Running head: GOOGLE BASICS TRAINING

Google Basics Training: Introduction to Google and Google Docs Matthew Stryker Post University

http://discoverglobe.net/welcome/?page_id=276

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Rationale If you walk into most K-12 classrooms, you will notice a large technological void. Watch the students as they leave the school or listen to their conversations about life outside of school and you will notice that technology has infiltrated nearly every aspect of their life. The advent of smart phones, tablets, and many other mobile computing devices has given children, as well as adults, constant access to the internet and web 2.0 tools. This constant access not only allows people to communicate with one another but it also gives them unlimited access to information and learning tools. In 2010, the United States Department of Education produced a publication called Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. In this publication the Department of Education discusses a plan for improving education by integrating and using technology to enhance learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity (US Dep. Ed., 2010). The professional development is not only for the teachers but for the administrators and support staff as well. The U.S. Department of Education (2010) says education will only be changed, only if we commit to the change that it will bring to our education system (p. 4). There needs to be a total commitment of everyone in order for the change to occur. The national education technology plan was introduced in 2010. In 2008 the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) presented National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). ISTE formulated technology standards for students, teachers, administrators, coaches, and computer science educators. The professional development needs to align the standards and the staff members. Teachers will focus on the teaching standards. Administrators will focus on the administrative standards. The Department of Education technology plan and ISTEs NETS set a bar for schools to achieve and to measure their level of technology use in their schools. Many schools and teachers are striving toward these goals but most fall miserably short.

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This Google Basics module is designed for anyone who has a need to create and share documents as collaborate with coworkers. K-12 educators are the specific target in this case. There have been mixed reviews about Google and its target to be used in education. Some think that there is no real substance to the content while others think that even though the content may be lacking it still creates interest and some competition and this is a good thing (Lackie, 2008). Regardless of their views there are still some positives that Google can be used for and perhaps their content and applications will continue to build and make it a mainstay in the classroom. This basic introduction to Google will provide a base for future application instruction. Overview This training is designed to provide novice educators with basic knowledge of Google and Google Docs. The goal is to give the educators a tool they can use in their educational setting to create and share documents with other faculty, administration, students, and others. The training course will be placed on the schools website and educators will be able to complete it at any time. The school has a professional development page on their website and this training will be placed there along with others. The trainings are specifically designed to allow the learner to complete the course on whichever type of computing device they have access. Learners using a desktop, laptop, or mobile device can follow the steps provided by using any web browser. Learners who want to use mobile applications will need to download several of Googles apps. The mobile Google site also differs from the full website (Google, 2012). In this case the buttons and links are their but may be in a different location. The training follows several events from Gagnes nine instructional events (Instructionaldesign.com, 2012). The training will gain the learners focus, present the objectives, access prior knowledge, take the learner through three activities, and finally evaluate the learner.

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There will also be a help section available to those learners who are having difficulty and need some assistance. The Course Focus Gagnes first event of instruction is to draw the attention of the learner. In the Google Basics course, the learner will begin by clicking on the Google Basics link on the schools professional development website. This will open up a video from Google.com (2012) in a new tab in the internet browser. The video shows education professionals giving testimonies of them using Google and Google Docs in the classroom. User testimonials are more persuasive and relatable than individuals in the technology or other fields telling teachers the possibilities. The learners need to see the benefits that this training will provide. Adults want to see the value in implementing the knowledge they have gained immediately. The video shows actual teachers presenting these benefits for them in their classroom. The teachers are also showing excitement for the program in an attempt to get others enthusiastic about using Google in the classroom. At the conclusion of the video the learner will be able to review the video or close it and return to the course home page. Objectives The learner will now click on the link labeled Objectives. Clicking on this link will open up the objective file. This file includes the two enabling objectives and a third terminal objective. All three objective will also include and audio reading of the objectives. Having both visual and audio representations will assist those who are visually or hearing impaired. There will also be a .pdf file available for download if the learner would like to have a copy available to them. Objective one is, given a computing device with internet access, the learner will create a Google account. The learner can be anywhere with a computing device and internet access. This

