11 Google Apps Improvements for the Classroom

I have been thinking and writing about the use of Google tools within the classroom for a while and so I thought I would record some ideas for improvements that have been buzzing around in my head. Although I use the tools personally, the improvements are to do with the use Docs and Apps in general within the classroom, how they affect a teacher’s organisation, the ways that children interact with the tools, missing tools and other possibilities.

1. Ad-free Blogger accounts as a service within Ed Apps – a blogging platform as part of the overall Ed Apps services would provide an easy way to generate blogging accounts. It would allow children to use just a single login to access docs, gmail and their blog. Along with this the children should be able to click publish to blog from within a doc – sending their work to their own blog.
   
2. Integration of Google Notebook in Ed Apps – one of the most powerful tools Google has developed. It certainly has a great deal of unexplored potential within the classroom and is notable by it’s absence. If I were to ask children to research together online this is the tool I would use as a first step, not Docs – they would export their notes to Docs and not work there until research has been gathered. Why use Docs when you can work in an application fit for purpose? Some previous thoughts on Google Notebook and it being missing from Ed Apps.
   
3. Grab a copy / Templates – a simple link for each Doc that allows you to get your own copy without the collaborators. The ability to create a template out of any Doc. In the past when I want a whole class of children to work on a certain document and for them to have their own copy I would use a MS Word Template. The children would open it and they would have their own copy – the process is trickier in Docs because it often leads to duplicated documents everywhere when the children click “Include the Collaborators”! Imagine this times 30! 60! Templates are already in use and soo we will be able to make our own, and I hope to be taking advantage of this new feature to hand out work soon.
   
4. Audio support for docs – marking work could be very different if a teacher could add a simple audio comment. Along with the different ways to mark text a simple audio file would surmount to a much greater personal style of marking. Children could respond in kind regarding the comments you have made via audio. We would not just be repeating what we do on paper but changing it, challenging it, reinventing it.
   
5. View Filter signal – a way to signal to a user the different type of filter currently being used in the Docs home page. Many children think that they have lost documents because they are unaware of the current view. They may have clicked on a folder or on a type of doc filter, without it being made very clear – perhaps something next to the More Actions button on the top bar in the Docs home.
   
6. Not just “Shared With” but “Shared By” – when the children hand me a document, a piece of work that they have completed they share it with me and it appears in my Docs home list. It would be very useful to be able to filter the Docs owned by different children in my class. I could then compare a variety of Docs from the same child, perhaps a series of pieces of work or a collection for a single unit. Even better, for portfolios, would be the ability to then export multiple docs at once – two clicks and you have exported all of the child’s docs.
7. Remove the flicker – when you are working with someone else’s document and it autosaves your screen flicks up to the top. Annoying and the children found it a little off putting when in the midst of writing.
8. Add chat feature into Docs – it’s there in Spreadsheets and when you view a Presentation – children are very motivated by IM and it would prove a useful feature within Docs.
   
9. Archiveable chat – a great feature currently available in Spreadsheets and Presentations but nothing can be archived – it would be useful if this was tied into Google Chat/Email chat (archived their) the chat could be archived for the owner of the document. As a teacher I would like to be able to export it into a Doc as a permanent record of the discourse. We have used it here and here to good effect to support learning going on in the classroom, its just a shame we currently cannot archive it.
   
10. Export Form data to different Docs – we can get a simple summary of the form data and I am aware that this will soon have a wider range of features including different graph and chart types, but it would be very useful to also be able to export some or all of the summary to a new doc/presentation/ssheet. After all once data has been collected we want to analyse, discuss and present that information.
    
11. Gears as a local backup for Docs – in an ideal world my students should be able to access their Google Docs on a local level even if the internet has gone down, just as you can with Google Gears on a private account. No internet = no Google Docs, and although we had only about 2 days of troubles last year with our internet connection it would be useful to have our eggs in more than one basket.

In my opinion the two most important changes would be the inclusion of Google Notebook as it is a lovely little research application and the support of audio within Document commenting. (And of course a platform for blogging as part of the Ed Apps package would also be great)

What do you think of the list? What would you like to see altered, changed, developed or improved that would make a difference in the classroom?