Google Apps for EDU Meet the 4cs

Google Apps on Phone

The Basic suite - Google Docs, slides & Sheets

Google Apps for Education provides three free Web 2.0 applications that comprise The Basic Suite: Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets. These tools differ from the Microsoft Office tools (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel respectively) in that they reside on the Web primarily, with storage of work in Google Drive on the Web (or in the Cloud).  Google has combined these tools with others to offer them to educational entities, bringing students and teachers new ways of learning in the 21st Century.

The Partnership for 21st Century Learning - www.p21.org

The Partnership for 21st Century Learning, or P21,  developed the Framework for 21st Century Learning to identify skills that  "All learners need and deserve 21st century learning opportunities to thrive as tomorrow's leaders, workers, and citizens" as part of its mission statement. Included in those learning opportunities are development of the 4Cs: Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Google Apps provides English/Language Art (ELA) sixth grade students these kinds of learning opportunities. 

According to Roblyer, ”Students appreciate receiving attractive-looking materials and find it rewarding and challenging to produce handsome products of their own” (109). Google's Basic Suite makes this task easily available to students, providing engagement along with the 21st Century skills. Let's examine how each Google tool makes this  goal possible, while providing access to the 4Cs at the same time for students and teachers (noted in bold).

Google Docs

Purpose for Teachers:
Google Docs provides opportunities for Teachers to create appealing and engaging materials for students, as well as collaborate with teachers in that process.
Relative Advantage: Being a Web 2.o tool affords Docs both asynchronous and synchronous work options. Teachers can grade and reply (communicate) quickly to students as they are working, providing real-time feedback.

Purpose for Students:
Students access Docs in a sixth grade ELA classroom to write at all stages of the writing process. They can brainstorm using a Thinking Map, collaborate and think critically while organizing ideas, write a first draft, communicate with the teacher and peer through editing, and publish a finished product.  According to Tucker (77-79), students can "research" and "organize ideas" using Google Docs. Roberts provides a model for students to keep a year-long journal using Google Docs.
Relative Advantage:
Teachers can scaffold assignment and instructions (such as by providing an MLA formatted document for students to use for a paper), supporting student success. Also, students can access research and cite sources appropriately with Google Scholar.

GOOGLE Slides

Purpose for Teachers:
Google Slides are so much more than a presentation tool. They can be a hyperdoc linked with resources and lessons, per Lisa Highfill's Google Site description (and upcoming, to be published book). Slides can be used for presentations, of course, but also can be the base for a screencast to flip lessons, using tools like Screencastify and Snagit. 
Relative Advantage:
​Teachers organize and present information to students. Their lessons can be published to the Web and made available to students both synchronously and asynchronously. Teachers should follow best practices when creating presentations so that they provide strong models for students.

Purpose for Students:
​Students most often use Slides to create individual or group collaborative presentations to teach others or demonstrate their mastery of a subject (Roblyer, 127). In a sixth grade Language Arts classroom, they can be used to demonstrate mastery of key terms, communicate the plot structure of a short story or book. or serve as a game (such as Jeopardy) to review for a test (Roblyer, 132).
Relative Advantage:

GOOGLE sheets

Purpose for Teachers:
​While it is easy to consider Google Sheets as only valuable to calculate numbers, sort data, and create graphs, Sheets can do so much more, as evidenced by the blog posts and creative insights Alice Keeler provides on her website: www.alicekeeler.com. One example is her post, Creating Discussions with Google Sheets. This post demonstrates the creative way teachers can foster collaboration and communication in a classroom.
Relative Advantage:
Teachers can use Google Sheets to calculate, sort, and plot graphs, of course. However, the ability to collaborate, crowd-source by sharing editing privileges of the document, and perform a myriad of activities makes Google Sheets infinitely more valuable as an educational tool than PowerPoint was.

Purpose for Students:
​Students can gather data using Google Sheets (and even better by pairing it with Google Forms, a survey tool). Sheets provides students ways to manage and manipulate data, an important skill in the 21st Century. Further, there are more and creative ways to use this tool that are evolving daily, whether to crowd-source responses from peers or gather quotes for a paper.
Relative Advantage:
Google Sheets is a flexible and powerful tool for managing and organizing information. New Add-ons and Apps (tools created to make Sheets more powerful) are being added on a regular basis, making it more effective. 

4Cs Opportunities

​​Students and teachers both have opportunities to collaborate with each other. In the process, they develop both oral and written communication skills. Brainstorming, peer-editing, and writing each require collaboration and critical thinking. Students engage creatively to design digital reports, include relevant digital images (which are cited and used properly), providing evidence of their development as responsible digital citizens, ready for the demands of the 21st Century.

Highfill, L. (2014, July 30). HyperDocs - Changing Digital Pedagogy - 2014 Mountian View - GTA MTV. Retrieved February 02, 2016, from https://sites.google.com/a/googleteacheracademy.com/2014-07-30/agenda/room3
 
Keeler, A. (2015, July 15). Classroom Discussions with Google Sheets. Retrieved February 02, 2016, from http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2015/07/15/classroom-discussions-with-google-sheets/ 

P. (n.d.). Educators - P21. Retrieved February 02, 2016, from http://www.p21.org/about-us/our-mission​

Roberts, J. (2015, July 21). Literacy, Technology, Policy, Etc....A Blog. Retrieved February 02, 2016, from http://www.litandtech.com/2015/07/one-google-doc-all-year-long-english.html 
​
Roblyer, M. (2016). INTEGRATING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY INTO TEACHING (7TH ED.). Massachusetts: Pearson.
​
​Tucker, C. R. (2016). Creatively teach the common core literacy standards with technology: Grades 6-12. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.