ICT in my Classroom

Absolutely. One of the children in my class had waited to the end of the session to ask me if they could access Google Docs at home. This afternoon we introduced all of our Year 5 children (60) to Google Apps and we had lots of fun exploring the tool with our new classes. 

We discussed with the children the make-up of their usernames and then the syntax of their email. I use a little information sheet (see above) for them to record their data on, I asked the children to come out to me and I tell them and write down their password. Simple and effective.

Please use this document to support your own introduction to Google Apps in the classroom.

With the laptops already running  back at their tables they then go and login. (It is worth noting that they also have to go through some security questions before they access their Docs home.) As we had last year we had the usual problems of not typing things in correctly but otherwise the children all managed it well.

I decided that a simple data entry spreadsheet would be one of the best ways to introduce the idea of sharing a document. I created something that would accommodate the results we have collected during our circuit training in PE, number of repetitions in a minute for steps ups and star jumps, that sort of thing (see the header in the film clip). Once I created the document I shared with all of the children in our year group, this way when they login they will see a document in the home screen.

All the children had to do in this intro activity was to find their name and add their data they had recorded on paper to the shared resource. Just before they began I asked the children to try to imagine what it would be like if I asked every child in the class to record their data on one sheet of paper – their bemused looks helped me to emphasise the power of working in an online document and how we can all access it at the same time.

We began to explore the spreadsheet and as we opened it we could see that the other Year 5 class were well on their way in terms of adding their data. Again I took this opportunity to help illustrate the live update of the document and how the different coloured cell outlines signalled different users (Incidentally if you roll over these coloured cells you will see the username pop up) I asked one of the children in my class to enter their own data and we watched as it updated on the class IWB and all 16 laptops looking on. The children’s excitement was building, similar to the moment when they realise what all the fuss is about in a Voicethread.

This short screencast shows our spreadsheet being updated – a pretty dull video but useful to illustrate how it looks when being worked on by 16 users.

The children were buzzing by now and I felt we could push them on to learning about how you share a document, so once I had shown them how to do it I challenged them to create something and share it with me. I displayed my inbox on the screen and watched as the message alerts came rolling in. I realised the children loved to see this, they got so excited to see their email alert pop into my inbox – before their friend had managed it! I remember this being the case last year. I am going to explore the idea of incidental writing opportunities using email this year.

I showed the children GMail and asked them to send me an email and once again they were very adept at what they were doing, highly accustomed to it all already and were clearly enjoying it. I once again observed, even in this first session, the community of use that appears – children helping each other out, a supportive word, children asking their friends. And of course children empowered to be a mini-expert.

We have gotten off to a flying start and this week I have declared it a sandbox week, in that the children can email me and share any documents they create, a time to play and get used to this great set of tools. At the end of the week we will rein in this activity a little and discuss some simple guidelines for sharing docs.

Last year we only had about 7 weeks of work with Google Docs, today it begun in our classes and I am really looking forward to digging even deeper into what we can do with the tools to support learning in the primary classroom. And we have a got a whole year to dig!

Who knows what we will find?

Some related posts from this blog that you might find useful too.

• “Google Apps in School - Week 1 , Week 2 , Week 3 , Week 4 , Weeks 5+6“
• 11 Google Apps improvements for the classroom
• 10 Google Forms for the Classroom
• What my class thought of our Google Docs project
• Peer feedback using the chat feature in Google Presentations
• Marking work in Google Docs
• Creating an emotion graph using Google forms
• Using the “Discuss” tool in Google spreadsheets
• iFrame Goodness: Embedding Google presentations
• Using Google Forms in the classroom

I have been thinking and writing about the use of Google tools within the classroom for a while and so I thought I would record some ideas for improvements that have been buzzing around in my head. Although I use the tools personally, the improvements are to do with the use Docs and Apps in general within the classroom, how they affect a teacher’s organisation, the ways that children interact with the tools, missing tools and other possibilities.

1. Ad-free Blogger accounts as a service within Ed Apps – a blogging platform as part of the overall Ed Apps services would provide an easy way to generate blogging accounts. It would allow children to use just a single login to access docs, gmail and their blog. Along with this the children should be able to click publish to blog from within a doc – sending their work to their own blog.
   
2. Integration of Google Notebook in Ed Apps – one of the most powerful tools Google has developed. It certainly has a great deal of unexplored potential within the classroom and is notable by it’s absence. If I were to ask children to research together online this is the tool I would use as a first step, not Docs – they would export their notes to Docs and not work there until research has been gathered. Why use Docs when you can work in an application fit for purpose? Some previous thoughts on Google Notebook and it being missing from Ed Apps.
   
3. Grab a copy / Templates - a simple link for each Doc that allows you to get your own copy without the collaborators. The ability to create a template out of any Doc. In the past when I want a whole class of children to work on a certain document and for them to have their own copy I would use a MS Word Template. The children would open it and they would have their own copy – the process is trickier in Docs because it often leads to duplicated documents everywhere when the children click “Include the Collaborators”! Imagine this times 30! 60! Templates are already in use and soo we will be able to make our own, and I hope to be taking advantage of this new feature to hand out work soon.
   
4. Audio support for docs – marking work could be very different if a teacher could add a simple audio comment. Along with the different ways to mark text a simple audio file would surmount to a much greater personal style of marking. Children could respond in kind regarding the comments you have made via audio. We would not just be repeating what we do on paper but changing it, challenging it, reinventing it.
   
5. View Filter signal - a way to signal to a user the different type of filter currently being used in the Docs home page. Many children think that they have lost documents because they are unaware of the current view. They may have clicked on a folder or on a type of doc filter, without it being made very clear – perhaps something next to the More Actions button on the top bar in the Docs home.
   
6. Not just “Shared With” but “Shared By” - when the children hand me a document, a piece of work that they have completed they share it with me and it appears in my Docs home list. It would be very useful to be able to filter the Docs owned by different children in my class. I could then compare a variety of Docs from the same child, perhaps a series of pieces of work or a collection for a single unit. Even better, for portfolios, would be the ability to then export multiple docs at once – two clicks and you have exported all of the child’s docs.
7. Remove the flicker – when you are working with someone else’s document and it autosaves your screen flicks up to the top. Annoying and the children found it a little off putting when in the midst of writing.
8. Add chat feature into Docs – it’s there in Spreadsheets and when you view a Presentation – children are very motivated by IM and it would prove a useful feature within Docs.
   
