Workshop from Annual Sheffield Learning and Teaching Conference, 9 January 2013

1. Real enrichment, Real engagement,
Real projects:
Google Apps to enhance the student
learning experience.
Gary C. Wood
School of English Literature, Language & Linguistics
g.c.wood@sheffield.ac.uk | @GC_Wood
Sarah Horrigan
Corporate Information & Computing Services
@sarahhorrigan
with Lauren Baker, Lauren Proctor & Ben Scull
Level Two English Language & Linguistics students.
Learning & Teaching Conference 2013 1

2. What
we did…
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3. Learning & Teaching Conference 2013 3
 Assessment through
a real project
 Promote linguistics
to prospective
students
What
we did…

4. Overall Winner
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How we
did it…

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 Google Sites:
 Page-level permissions
 Integrated features
(YouTube, soundclips,
and others).
How we
did it…

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 Project Management:
 Google Docs
 Google+ Hangouts
How we
did it…

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 Launch Event &
Evaluation:
 Google Docs Forms
How we
did it…

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 Increased student control = creativity & high motivation
 Doing a real project = enthusiasm from the students
 Groupwork is trouble-free – Google facilitates
 Collaboration within and between groups.
Some benefits…

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 Continuous feedback and assessment
 Students develop key skills for degree and employability
 End product is genuinely useful to its audience
 Apps are integrated and don’t need teaching.
Some benefits…

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What the
students think…

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 Wikipedia like – enhancement/expansion by future students:
 New topics in linguistics
 Expansion of accessibly-presented research
 Community to engage audience and provide interaction.
The future…

13. awesome
trust
freedomopportunity
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students with
, ,&
them,
and they’ll show you how
they can be.
Empower
tools
A final thought…

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 Work in pairs
 Think of an area in your teaching that could use Google Sites
 On the session site:
 Add a “Google Sites Designer” page to your section
 Enter the details of your planned project
 If you finish, add a blank page to your section, and experiment
with embedding some additional resources (e.g. YouTube video,
images, etc.)
Your turn…!

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Review
& Questions…