Welcome back to another great school year! Over the summer I had the awesome opportunity to present at the Iowa City Summit: Featuring Google Apps for Education. One of the sessions that I facilitated was over Google Tools that Support Literacy. Full disclosure: the use of the term "Google Tools" is a bit all inclusive in this post, we are talking about everything from the core Google apps all the way to Chrome Extensions and Chrome Apps that help support literacy development. I will link and embed my slide deck from this presentation below, but here are a few of my faves from the session.
Voice Typing in Google Docs
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Voice typing was released in Google Docs in February of 2016. This is a great option for students who have a hard time getting ideas from their brains to their fingers or hands. To use voice typing go to "Tools" in your Google Docs menu and select "Voice Typing". A little microphone icon will appear on the left hand side of your document. Click the microphone and away you go.
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SAS Writing Reviser
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SAS Writing Reviser is a great little Add On in Google docs that allows writers to revise their written work for sentence economy, clarity, variety, and power. I always say that this is a good "first look" at your composition. It does not "correct" any errors that it detects, but rather suggests that you might want to revise certain sentences.
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Hypothesis
I love the Hypothesis extension partnered with the Hypothesis website. Hypothesis allows you to annotate over almost anything on the web. Highlight a section in an article and leave a note for other Hypothesis uses to read. Users can also add images/multimedia to the notes that they leave the Hypothesis. Finally, Hypothesis users can create private group and share their annotations only with those in the group. Check out this intro video on Hypothesis:
Actively Learn
I have written about the merits of Actively Learn in our team blog here, and I still have a healthy infatuation with this tool. I know Adam Bellow says "Date the tool, marry the ability", but if Actively Learn left my life, I would be super sad. Seriously we're talking four pints of rocky road ice cream sad.
This tool is just such a workhorse: annotation, question delivery, notes, multimedia, standards alignment, vocabulary, translation, and so much more all wrapped up into a pleasing interface for the literary lover.
So what does this have to do with Google, you ask? Four nice little features: 1) users can sign into Actively Learn with their already existing Google accounts 2) Actively Learn is now a Chrome App for all you Chromebook schools out there 3) now teachers can import their existing rosters from Google Classroom into Actively Learn classes! Whoot-whoot! and 4) the Actively Learn extension allows users to grab great non-fiction off the web and move it to your workspace with a click of a button!
So what does this have to do with Google, you ask? Four nice little features: 1) users can sign into Actively Learn with their already existing Google accounts 2) Actively Learn is now a Chrome App for all you Chromebook schools out there 3) now teachers can import their existing rosters from Google Classroom into Actively Learn classes! Whoot-whoot! and 4) the Actively Learn extension allows users to grab great non-fiction off the web and move it to your workspace with a click of a button!
More Google Tools to Support Literacy
To see my entire presentation on Google Tools to Support Literacy, please checkout the picture link below.
We would love to hear all about what digital tools you are using to support literacy in your classroom in the comment section below. Here is to the start of a great school year!
Cheers!
Gina Rogers
Digital Learning Consultant
The Digital Learning Team at Grant Wood AEA
Cheers!
Gina Rogers
Digital Learning Consultant
The Digital Learning Team at Grant Wood AEA
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