the students were allowed to use the "explore" function within Google Slides to add a picture to each section of the endangered animal report. The importance of good digital citizenship was modeled through a sources cited slide and ensuring each photo had an appropriate citation. The final projects were compiled and displayed via interactive whiteboard as a whole group presentation while each respective student proudly narrated his/her research.
3. How does, will, or could the content of this artifact benefit your instructional audience or professional community?
This project was an incredible springboard for many 21st Century learning skills. Since this project, my students have shown proficiency in the ABC's (author, bias, content) of Internet research. They have also been ecstatic about creating and sharing other personal digital creations from home with the G-Suite. The students are proud to share their creations with me, and I have had 2 different parents of students approach me about wanting advice to buy laptops for their children. I regularly see creative stories and short slide shows with titles such as "All About Me" appear in my Google Drive account since the students' proficiency has grown with this project. I am proud to see such young learners taking an interest in something, and using their own time and their own resources to develop and grow.
4. Reflection: What did you learn from the experience when you created the artifact or took the course?
With this artifact I learned that Google Classroom was an incredibly friendly learning platform. While experts argue that Google classroom is NOT an LMS, it certainly operates like one. The parts about it that I love the most are how I can log into the students' accounts and watch them work, live. If they are struggling, I can log right into their documents and assist them from my own computer. All of their work is conveniently turned into a file on the Google Dive for correcting as well. I could get used to using this!