9. Archiveable chat – a great feature currently available in Spreadsheets and Presentations but nothing can be archived – it would be useful if this was tied into Google Chat/Email chat (archived their) the chat could be archived for the owner of the document. As a teacher I would like to be able to export it into a Doc as a permanent record of the discourse. We have used it here and here to good effect to support learning going on in the classroom, its just a shame we currently cannot archive it.
   
10. Export Form data to different Docs – we can get a simple summary of the form data and I am aware that this will soon have a wider range of features including different graph and chart types, but it would be very useful to also be able to export some or all of the summary to a new doc/presentation/ssheet. After all once data has been collected we want to analyse, discuss and present that information.
    
11. Gears as a local backup for Docs – in an ideal world my students should be able to access their Google Docs on a local level even if the internet has gone down, just as you can with Google Gears on a private account. No internet = no Google Docs, and although we had only about 2 days of troubles last year with our internet connection it would be useful to have our eggs in more than one basket.

In my opinion the two most important changes would be the inclusion of Google Notebook as it is a lovely little research application and the support of audio within Document commenting. (And of course a platform for blogging as part of the Ed Apps package would also be great)

What do you think of the list? What would you like to see altered, changed, developed or improved that would make a difference in the classroom?

With the new school year fast approaching for us in England – and well on its way in other parts of the world – I thought I would share 10 ideas for using Forms in the classroom.

Google have brought them up front a bit as you can now create a new form from the NEW menu on your Docs home page. I have always liked the way that the data entry point (the form) and the collection location (the spreadsheet) are linked together – its a great tool and I hope to use it more throughout this year. Take a look here for a more detailed introduction and guide to using and creating a Google Form – this was written prior to Google bringing forms into the NEW menu.

I have created example forms for each of the different topics, follow the links in each of the ten sections. With help for JRochelle I have included a link so that you can get your own copy of the form – click on the appropriate link and it should open in your docs home.

1 ) Get to know your class

Use this form to gather some indication from your new class about their likes and dislikes, their favourite lessons or after school clubs they enjoy. It will help you to build your relationships with children as you quickly learn more about them. Get your own copy.

2) Emotion graph

An emotion graph is a simple line graph comparing a range of happiness to sadness against different points (time) in a story or film. This technique of graphing the emotional ups and down within a story really helps children to visualise the whole story in a different way. Use a Google Form to gather the children’s responses to different parts of any type of linear narrative, written or visual. We used it here in a film narrative literacy unit. You can read a more detailed explanation of how to generate the line graph from the form here. Get your own copy.

3) Spelling test

For your weekly spelling test use simple 1-10 or 1-20 numbered form (with a name question too of course) and ask the children to type in their answers as you read out the list of words. Once these are submitted apply formula to judge if they are correct or not and it becomes self marking. Steve Kirkpatrick had this brainwave a while back so check out his excellent post for more information about setting up the spreadsheet. Danny also added in his comment about using the font Wingdings for smiley faces which is a nice idea although this font is not available in Google Spreadsheets. Get your own copy.

4) Comprehension questions

I spent quite a bit of time last year looking for some reading comprehension resources that could be used on a class set of laptops. A Google Form could be created as a way to collate the children’s comprehension answers in one place for any given text. You could also share the answers with the class so that they can review what their peers are doing. This could be a formalised assessment of their understanding of a text or something more informal to start class discussions. Again Steve has grabbed this idea by the horns and tried it with his kids – well worth a look, especially at his reflective comments and lessons learned. Get your own copy.

5) Weekly reading record

The children in our school have a reading diary that they use to record information about times that they read during the week. They take it home as well as using it at school. A form could be created by the children as a place to enter data about their reading. I hear “I haven’t got my reading diary,” so many times during the year, this way they have no excuses and can access it from any computer. Alternatively a class form could also be setup to gather together everyone’s record. Get your own copy.

6) Maths data handling

Perhaps the easiest to pick up and run with, the idea of using a form to gather together maths data handling information. The form could be a simple way of collecting information about the class – shoe size, eye colour etc. It is obviously about what you do with the data that counts but their is no reason why children couldn’t design and implement their own forms – with the attached spreadsheet for analysis – as part of independent data investigations. Get your own copy.

7) Guided reading record

As part of the old literacy hour in England we take part in small focused group reading sessions. They are guided sessions usually 15-20 minutes long and we talk and work on a piece of text that is relevant to the work going on in that unit. Sometimes small written tasks are completed or it may just be a speaking and listening activity. It is widely practiced in English primary schools and this form could act as a class record for those sessions. Get your own copy.

Prior learning assessment

Use a form to assess what the children already know about any given topic that you are beginning. The form could be a formalised assessment with specific questions about the topic or it could be more general and open for the children to explain what they know. Either way such an assessment would allow you to have a better understanding of the current level of knowledge the children have about a topic. This same form could be returned to at the end of the unit of work to help review what they have learned. Get your own copy.

9) Library book review

We have a little corner of our classroom dedicated to our library. There is a broad range of fiction and non-fiction books for the children to enjoy whenever they want. This form could be a simple way of collecting the children’s thoughts about what they read. The children in the class could use it as a reference to help them choose a book to read. A simple and easy way to collate book reviews. Get your own copy.

10) Learning success

This is one of the ten ideas I would most like to explore this year as we continue to use Google Docs as part of our tech toolbox. Use a form to assess the relative success of the learning that has taken place during a single lesson or after a series of lessons on a topic. Invite the children to assess their own confidence after practice of something – such as a lesson on one of the written multiplication methods. The form would collate the views of all of the class very quickly and allow you to make a quick judgement in terms of pupil feedback, about whether to consolidate what has taken place, to start afresh or in fact to move on. We make our learning targets for the lesson so clear these days, along with work scrutiny, dialogue with the students, a generic student response form would allow you to further judge the lesson’s success.

This is very much dependant on the quick and easy availability of a computer in the classroom – this after all should be a small 2 minute task as part of a plenary. If the lesson involves the use of the computers then that is easier – but if it does not then perhaps a handful scattered at the side of the room for students to go to at the end of the task or as directed. Of course the students completing such a form as if it were second nature to them, would be what you aim for – so the laptop, form and technology disappear and you are left with a lucid evaluation from your students. Get your own copy.

I hope that you have found something to inspire you here or perhaps you can use these straight away. If you have not had time to explore Google Forms it is most definitely worth a look. If you have time drop me a note saying how you got on with your own ideas.

