Using Google to Encourage Students as Creators

This Week’s Topic in Focus:  Using Google to Encourage Students as Creators

Each month our Digital Learning Team will deep dive into a specific feature or tool in Google. This week we will take a look at using Google to encourage students to be creators.
For many educators GSuite for EDU is great for organization and workflow. If you haven't already, consider using Google tools as a way for students to create and show what they know.  George Couros states one of the characteristics of the innovator’s mindset is to be a creator.  

“Creators- Anyone can consume information, but that doesn’t equate to learning.  The Center for Accelerated Learning notes:

         Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is not something a learner absorbs, but something a learner creates.  Learning happens when a learner integrates new knowledge and skill into his or her existing structure of self.  Learning is literally a matter of creating new meanings, new neural networks, and new patterns of electro/chemical interactions within one’s total brain/body systems.”

Explore and consider these Google tools for students to be creators of content.

STUDENTS CREATE

DOCS	SLIDES	SITES	MAPS/YouTube/Drawings
*Shared Doc to create study guides, create individual or collaborative reports *Write poetry	*Cartoon strip * eBook *Choose Your own adventure story *Digital Storytelling	*Digital portfolio to share the best of their work, show growth and share with the world *Blog	*My Maps - create a map, tour, share facts and artifacts *YouTube - create videos to explain a topic, share what they know in creative ways and more *Sketchnoting *Diagramming *Posters

If you would like help implementing any of these ideas in your classroom, see your DLS.

Feel free to use the comment feature to share how you are using Google to have your students create. We look forward to learning from your ideas.

Works Cited

Couros, George. The Innovator's Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, 2015. Print.