The time has come! We are 4 days away from our 1:1 digital conversion at the high school level and our students are excited! They can't wait to get them in their hands and begin discovering how this technology can transform their educational experiences. Check out the Google Drive transition tips below for students and teachers.
Transition Tips for Students
Our student's "My Drive" is going to fill up very quickly and we can help them in being proactive about how they organize their files.
Organization
Guide students through the process of how to share with peers and teachers, specifically for the sharing process you want them to use.
Organization
- Develop a common naming convention within your classroom and stick to it; the students will get used to it and appreciate you for it later.
- For example, my poetry reflection in Mr. Thompson's class might be named, 1per_Eng2_Poetry Reflection_Fleming.
- This tells the teacher the class period, class name, assignment name and the student last name, so it will be so much easier to organize..
Guide students through the process of how to share with peers and teachers, specifically for the sharing process you want them to use.
Transition Tips for Teachers
Sharing
We are well aware that the most common methods for sharing documents within Google Drive are via link or directly typing in the collaborators email address. With most student rosters greater than 150, I know you want to immediate jump at using the link option however I've noticed sharing by typing in the collaborators email address usually works best for several reasons.
We are well aware that the most common methods for sharing documents within Google Drive are via link or directly typing in the collaborators email address. With most student rosters greater than 150, I know you want to immediate jump at using the link option however I've noticed sharing by typing in the collaborators email address usually works best for several reasons.
- You will always have complete control over who has access to your files because there's no link that can get passed around.
- When a folder is shared with a link and people or permissions are changed later, sub-folders permissions may or may not hold the original permissions or the later changed permissions for the sub-folder. Basically, you may end up giving someone permission to something you didn't intend to.
- Finally, creating a list of your students email address by class is actually more simple than you may think. Create a simple form (like the one pictured below), with the same options checked, and it will collect their email address correctly from their Google Drive login. This would also be a great opportunity to ask your students how they would like to use the Chromebooks in class and any concerns they may have. In 30 seconds you will have so much information!
Your responses will provide a spreadsheet where you can just copy and paste the email addresses into the share option of any file. Voilà!
Collecting/Turning In Assignments
When it comes to collecting work/files from your students, you might also be inclined to share a folder with them or have all 150 students share an individual document with you for you to then organize in your "My Drive". That works but you don't actually need to "keep" that file in your Google Drive, you simply need access to it. So why not have the student share the link to the file with you via a Google Form, and then you can have access to all your classes assignments without cluttering your "My Drive". See the screenshots below.
When it comes to collecting work/files from your students, you might also be inclined to share a folder with them or have all 150 students share an individual document with you for you to then organize in your "My Drive". That works but you don't actually need to "keep" that file in your Google Drive, you simply need access to it. So why not have the student share the link to the file with you via a Google Form, and then you can have access to all your classes assignments without cluttering your "My Drive". See the screenshots below.
You might want to set up a form for each period. Also, you can go in and add more assignments as the year goes on.