Image: “Just forms and colours“

As our summer term Google Docs project drew to a close I asked the children in my class to reflect on what we had done. I asked them to record the one thing they found the biggest challenge about working together with Google Docs and the aspect they enjoyed the most.

No I didn’t set up a Google form with a spreadsheet to pool our thoughts – I just asked them to write them on some paper speech bubbles. Some of their responses formed part of our Geography display.

Below I have transcribed them as they are, which provides a revealing picture about the project.

Biggest Challenge when working together in Google Docs:

• When everyone gets a laptop and everyone delets stuff.
• The hardest thing for me is when were in groups and we are all sharing the same document.
• Delite stuff what we need.
• My biggest challenge is problems happening on google docs like things what I cants solve for myself.
• Putting up with arguing with other people.
• The thing I find hardest is when two or more people are on the same document and are writing in the same space.
• When we are all not talking and people move stuff and people shout.
• I find it difficult when the whole group work on the same document.
• It is hard to work with other people.
• The biggest challenge is to stop arguing.
• The thing I find hard would be the working together.
• When thay move things around.
• When you are trying concentrate on your work.
• I think it has bin a tough challenge getting use to working together because you have to talk then work and then talk etc.
• Probably if somone eles deleats your work.
• It is a challing when other pepole are writing where you are,

Most enjoyable part:

• The most thing I enjoy is that we work as a group.
• What I injoy the most about Google Docs is being able to see what other people are doing.
• I’ve enjoyed it because I like doing research about india becasue there is a lot of things about india.
• I like working this way because we can chat on the computer.
• The best thing is that one person has a laptop.
• I like the fact that we can chat on google docs.
• I have enjoyed working in this way because it gives us a chance to use the laptops more and get to work in partners more.
• I’ve enjoyed it about google dogs like researching and doing a presentation.
• I enjoy working as a group.
• That we get to talk and wright on the same doc.
• I like the chat.
• We get more ideas down.
• I enjoy working on google docs and wth other people.

It is very important that these comments help to define what we do with Google Docs in the new academic year.

The children have clearly told me here that the biggest challenge is working as a group. Before we began using Google Docs the class struggled to participate collaboratively in group activities, I knew this. Working on a document at the same time as someone else is new classroom behaviour and in my opinion needs to be modelled. Just as we would model the correct way to use a hacksaw or modelling how to write in a particular style – we can facilitate the group dynamics by modelling collaborative authoring in Google Docs. But the tool is not a magic answer to communication and working in a group as you can see from the children’s comments. When you undertake a Google Docs project, if you are working on a shared doc between a group, communication and talk must be the most important focus – not the tool.

The chat has been a popular part of the work we have done, although it is only in the presentation tool that you can instant message. This did prove a very powerful learning activity and I would recommend a reflective backchannel that collates feedback to be part of future presentation projects. Comments about seeing what other people are doing and getting more ideas down are interesting as children perhaps become more accountable for their contributions in a group – reminding me of the way Voicethread allows you to see the efforts of others.

There have been many positives from this project and I have been really pleased how Google Docs has performed so reliably under classroom conditions (30 laptops 1 wireless access point) and I would strongly recommend the two following elements to focus on if you are undertaking a similar project with your classes.

1. Model good practices – much of what the children will experience with synchronous document editing is totally new. They may have never done anything like it before and it is a new way to work in the classroom. We found that the children had a better understanding both functionally and socially/collaboratively when we modelled good practice, and gave a commentary about what we were doing as we worked together in Google Docs.
2. Communication is key – beyond learning about the functionality of Google Docs (which they picked up very quickly) the children need to understand why communicating as a group is so essential. Spend time talking with the children about what to expect and how best to approach different situations. Troubleshoot groups going off track and work as a class to help solve and suggest solutions. I asked my children are you making your work C.L.E.A.R – Communication with your team, Listening to what is going on around you, Eye contact when we are talking, Ask about problems or issues and Review what is going on in the team. (Once again number 1 can apply a great deal here)

I wish you success with your own classroom Google Docs projects and hope that some of these insights help you to better use the tools to impact children’s learning. Please drop me a line to say what you are up to.

Other relevant posts:

• Google Apps in School – Week 1 , Week 2 , Week 3 , Week 4 , Weeks 5+6
• Creating an emotion graph using Google forms
• Marking work in Google Docs

Other relevant posts:

• Google Apps in School – Week 1 , Week 2 , Week 3 , Week 4 , Weeks 5+6
• Creating an emotion graph using Google forms
• Marking work in Google Docs

What is the best way to give feedback on a piece of work produced in Google Docs? What formatting tools are most appropriate to use when leaving comments? How do you organise 30 to 60 pieces of work handed in to you? How do children hand in work? What new possibilities does this process uncover?

These are some of the questions which will be driving my thinking in this post about assessing and giving written feedback on work that children have produced in Google Docs. It was at the beginning of May that we began using Google Apps, and in particular the Docs tools, with the Year 5 children. I am beginning to take some things for granted, it has become a part of what we do and another choice for them to use. Google Docs has become just another addition to their toolkit.

I am currently marking two classes worth of narrative writing and geography projects too, and these are my reflections on what it is like to mark work in Google Docs.

3 tools to add feedback to a piece of work.

First of all you need to make it explicit with the class what they must expect to see in their work in terms of marking and feedback. Just as I have encouraged the children to communicate what to expect from each other when collaborating on a document, I have made it clear to my class the types of marking I will be adding. I have shown examples and talked through what they mean from my point of view. I think that it is important to have a few methods that are simple and have a clarity in terms of their feedback function – here are my three.

1 – How do I highlight any spelling or grammatical errors?

I use the highlight tool and a light shade of red to pick out any mistakes that the children may need to revisit and change. The same could be done with an underline tool but I wanted a clear visual cue to problem spots. A method that I explored on Friday during a “live marking” (see below) session, is to change the highlight to a green when I see that the correction is made.

The children may revisit the piece of work and see the highlighted word, they correct the spelling and they also could change the highlight to a green – signalling to me that they have seen and acted upon the feedback. In this way the original position of the mistake is still clear – although this is, in some way, redundant with the document’s revision history.

2 – How do I add comments within a piece of work?