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includes desktop computers, laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones. Google will work on any browser or operating system. Googles services are also free of charge unless you require more data storage (Google, 2012). Objective number two expands on the first one. Given a computing device, internet access, and a Google account, the learner will create a contact list of at least five contacts. After the learner has created an account they need to begin to build their contacts. Their contacts will serve as those they can share and collaborate with. The learners will begin with teachers in their grade and block in school and can expand from there. Objective number three is the terminal objective for this course. Given a computer, internet access, a Google account, and a list of contacts, the learner will create a document in Google Docs and share it with a person in their contact list. After the learner has created an account and set up their contact list they will begin to work with Google Docs. The learner will be asked to answer some questions about the course and write those answers in a Google document. When the learner has completed the document they will change the accessibility options and share the document with their instructor. Prior Knowledge Gagnes third event of instruction is to access prior knowledge. When the learner clicks on this link they will be taken to a questionnaire that will ask questions about their experience with Google. The learner will choose the answer or answers that pertain to them. The questions will be presented in a multiple choice style or a five point Likert scale. Similar questions were used during the analysis phase of instructional design to analyze the learning populations experience with Google (Hodell, 2011). These questions will now serve to stimulate previous experience and feelings of Google in order to begin to build upon that prior knowledge. The following activities will use what the learner already knows and connect the new learning to it.

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Activities Create a Google Account The learners will have multiple ways to access the information for the learning events. Each event will be presented in a video with an instructor showing and explaining the steps to complete. The learner can watch and listen to the tutorial while they complete the steps themselves. This also gives the learner the ability to pause, rewind, and play the tutorial as they desire. This control will keep the learner from getting frustrated and improve their motivation (Keller & Deimann, 2012). The learner will also have the option to view the steps in text format. There is a .pdf link next to the tutorial link on the Google Basics homepage. The learner can view the text version of the steps and follow them if they do not want to watch the video or would rather have the steps readily available to them. These are the steps: (Skip steps 1 and 2 if you are using the Google App on your smartphone or tablet.) Open up Web Browser Type in Google.com in the address bar. Click on the Sign in button on the upper right-hand corner. Click on the SIGN UP button in upper right-hand corner. Fill out the form and click on next step. If you want to add a profile picture you can otherwise click on next step. Continue on through the steps. If you want to fill in the information you can do it at a later time. 8. You now have a Google account. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. These steps will be different for those who desire to use the Google App on their smartphone or tablet. After they download the Google App they will skip the first two steps and instead just click on the Google App.

Build a Contact List Once the learner has created the account they are to begin building their contact list. The contact list they create during the training will consist of the instructor and at least four of the teachers they may share and collaborate with. The learner will place their contacts in a circle they

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create for their list. This section will also be presented in a visual and audio tutorial accompanied by a .pdf file of the steps in text form. Following are the steps to build a contact list. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Click on Contacts at the top of the screen in the black bar. Click the New Contact button on the left side of the screen. We will add the instructors name as your first contact. Type in Matt Stryker where it says Add Name. Type in mstryker@discoverglobe.net into the email address. - Your other contacts email should be the one they use most. You can add multiple email addresses. Scroll (DO NOT CLICK YET) on the red button that says add and invite. You can add your contacts to a current circle or create your own. We will create our own so click on it and type in South Middle School. The contact is automatically saved. You are ready to add another contact. Repeat these steps until you have at least 5 contacts. You do not need to add them all to the same circle. The steps can be different for learners using smartphones or tablets. The steps can be performed using a web browser but will be different using applications. If they desire to use mobile applications they will need to download Googles Gmail application. If the learner is using a smartphone the Gmail application will automatically sync your contacts on the phone to their contacts list. The user will need to add the contacts to their smartphone contact list. Create a Google Document and Share it The final event has the learner creating a document in Google Docs and sharing it with the instructor. The teachers may have experience with the other aspects of Google. They may already have a Google account. They also may already have their coworkers email addresses in their contacts list from an existing Gmail account. This step is where there will be the least amount of experience and where the majority of the learning will take place. During this event the learners will create a document using Google Docs. If the learner is using a mobile device and wishes to use a mobile application they will need to download Google Drive onto their device. The steps will still be similar. They are as follows: Create a Document 1. Click on Drive on the black bar at the top of the page. 2. You have two choices. You can create or upload documents from your computer.

