Excel and Google Docs in the Classroom

Excel has many advantages and features that can be incorporated into the classroom.  If I needed to express some of the top features of Excel to my fellow colleagues as to how they could use the program in their curriculum I would give them the following examples of how it could be used.

1.        Daily Schedule- A daily schedule could be made or even a weekly schedule with a column for each day and a row for each half hour.  You can then block out your schedule for each subject area or activity.  Since it is on excel you could make changes as your week progresses if you find you need to spend a little more time on a certain activity or need to adjust the curriculum you are going to teach for that day.  You can make a tab for each week of the school year so if you want to go back in May to see what you class did on the third week of school you can just find the tab for dates of that week.

2.       Class Job chart- You can use Excel to make a chart of classroom jobs for younger students that each student takes turns rotating jobs throughout the year.  You can out the students names in the rows and the jobs listed such as passing out worksheets for the week or in charge of writing down the weather for each day that week.  The jobs can be listed across the columns and then a check can be given in each cell when it is the students turn that week to take responsibility of the classroom task.

3.       Contact List- Excel is a great place to store student information such as addresses, phone numbers and parents email addresses.  Having everything entered into excel by students name make it easy to find and access and you don’t have to worry about carry around a rolodex or notecards with all of the information. 

4.       Class Projects- Excel can be used by the students in your curriculum for a class project where they need to track data or make a chart from the data they have entered and collected.  Excel can be used in a number of subjects as a data storage place to show students how to analysis what they have found and get new ideas from their research.

5.       Classroom Organization- You can set up a data base with a line for each student’s name when you are keeping tracking of permission slips or money coming in for a class trip or field trip.  You can easily mark off who has paid and how much as well as who has handed in a signed permission slip so at a quick glance you can see who might still owe you money or information.  It can also be used for book club sales to keep track of who placed orders and of what so they can easily be sorted when they arrive.

If I was asked by my principal if we should use either Microsoft Word or Goggle docs I would definitely choose Google Docs.  In the elementary school setting it is a basic program to learn and use for students that are using a word processing program to type on for the first time.  It is also great to use because it doesn’t force parents to have to go out and buy Microsoft Word because it can be used from any computer that has access to the internet.  This is a great feature when dealing with students that may have Macs as opposed to Pc’s at home so you are sure when working on Google Docs there are no specific program needed for the computer being used.  It is free as long as you have an account so the school will not have to worry about buying licenses to Microsoft for the computer labs. 

Google Docs is also great because students can work on group projects with each other from home because they can all access Google Docs on the same file.  They can each add or edit the same file from their home without worrying about the hassle of only one person being able to access the file at a time and needed to either use a portable drive or the same computer that it is saved to.

        It makes the life of the teacher must easier too when having the students send homework or projects through Goggle Docs because there is no need for attachments.  Opening the files is very easy and it also easier for students sending the homework because they do not have to worry about forgetting an attachment in their email.  This could also cut down on viruses being sent from attachments through the web to school computers.  I think it would be a great idea for schools to use this because it would not affect budgets and Google Docs bring a lot of options to the students to easily use and to learn to collaborate together with fellow students on projects.

Social Bookmarking

          Social bookmarking it the use of a website that allows subscribers to store bookmarks to websites that they find of their interests of helpful that they would be able to find again in a hurry.  The way that social bookmarking differs from favorites on your computer is that the subscriber can access their bookmarked sites from any computer whether it is their own or not.  The other advantage is you can tag the website to the subject it pertains to or the reason that you like the website or found it useful.   This makes storing and organizing your websites much easier because now you have a list of key words and topics to find your website from rather then a list that includes everything.  What makes this “social” is that the program allows you and other users to look at other peoples lists of bookmarks.  Someone else may have found a website similar to a topic you are looking for so the social aspect gives you the ability to look at others book marked websites.

                Social bookmarking is a great tool and could probably fit into any industry.  It is especially helpful in the education field because there is a lot of research and websites that are accessible for teachers and students use.  Using a social bookmark program as a teacher gives you an advantage of storing information, videos and websites that you may come across while preparing for a lesson that you may want your students of colleges to use.  You can bookmark the page or video and then if you can direct your students to your bookmark page and have them click on the link rather than emailing a website or having the students write down a web address.  It is useful for fellow teachers because it gives them the ability to share websites with each other and the option of looking at other bookmarks of teachers that may be a new idea of lesson they had not heard of.  The nice use of tagging the websites also makes it easier for students and teachers to find what they are looking for.  If you are a teacher with different level classes such as math you can make a bookmark for each class name which makes it easy for your students to find their relative content on your social bookmark page. 

                There are many advantages of using this program and it is also a huge time saver for teachers because you can easily access a mass amount of lessons on a given subject without having to search the web for legit and relative content. 

How The Net Generation Percieves Online Learning

It is amazing to me that in the technological advanced world we live in that students of today don’t want to take all online classes and use total online learning. Being at the end of Generation X, I have actually only taken 1 online class in my college career. It was one of the first classes offered at the institution that was online. I found not the content to be hard, but the actual class itself to be difficult. It was a class offered on Blackboard and there were very little instructions on how to use the program. I can totally see how students today can get frustrated with the used or lack of use of technology in the classroom. They may know how to figure out texting or a new computer game, but when given an online class with a classroom management program without any instructions, it becomes a difficult task for the student to take the time to figure out how to even get in and work on the site for the online class without even getting into the subject matter.


Students today don’t pay much attention to instructions. They learn by doing especially when it comes to technology. They would rather play with a new cell phone, computer or Ipod to figure out how to get it to work then to sit and read an instructional booklet. Students today and so used to using multi tech gadgets at once that they don’t even think twice about it. Instant messaging and texting becomes second nature to them so it is surprising to me that they still want the face to face instruction from teachers. Maybe they feel that they will get more out of the class using the face to face instructions rather than taking an online test while instant messaging with someone across campus.