For those comments that you might add in the margin of a handwritten piece I use the Docs comment feature. Place the cursor after the sentence or word you want to comment on and hit CONTROL+M, this is the quickest method for me – you can also use INSERT>COMMENT from the menu bar. You will see a small coloured box appear where you placed the cursor and you can add a short comment about the work. Each comment is tagged by default with your full name, time and date. This can be a useful feature and I would leave it in at least once to show the children the full information, but if the children already understand that the comment boxes will be from you, then there is no need for this info and I often delete it out.

Another reason to delete the name and date information is that if you were to add some suggestions for alternative vocabulary in a comment, the children can right click the comments and insert them directly into the text – blending their work with your feedback and suggestions. But all of the comment text is inserted including name and date – best just to delete user info  out.

It would be a useful addition to the Docs settings to be able to switch between different info in the comment box as default – for example just the date would be useful to me – or none at all.

It is worth noting that wherever you place the comments they will inherit the formatting of the surrounding text – so if you add a comment immediately after a highlighted error the comment is highlighted too. This also applies for headings and other text formatting.

3 – How and where do I write overall comments for a piece of work?

For this type of feedback I use the document header function, that way I know it is distinct from the rest of the work (dotted border) and is clearly signalled to the user when they open it – always on top.

For the first assignments I have added in the same reminder (see image) about the type of marking they will see in their work. If I need to provide a series of comments over time it is worth just dating them to begin with.

Handing work out, handing work in

One of the earliest procedures that I explored was to be able to quickly distribute a single document and the idea of children handing work in to me. Sharing is the most important part of all of this and I would say it is the key feature of Docs. Once I have created a document for the children to use as a starting point or a text for them to work on, I share it with all of my class. The way to create groups of users to share docs etc within Ed Apps is to do it in GMail.

1) Login as usual to your domain account you use and got to your GMail.
2) Open up your CONTACTS.
3) You should see a list of contacts you have, most likely to be all users on domain. Click on the ALL CONTACTS link to see everyone.
4) Go through your list and select the users you want in your group.
5) Click on the GROUPS button and ADD TO… NEW GROUP.

Now that you have created a group it will appear when you share any of your Docs if you click Contacts. When the children hand work in to you they have to simply share the document with you – they will appear in your docs home page and you will see their username next to the doc title. Naming the document with the children’s initials is important if their username does not already contain that information. For us I can see who owns different documents from their usernames, for other schools the naming of docs may be more of an issue.

A writing crumbtrail

A key feature that sets it apart from handwritten work is the document crumbtrail, or revision history. As a teacher I can see every little change and alteration that has gone on from the beginning of the document. You can access the revision history in two ways, from the File menu or from the Tools menu. You have the functionality of comparing older and newer versions.

I find this especially useful with written pieces that have been completed over a series of session or days as I can see, from the dated entries, what has been added and how much has been done. A good method to keep on top of how much work has been completed. The children also have found this useful, giving them the option to revert easily to older versions that they prefer. This tool offers me a window into the document’s past – I can retrace the crumbs and focus on the process as well and the product.

A pile of marking!

Google Docs marking means I do not need to be carrying around piles of work books – however I came across a simple, yet important, problem when I was working this week. If I have a pile of books or papers to give feedback on I activate the intricate system of piles, which I name “marked” and “unmarked” But when you are looking at a list of Docs that the children have shared with you there is no immediate way to label them or sort in the same way.

Here are a couple of my solutions: organise all of the Docs into a single folder that is named after the work that you are doing – this folder could be nested inside a subject folder too. In the same folder as all of the children’s work create two folders named MARKED (green) and UNMARKED (red). Now MOVE all of the Docs to the UNMARKED folder – get some marking done and move them when it is complete over to the MARKED folder.

I like this method but sometimes it can behave strangely because along with moving folders you can also add documents to multiple folders – it can get confusing if you have moved and also added, the document will show multiple labels.

A second method, which is much simpler, would be to use the STAR feature. Click on the star to the left of the document title. You will then be able to sort all of your documents from the STARRED view in the left bar.

I would use the star to show unmarked work, this way I would be able to see work that still needs feedback adding across lots of different projects from the STARRED view. Your STARRED view then becomes a simple marking to do list.

Live feedback

Perhaps the most exciting development this week is the idea of live marking. A time when both you and the student/s are viewing and working on the document. As much as I am looking for learning that is transformative I am also aware that this type of assessment activity is unprecedented and in its own way is transforming the way you provide feedback. It is not a new idea to sit with a child and go through what they have done – what is different is the fact that we can both work on the document at the same time – I can highlight and mark up the text and the student can make the changes that I suggest as we work. This works very well in practice as proved this week in my class, a pair of children were making the changes I had suggested to their first paragraph as I was looking at the second and so on.

One of the hardest challenges I face with a constricted timetable and expanding curriculum is finding time for the children to review marking I have given and responding to it in turn. It is a crucial step towards a more dialogue centred marking approach but is very difficult in practice with the fast pace of what we do and what is expected of us. I think that the live marking concept brings the marking you, as a teacher, provide and the response the children give together. You mark they respond – it works. The main issue is time and how long it takes to do. You have to both be working on the document, I got through about 4 of these live marking sessions in about 35 minutes and that’s my first shot at it. With 30 to get through it may be something that you have to build time in for but which is very powerful because of the immediate and fast paced response you get. It may belong to a longer unit of work which allows you time over a series of sessions/days to cover all of your students. A live marking model would also work very well for peer assessment purposes and would sidestep the issue of time.

Crucially this method of marking negates any dead time in between your feedback being given and the student making the improvements – that can only be to the benefit of the student and the standard of work they produce.

Ongoing reporting to parents

Another idea I have thought about this week involves the use of Google Docs in the process of reporting to parents. The parents at our school currently receive a paper report at the end of the year and I have just finished writing all 30 of them for my class. I have always considered the concept of contributing to the report as the year progresses – writing about the unit of work we have just finished at that moment, rather than waiting 5 months for report writing deadlines to come around. What if we shared a report document with the child’s parents at the beginning of the year and explained that the children’s reports will build throughout the year but they have complete access to them whenever they want. As the year wears on you add comments and remarks about the child which are immediately shared with the parent. Perhaps you communicate with the parents when these planned series of updates will take place or you simply inform them when changes do take place.

According to this report 82% of GB parents with children 17 or under said that an online reporting service would be helpful. The UK Minister of State for Schools and Learners Jim Knight has announced plans to have ‘real-time’ electronic school reporting systems up and running in all secondary schools by 2010, and in all primary schools by 2012. That is 4 years away for us! It is not a dedicated report writing tool, true, but it is a simple and easy way to share a document. With careful planning, the support of next years parents and my school we could have this running from next September.

