It doesn’t haven’t to be difficult to integrate Google APPS for Education (GAfE) for supporting technology integration. Sometimes a simple task like creating collaborative notes with students is sufficient. This supports meeting the varied skill levels of students. One beauty of this method is the focus remains on the main objective of the lesson and not the integration of technology.

How you ask? 

When students of all different abilities collaborate together on one Google Doc this provides an opportunity for natural differentiation to occur. This supports the students with maintaining focus on the lesson being taught.

• A student who is visual may have a hard time writing notes from an auditory lecture.
• Another student who is auditory may be good at creating a written outline.
• The visual student can go back into the notes after the lecture and add diagrams or other images relating to the notes.
• Another student may not write well and add a recorded note to the document.
• Yet another student may like watching videos to enhance the notes.
• The student who likes playing games may find a link to share to support the learning of the content shared during class.

What does this mean?

• Students will learn to collaborate and work as a community.
• They will proactively take charge of  their own learning.
  • Collaborative Class Notes provide a variety of methods for studying
• Students are provided the opportunity to become engaged learners.
• Esteem booster for the struggling student.
• Students learn how to work as a community.
• Students become independent learners.

Sample of a Collaborative Notes Using Google Docs:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW GOOGLE DOC

NOTE: The Student or Collaborator will need the Talk & Comment Chrome Extension installed to view the recorder in comment. It the extension is not installed then the collaborator will see a link to click for hearing the audio content.