What is most surprising to me is that students today who have completely grown up around technology have issues or do not prefer to use course management programs. I think just like the Blackboard course I took years ago, there is not a lot of instruction from institution on these programs. Students can figure out the basics of the course managements, but I am sure there are lots of extras that are available on these programs that students never learn to take advantage of because of a lack of instruction and proper use. There are a lot of advantages that students have today with using these programs such as grades being available from online access so you can stay on top of your academics. Since most faculty for higher learning institutions are not of the net gen, they don’t get the instant response and access that students want today. Students expect from the use of technology for teachers to respond in a fairly fast time because they are so used to having information and the answer at their fingertips. Today’s faculty uses technology as a different means of communication with a student, but may not respond in the time frame that student’s feel is legit. Until there are more net generation students entering the workforce, there will probably always be a technological gap between the faculty and their students. I think course management and using technology in the classroom with explode once the Net Generation is the ones that are instructing because they will know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to technology and education.

The Google Docs program I used for my lesson plan project ended up being a very frustrating task for me. Once I was copy and pasting in my lesson plans, I had issues with the curser not falling where it was actually typing and this made for a very difficult time. I did however like the idea of the google docs and being able to access the document from any computer to work on the project rather than only being able to use word. I think when used correctly this can be a very beneficial tool for the classroom. Students can write papers and send them easily to the teacher for editing and comments without having to worry about using the same system that the student/teacher is using. It could also be great for group projects for students adding information for various locations into one document.

The Net Gen Learner

The students in today’s classrooms play an intricate role in the changes that are occurring in education curriculum and how teachers are presenting subjects and areas of academics to these students. Well, at least that is what should be happening in the classroom, but in actuality these students are more advanced and knowledgeable in using technology then the classroom has access today. With all the resources through technology that students have access to that they use as lines of communications, it’s no wonder that hearing someone stand in front of them lecturing is boring and loses their attention quickly. Students today have been raised in the internet age. They can look up anything on the internet that they want to find out about or learn. Having this power and access at their fingertips has changed the way students learn. Twenty years ago if you needed to do a research report on zebras you would go to the library and start with looking in the encyclopedia. Today’s students can just Google zebras and a much larger amount of information then an encyclopedia could ever offer then is right there in front of them. Most students today probably take for granted the fountain of knowledge that they have access to. Having this access has greatly changed the way these students learn compared to the encyclopedia students of the past.


Relationships for kids today have changed greatly due to technology. The way they speak to their peers and their parents is done through technology so why wouldn’t their way of learning be affected by technology too. If students feel more comfortable in using technology to learn that is should be implemented into schools. Unfortunately technology comes at a price, which is usually too high for public schools to afford the best of the best, especially with all the recent economic struggles. Not only is affording the technology for the classroom expensive, but you also need to train teachers in how to utilize it in the classroom. We are just starting to have teachers entering the workforce that are at the edge of Net Generation and understand technology, but there are a lot of teachers that are out there that it’s very new to them and the thought of using something they are not knowledgeable in or comfortable with scares them, but this is how students of today learn so it’s important for teachers to learn how to use it.

Technology in the classroom for students should not be used to replace the teacher, but the assist the teaching in reaching the learning levels of students today. Students are used to video games, tv, internet, cell phones and iPods and often these items are used at the same time. Students are reading less because of these devices in their life. Most students learn from experience of doing something rather than reading directions. Any student that buys the newest video game gets home and put the game on right away and starts playing rather than pulling out the instruction book that comes with the game and reading about it first. They are learning by doing. Just this past week end I had an experience with this. I helped my Mom (baby boomer generation) buy a new cell phone and when we got it home and looked in the bag from the store for the instruction manual. She thought they forgot to put in in the bag when they took her phone out to set it up so she called the store and they told her that they no longer print the manuals, but she could go online and read the manual if she needed. This is a perfect example of how technology is changing how we learn. If I was the one who got the cell phone I would get home and play with the phone to figure out how it worked rather then read the instructions. If this is how our students are learning we should be adapting education to fit their needs.

We can not replace the human contact we have in life. It is bad enough that we communicate more through text messages and face book with our family and friends then actually talking face to face, but this is what is happening with technology and how it changes out lives. We still need teachers in the classroom to work face to face with students and through research it is still apparent that students want to learn from teachers rather than learning everything through online contact. There are always students who need the motivation from a teacher in order to stay on task with school work. I think that teachers could become even more affective to students that need that motivation if they implemented technology to the student’s level of learning to make it new and interesting to students and not as boring as a lecture. The use of blogging or message boards in classrooms to discuss areas of study is something that today’s student understands and might fine more beneficial in learning then writing a research paper. We need to use the technology that the Net Generation is comfortable with to improve learning, but we can’t use it as a replacement. Students still need the fundamentals of reading and writing, but using games or computer programs to get students to learn these fundamentals is what they need today compared to the students of decades past. Maybe the use of Kindles in classroom would make reading a classic novel for an English class more enticing to students then reading a paperback version. Schools need to start small and build the use of technology in teaching students. School is also a great place where students can learning the importance of proper use of technology and how to keep yourself safe from the dangers that are out there on the internet. Parents of these children may be naïve when it comes to their children and the internet so schools need to teach the responsibility of technology if they are going to use it in the classroom. It is not going to be cheap to take these routes of using technology to teach to students of today, but if we want to reach the students of the Net Generation we need to start thinking like they do and seeing these through the digital age.

First Day of Class

Today is the first day of class.  This is my debute of blogging.  Future blogs to come!