Image1: ‘crumbs‘  http://www.flickr.com/photos/70685828@N00/1705580506
Image2: ‘11/15/07‘ http://www.flickr.com/photos/19627189@N06/2037138203

It has been a quieter few weeks in terms of our use of Google Docs, by our standards anyway – so I have combined some of my reflections over the last fortnight. Although less prominent in the daily work of our literacy unit the use of Google Docs has continued and has become more and more intrinsic to the thoughts of the year group.

Modelling examples of collaboration with Google docs.

Last time round I spoke of identifying the fact that the children were not very productive when taking their first steps into the collaborative use of docs. Rick and I spent some time this week modelling some of the behaviours we want the children to be aware of when working in a team. With all of the children in my room I worked on the computer connected to the SMARTBoard and Rick on one of our laptops. We had created a document that mirrored the children’s project, shared between us we gave a running commentary of our thoughts and what we were doing in terms of teamwork.

Initially we spent some minutes just talking to each other about what had been completed so far and what we were both planning to do. Key teaching point: begin the collaborative session with a mini-meet that provides a plan for what is to follow. As we began working I ensured the children were aware that I told Rick, and he did likewise, where I was working in the document. Key teaching point: to have document awareness, a sense of where your peers are working. During the modelled session I was constantly talking through my decision processes for the research side of things and also being explicit about my communication with Rick. Prior to adding an image or some text I would mention to him what was going to happen. Key teaching point: communicate what changes you are making so that your team are aware of what is occurring, no surprises.

I would recommend this modelling phase to anyone using Google Docs in a collaborative sense with younger children, to help illustrate what is expected.

Development of this skill within the children’s groups.

The teamwork side of things is our biggest challenge and we talk about it everytime we continue our project work. It feels a little new and messy at the moment, but I have confidence that these sorts of skills can and should be refined. I know that they will work better together in future projects and that they are much more aware of the issues.

Over the course of the project and in subsequent sessions (to our modelling lesson) they have shown they can apply the examples we set. A group in my class today began by logging into documents and then they tilted their laptop lids down and talked about what was to follow.

Children turning independently to GDocs

Their has been strong evidence this week of a shift in the children’s thinking in terms of GDocs as tool. During a Design and Technology session about musical instruments one of the children independently used Google Docs to make some notes about the research that they were doing. Totally unprovoked. A small example that shows that we have positioned the application as a personal tool for them and they are beginning to use it as one of their own personal tech choices.

Sharing beyond the domain

With tighter security comes less opportunity to share beyond the domain. In the administrator settings I have the option to NOT allow the sharing of documents beyond the domain. It is important to consider that this tighter grip does not allow collaboration of documents, synchronous or otherwise, with children from other schools, towns, cities, countries.

I am currently collaborating on some weather data for June with the British School in Muscat, Oman. However this has to be done through my own personal Google account. It is key to be able to balance security with collaboration beyond the walls of the classroom. It will be interesting to see what happens when we have an international opportunity to do something like this perhaps in the future.

Spell checking in Firefox 3

Just a little aside really about the use of Firefox version 3 which checks my spelling as I am writing in a form. It also seems to, although somewhat erratically, check my work as I am typing in Google Docs. There is a spell check function that works reasonably well, but I like the idea that using FF3 it will underline incorrect words in red as you type (you currently have to switch the spell check on in GDocs) It could be a useful feature.

Providing a choice – 56 out of 60 children

Back in December I surveyed the children in Year 5 and 6 who had been using the laptop resource in their classrooms for approximately 3 months. One of the questions asked for their preference in writing, either with pen or pencil on paper, or with a laptop. About 90% said they would prefer to write using a laptop. On reflection I think those figures illustrate the continued positive attitude towards the resource in the classroom. Perhaps inflated by a general good feeling about the technology.

For a literacy task this week I told the year 5 children that they complete the independent writing task either in their literacy books or by using Google Docs. 56 out of 60 children chose to write using Google Docs. I questioned about their choices in the last part of the lesson and they ranged from: “I can work quicker”, to, “I don’t have to worry about my presentation” and “I will be able to continue the work at home.” The percentage is high again but this time around I know that they are making a much more informed choice due to the amount of time we have spent using the tool.

This idea was one that popped into my head at about 3am. After George, my 2 year old son, woke us and I had settled him again, I began thinking about Google forms (as you do at 3am – what better time to be thinking about that subject!!) and the current work we are doing on film narrative and The Piano by Aidan Gibbons. Take a look at the film for yourselves.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Sr64NI33qUo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

An emotion graph is a simple line graph comparing a range of happiness to sadness against different points (time) in a story or film. This technique of graphing the emotional ups and down within a story really helps children to visualise the whole story in a different way. Once the graphs are complete they can be discussed in reference to the different peaks and troughs of emotion. “Why is the main protagonist so upset at this point on the graph, what has happened?”, “In which part of the story is he the happiest?”

The graph can reflect the events in any type of linear narrative, whether that be a book or film – it could even reflect the varying emotions within an event such as a football match. As you can see the whole plot in one graph it is useful to engage the children in conversations about the structure of the plot and the way that the emotions are tied into generic story elements such as problems, conflicts and resolutions.

The children in my class really enjoyed watching The Piano today as we began our film narrative unit. One of the children said that the main character was playing his emotions on the piano, they were the notes of his life. Such a lovely turn of phrase. The Piano is an excellent text to explore in terms of an emotional graph as each of his memories linger, bringing joy and sadness into his life again.

Once you have opened up your Google form (and I have explained in more detail how to do this on this post) I have simply added a new question for each of the different events that I would like the children to gauge the emotions for. Because the film is only two and half minutes long I have chosen about ten or eleven events. I have then chosen “Choose from a list” question type and added the numbers 0 – 10. For each question I added a reminder about the emotional scale from sad (0) to joyous (10) as some additional text. I found it really easy to generate one question and then just duplicate it using the link, and just edit what the event is.

Your form is complete and now you just need to add the line graph itself to the linked spreadsheet. You will see in your spreadsheet that the header (top) row is filled in with the different events from left to right. Under each column heading add the average =AVERAGE(Range) formula for the cells below, say down to 100 cells below. This will average out the different responses from your form and return a single figure. Don’t worry the survey results should always be added below your average row. I like to add the “Rounded” formatting to these cells as well. Select these average figures and click the “Chart” tool and create a line graph from this data. (These average cells could also be hidden, select the row from the left and click hide row) Find some more detailed steps to making a chart here.

Place the chart to the right of your data or embed within a blog post somewhere, and enlarge it so that it is clearly visible. I will be emailing the emotion graphing form to all of our Year 5s and getting them to complete the form (from within the email) alongside watching the film again. We will then be reviewing, as I have mentioned above, the responses and how the emotions vary throughtout the text. I will be encouraging them to justify their responses and decisions with supporting evidence from the film.

Now it is your turn to complete the emotion graphing survey that I have referred to – watch the film again, if you haven’t already, and answer the survey that I have embedded below. The code for embedding a form is available when you click “Edit/Resend Form” and then it is under the “Preview and Send” link.You will also see that I have published the graph which can be done from within the graph drop down menu.

Let me know what you make of this idea and whether it was worth a sleepless early morning!

• How can you use this idea in your own narrative or literacy unit?
• Have you used emotion graphs? (I know there is an option with Turning Point voting systems to do something similar which I have used in the past)
• How have you used them?
• How else have you used Google forms in the classroom?

This week we took another step towards a 1 to 1 model of personal computing in Years 5 and 6 at school. With a further 32 laptops (Toshiba Satellite A200) divided amongst the 4 classes we now have a total of 16 laptops per class. Since September we have regularly pooled the laptops between the two classes in Year 5, providing us with more machines. Now we have the option of one laptop per child if we choose to.

I spent the best part of a morning installing antivirus software, configuring the laptops to access the wireless network and proxy settings to get online. After telling the children that we had the new machines I said that we can get online but they do not have all of the software available on the others just yet. One of the children replied:

“But we can get onto Google Docs can’t we?”

Great to hear this from the children and it seems that Google Docs has quickly become another tool for us to use. Much of the novelty has worn off and it now has become just another part of what we do in the classroom. Much like the use of del.icio.us for the weblinks we use in class – when we use something the children enjoy the first question will always be: “Is this on del.icio.us?”

This week has been dominated by Optional SATs in English and Maths but we spent Thursday and Friday afternoon exploring a Geography project involving Google Docs.

We are working on a unit about India and the differences with our own country. Rick and I have planned for the children to define what they want to learn about. In small groups they are going to produce a short presentation about a topic of their choosing. In addition they will design an activity to do with that topic for the class to take part in. After some initial work the children in my class have chosen to work on these five different topics:

• The Himalayas
• Wildlife in India
• Fashion
• Indian Art
• The History of India

Much of this week I have been wishing for the integration of Google Notebook into the Education Apps suite of tools. Many teachers are calling for it and this project of ours requires just such a tool. There is a work round to register with Notebook by creating an account based on the Ed GMail account. But that is too hacky for me – I want the tool right there for the children to use and think it is about time they included it. In the remainder of this post I will refer to some of the processes that are better suited to Notebook than Docs.

The first job for the groups of children was to elect someone to create a single research document that would then be shared with the remaining group members and yours truly. Each child was assigned a colour to give a visual indication of the content they have added and sub headings for their topic were explored and added.

In the afternoon on Friday we had some time to begin the process of finding information about their topics, but before they began I wanted to highlight some of the ways that they could search for it. Intermingled within this was an opportunity to model the searching / selecting / referencing process in a document about Food in India. We will use this doc as a sandbox and exemplar of practice as we go through the project and a place to model some of the processes involved. As this research was to form part of the children’s holiday homework I composed an email with my searching suggestions to help remind them, they were:

• Explore India using Google Earth – switch on the different information layers available.
• Use some of the Google search tips I showed you. “” to search for exact phrases.
• Quintura for Kids – a different search engine http://kids.quintura.com
• Use an image search such as Google images or FlickrCC image search – you can add them to your research doc.
• Search using del.icio.us – use the + sign to search for different tags.
• Wikipedia – a huge reference library.
• Living Library

I modelled how to add a website URL reference for a piece of research in Docs – this would be automatically created when using Google Notebooks. When using Google Notebook you highlight and right click to “Note this” from any site – it grabs the site address and adds your selected content into the notebook. Each clipping is also organised separately and can be reordered. Not forgetting that you can create different sections (sub headings) within any notebook and add notes to these.

The idea then is that the group will work collaboratively on a single doc adding different items of research synchronously or asynchronously. But something doesn’t feel right. It is all very well using the sharing functionality of Docs but it just isn’t the right tool. When I do research on a new curriculum topic I gather my ideas in a Google Notebook. The children would still be able to share the Notebook between the group by much the same process as adding collaborators to a doc. That would be the right tool for this research work – come on Google let us start to use it with our classes!

Once the children began their own research I was pleased to see a variety of information searches taking place: exploring the Himalayas in Google Earth, looking at the terrain and geographic information available; del.icio.us searches looking for popular tagged sites and the use of Wikipedia and more formalised resources like Living Library.

This 25 minute session began to uncover some interesting questions and concepts about the use of Google Docs. A group of boys working on the history of India began very well but soon were having trouble with deletion and overtyping in the Google Doc (this would not have occurred in Notebooks because each clip is saved as a new note). Even though they were working on the same table, next to each other – they were just not talking. They became a bit transfixed with what they were doing on screen. It is important that when you ask the children to collaborate with each other on a document they remember understand what collaborate means. They needed to discuss and talk with each other about what was happening and who was doing what.

In order to refocus the class on this important aspect I stopped everyone and we talked about this example for a moment – I made a teaching point of it. It seemed that the group in question had actually gone backwards and lost work because they were deleting each others by accident – one of the boys told me he could get it back from the “Revision History” which he promptly did. I felt that the children were trying their best but were a little unsure about how to go about working synchronously on a document with 2 or 3 other children – there was a need to model this and show them what to do. After all it is a new skill, a completely unknown process they have not experienced before. Here are some reflections on approaching this:

• Emphasis must be placed on the communication between children when working in the same document.
• Model this process if possible – Rick and I have already planned to show the children what we mean, to be working on a doc together and to be saying, “I am just going to put an image in the second section.” They have to see and hear this in action and understand the importance of it.
• Highlight and praise the smooth running and good communication between a group – be absolutely clear why it is a good example to the whole class. Continue to flag up good practice as the project progresses.
• Just because they are sharing a document does not mean they are automatically collaborating – they have to work as a team and not alone.
• Expect to see changes – encourage the children to begin to appreciate that when other people are working with them the document they see will alter. Perhaps model this with the whole class on a single document.
• Listen and pause – as the children are working they may hear a member of their team say they are going to put a bunch of text and images in a section, encourage them to react by pausing for a moment and letting their own document update. In this way they will not be surprised by a document suddenly changing.
• What is my friend doing? Encourage the children to take an active interest in which section their peers may be working on. This could well be decided at the outset so it is clear who is working where in the document.

After all it is not about the different colours for their names. Fundamentally the children need to use their communication skills to facilitate the production of something together.

And of course I still yearn for Google Notebook in this instance. In my opinion we are settling for an oval when we really want a circle. Most of the issues I have explored above about working with docs in this way would not exist in Notebook. It references, organises and structures the research as part of the process – the children could then export the resulting notebook to Docs and refine what they have done. We will persist with Docs but it is frustrating to know of a very powerful tool that is more suited to the task, but is currently beyond our reach.

I cannot believe that we have already had three weeks of work with Google Apps in our year group. This week has been extremely eventful, and I have loved and hated technology in equal measure (well there is always a bit more love) – with major network issues it has brought into focus issues of reliability that every school and teacher need to engage with when investing their time and effort in Google Apps.

Monday – 12/5/08

• Took some time with the children to explore the various different views and issues surrounding finding and managing Docs home page.
• I emphasised the importance of the search function at the top of the page and how Google have been known to be quite good at searching
• I demonstrated a few different searches and how quickly you could find content – as you type in the search field it immediately gives feedback on that term, even looking in the people who you have shared the docs with. You can then click the results that popup to go straight to that doc. Very powerful and much quicker than navigating through folders or views.
• As a class we worked together to edit the 1st draft verse we wrote last week. I used the strikethrough tool and colour formatting as we worked on ADDING words OMITTING words and CHANGING words in the poem.
• The alterations the children suggested were excellent and as we finished up I thought that we could use the REVISIONS tool to compare our new version with the original. When two versions are selected and compared changes and deletions are clearly highlighted. If different users were to make the changes than these users are colour coded too with their edits.
• In a less sophisticated way than Track Changes this could be used on a longer piece of work when reviewing 1st and 2nd drafts.
• The children had time together to complete their 1st drafts of the poem and organise their poetry journals (Google Presentations).
• There were a few pairs that had work missing, their poetry journal presentations were missing slides. I pointed them towards the revisions tool and told them to find a version that was complete and to REVERT TO THIS VERSION.
• Although a minor incident this is an example of one of the huge benefits of Google Docs. It auto saves so many times (I keep seeing the “Saving…” message popup at the top on this doc) that unless you were to delete the actual file, a child could retrace every step in the life of the piece of writing, even over a number of days or weeks – not possible in more traditional office applications.

Tuesday and Wednesday – 13/5/08 and 14/5/08

• Oh dear.
• Powercut killed the school server during the night and the APS or alternative power supply did not seem to do its job.
• As a result of this the DHCP database has been corrupted and so the server could not administer new IP addresses to laptops and even the access points. Bad news all round.
• Keith our technician rebuilt the database today (Wed) and tells me it is working again.
• With no wireless network we were unable to access our online docs and so were in a fix – seeing the main concern I have with this approach materialising.
• We were able to continue with our poetry work with some nostalgic pencil and paper writing for a few days! It has brought into sharp focus the main drawback of this method and so I have looked further into the new Google Docs development of using Offline syncing.
• If you download Google Gears, a browser extension, you can sync your online docs with your desktop.
• It seems that this service will be made available to Google Apps Education Edition too, which is good news. But there remains many questions: will children need to work on the same laptop to see their desktop synced work? Could the whole domain be synced to a network? How will this individual use be translated into domain use?
• I hope that when teachers say to me, “But what happens to your access to the children’s docs when the internet connection is down?” I will be able to answer that we will just work on our desktop synced versions which will sync up when we are back online again.
• I would hope that there are no further restrictions to doc access because of the offline nature – for example having to work on a specific machine because docs are only synced there.
• I am hopeful for this situation but expect there may be some compromises – it will be interesting to see how docs could be used offline for a domain.
• On reflection I still have complete faith and trust the infrastructure in place. This event is the first of its kind at school, but we did not lose the internet connection (which, for what it is worth, has been amazingly reliable over the last 5 years or so) it was the wireless network that suffered. If we were to be working on a Local Authority learning platform or other such product we would not have been able to access it either. I will be chalking it down to an unlucky event – and still have full faith in my network structure and reliability.
• Do I have all of my eggs in one basket when using Google Docs? Not really – the writing and poetry language was the focus and that was still focused upon in the days we had no connection. Should you have a backup plan in the back of your mind? Perhaps, there is no harm in it – I usually have something up my sleeve for most things even if it is normal class work and not technology related. Using Google Docs to support your work is no different in my mind.

Thursday – 15/5/08

• Wahey the wireless network is back on its feet – looks like it was a corrupt DHCP database which issues and controls IP addresses. So the old IPs were not being refreshed and nothing new was being issued. Suffice to say it took a 3 hour database rebuild from Keith our technician who drafted in some extra help too.
• Anyway the whole problem has highlighted the need for some sort of backup in the event that it occurs again and, as I mention above, I hope that the Offline – Google Gears development allows us constant access and a possible solution.
• The children were straight back into their writing and we had another great session today with children completing their first verses and editing what they have written.
• Their senses poetry has a simple and effective structure and they have been using Docs tools to help support their work – it seems to have been a successful unit of work. One of the highlights is the poetry journals that the children have created we hope to continue to add to these as we continue our poetry work.
• Google Docs does seem a little glitchy – over the course of the last few weeks I have noticed things that serve to remind me that it is still in BETA. Here are a few:
• The thumbnail view in Presentations is a little odd, more often than not the text appears over sized in the thumbnail.
• Presentations seem to take a long time to load.
• Sometime text behaves strangely in Docs – rigidly holding onto formatting even if you change it, can be frustrating.
• Objects and texts do go missing there has been perhaps a dozen occasions, not just today, when we have had to retrieve an older revision because of missing text.
• As a result of this missing text phenomena I showed the children how to use the Revision aspect of Docs again, reminding them that they can revert to any version right back to the beginning of the Doc.
• As an extension I stopped the children with 20 mins to go and showed them how easy it is to add images to a Doc.
• We used the FlickrCC search tool http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net and I modelled how to drag an image from one window to another and drop it into Docs. We then looked at how to alter the image and move it about.
• We talked briefly about the Creative Commons license and what it meant (need to do more on this)
• Discussed the importance of dealing with inappropriate content (images) and what we should do – I think it is important to keep this sort of learning high on the agenda, so the children understand what is expected of them and how to deal with issues if they arise. It seems to me that this message of appropriate and sensible action should be reinforced throughout the year, not just in a bundle of e-safety lessons.
• For some reason IE shut down or crashed on a child and they were a little perplexed as to what had happened. (Note to self – must install FF so kids have a choice) A huge benefit of Google Docs is that it auto saves so regularly, as explained above. As a result the child was able to log straight back in again and pick up without any data loss. Working on a desktop WP like MS Word (auto saves could be configured – true) there is a higher chance of data loss due to unexplained crashes or application misbehaviour. You can encourage a healthy “save regularly ” culture in the use of desktop apps but nothing comes close to Google Docs saving your work every 70-80 seconds for you. It won’t forget.

Friday – 16/5/08

• During today’s literacy session we worked for approximately 20 more minutes, just fine tuning our poetry journal presentations.
• Children were still finding missing text and a few things different but were independently accessing their doc revisions and switching back to older versions that were complete. Good to see this going on as it is an important feature when editing and writing.
• Yesterday children had dragged images into Google Docs and today they wanted the same images in their presentations. This is where we faced problems but the kids worked brilliantly to work around the issue and solve it.
• Initially I had told them to copy and paste the images across from docs, but this did not work – it allowed you to paste but no image.
• Secondly I suggested finding the image again in the Flickr CC search and dragging it into Google Presentations. Even though they suggest this works, it doesn’t. Or it at least hasn’t for us. The presentation would say it is working – the message at the top of the page would be saying importing image or something similar, but nothing would appear.
• Children suggested we save the image and insert it. So they saved the image to their network folder and inserted and browsed for that saved picture. Not as simple as dragging and dropping but same result and kids happy. Children coped really well with switching from one method to another. Good to see.
• Seems to me that Google Presentations is much more glitchy than others. Behaved quite slowly today and image issue is a little frustrating.
• The choosing of images to illustrate their verses was a good extension activity. The quality of their choices were well justified and added another element to their writing.
• I was delighted to see children who had successfully inserted images splitting off and supporting their peers who had not. That sense that we are learning and exploring together was strong today.
• I demonstrated how to preview the presentation and we talked about the IM feature/backchannel that appears to the right. We talked about ways we could collate feedback about what we can see in this space.
• I began a presentation of our class poetry journal and told the children to go to their GMail and open up their inbox. With the presentation in full screen and the IM window open I copied the URL to share the presentation and pasted it into an email. I asked the children who were signed in (remember the children are working in pairs on docs that are shared between them) to raise their hands and I added their addresses into the email. This was as easy as typing the first letter of their name and finding them in the list. I fired off the email and the children opened it and the enclosed link.
• Note to Google – it would be useful to have an email link next to the presentation URL that auto generates an email to send to contacts.
• I could see from the IM window who had opened it up and joined the presentation – ripples of excitement from the kids to see their names and those of others in the window, they love IM. I took control of the presentation and showed them how I could move the slides on and it will change automatically on their screens.
• Upon moving the presentation on a slide I looked up and saw that all of the 16 wireless machines were responding in almost real time. Very impressive.
• I said a few “hellos” the usual IM stuff and let the kids throw a few messages around. I then drew the discussion back to how we could use the IM chat. The only problem that is apparent is that the resulting chat cannot be archived, saved or copied from the window. It is a flash IM and so you cannot copy text out. Although this IM within the presentation window is really neat, if the chat cannot be saved it is less useful. The alternative would be to create a group chat in Google Talk – I would have preferred to share the URL for the presentation in IM form but we have not installed the GTalk clients yet on each machine and the children have not all started up the GTalk IM in GMail.
• Ideally we could (1) All be part of a Google Talk group chat using Talk client from desktop (2) I would open the presentation (3) Copy and share the URL in the chat (4) Children open to follow, but close the IM frame (5) Feedback and answers to questions I pose could be added to GTalk chat (6) Chat is saved and archived, access it from GMail “Chats” link.
• Note to Google – let us copy or save the chat from Presentations – or merge GTalk into presentations.
• After our, on the fly experimentation with presentations and IM we listened to pairs and individuals present and read their poetry from their journals.
• I found it useful in order to jump straight to the presentation to access the shared Docs from my account and right click the Presentation name- then choose “View Presentation” from the bottom of the list. This bypassed the edit screens.

Overall reflections on Week 3

The biggest consideration for me this week is what do you do if the kids cannot access the internet. Of course we/I/you have been successful working without Google Docs – so we continued on with our poetry in more traditional ways. I am pleased to have thought a little more about the development of Google Gears and Offline Docs for Ed Apps, that could be a very important change in the reliability of this tool. If there are days when the web is flaky – it happens – then children could continue unhindered by this. Is the “All my eggs in one Google basket” an issue that you consider to be an important one to resolve with teachers adopting these tools?

On Friday we explored the IM feature of presentations and I am keen to explore how we could harness the children’s natural understanding of this communication tool in future learning activities. Could GTalk be used to get the children responding to questions at the same time, like we did with the spreadsheets example a while ago? They were so excited by that one activity – if we can just pivot that enthusiasm in the direction of learning. It is a shame the IM in presentations isn’t linked with Google Talk in some way, so that what is added there can be saved and returned to later. I will need to download the GTalk client to the laptops and continue to explore ways that IM can be used. Although I am reflecting on the use of IM within Google Apps, with the GTalk client the IM could stand alone from G Apps and so be embedded within any learning activities taking place on the laptop.

Google Presentations seems to be behaving as the one application that is most in BETA – lots of glitches and missing work issues to try and resolve this week. It can’t even handle images as it should. It feels sluggish when working with it – I hope it improves.

Today it was clear that we are all learning together and I was so pleased to see the children being creative and trying to solve problems with real initiative. They worked well on their own or in pairs and helped each other out, sharing what they have learned or a method just discovered to reach an outcome we are all aiming for. We are learning and exploring together. It has been very apparent that there are maybe 3 or 4 children who are extremely adept at using Google Docs, they offer help to others very willingly. But all the children have progressed so far since not seeing Docs 3 weeks ago – long may our learning continue.