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3. Click on Create and then click on Document. 4. A new tab will open up to the Google word processing page. The document saves automatically. 5. Answer the questions that are provided in the .pdf next to the link for this document. Name this document Google Basics Training. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Share a Document We will now learn how to share the document. Click on the Blue Share box at the top right-hand corner of the screen. We will first need to change the privacy. Click on the circle next to the line that says anyone with the link. Next we want to change Access. Go to the dropdown box that says Can View Here you can decide if other can only view the document, add comments about a document, or edit the document. For this course choose Comment on Document. Finally Click on Save Next you need to add people to share it with. Click in the box under Add People: Then above the box click on choose from contacts. In the dropdown box click on South Middle School. Select Matt Stryker from your contacts. Then select done. You can select as many contacts as you want with other documents. Finally Click Share and save.

Evaluation The evaluation event will consist of formative evaluations and summative evaluations. In the final activity the learner creates a document and shares it with the instructor. The instructor will evaluate the learner by the success the learners has in completing the activities. The instructor will be able to track the learners progress by determining if they have created an account, built their contacts, and finally created and shared a document. The document that the learner creates will also serve as an assessment. The learner will be presented with several questions that ask them to reflect on the Google course. The questions will help the instructor evaluate the effectiveness of the course and the learners feelings of the course. The learner will provide feedback on ways that the instructor can improve the course in the future. Summative evaluations will be conducted by the instructor after learners complete the course. The instructor will periodically follow up with learners use of Google in several ways. One way is that the instructor will contact learners with emails asking them how they are using Google.

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The learners can provide quick insight into their daily use of Google. The instructor will be able to evaluate if Google is used by the learners after the course. The instructor will also have the ability to see if the learners have taken more advanced Google trainings. Learners taking the more advanced trainings may be a sign that they see value in Google and wish to further their knowledge of it. However, it may just be it is an easy professional development credit so further evaluations may be necessary. Finally the instructor may conference the learner via phone, Google Hangout, or some other method to gather data on how the learner is using Google after the training course. A combination of these three methods should give the instructor a good idea of the success and effectiveness of the training course. If there needs to be changes then the learners can give their insight to that as well. Help The final link that the learner has available to them is the help link. At any time throughout the course the learner can access this link if they are having difficulties. Feedback is an important part of Gagnes instructional events (Instructionaldesign.com, 2012). This will allow the learner to contact the instructor. The instructor will respond to the learners questions and issues in a timely manner. The learner will also have the ability to access online content that can assist them with their problems. Links will be provided to online content provided by Google and others who have advice on how to complete the task. Through this exploration the learners may also be presented with information that is not directly related to this course. It could result in several outcomes. First, it could do nothing. The learners do not react to it at all. Second, it could act as a distraction and take way from the current training. This is a risk to take and will be assessed during the evaluation period. The third response could be that it gets the learner interested in further aspects of Google and its uses in education. Diversity

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This training is designed to be effective for all learners. Within individual school districts there may be little diversity. There are typically no language variances or other major differences that will pose any need for a major adaptation. With the training module being entirely online it is opened up to unlimited global learners. This training is made available using video with audio directions as well as text versions of the material. This will help those who may have different learning styles and wish to view the information in different ways. It will also help those who may be hearing or visually impaired. The training could be adapted for those who speak different languages. The text would need to be translated and an interpreter could be used to record the audio for the training tutorials. There are no ethnic or social aspects of the training that would cause diverse learners any problems. The tutorials are straight forward on how to use Google and little or no technical jargon is used. The instructor will explain difficult concepts on the tutorials. The training also allows for individuals with diverse schedules to access and complete the training. The learners can also begin the training at one time and complete it at another. This aspect of the course will allow the learner to proceed at their desired pace. It also allows for unforeseen distractions or issues that may occur. Additional Resources The internet is full of additional resources the learners can access. The Help link provided in this course provides a few resources but many more are available. A simple search for Google Doc help or using Google Docs provides thousands of results. Learners can choose whichever form of help they would like. Plenty of videos, slide shows, documents, and web pages are available. Google.com/edu has resources for educators but is not as easy to follow as some other aides individuals have created. ELearning Course Evaluation

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This Google Basics course was designed and developed based on principles found to be effective in an eLearning course. The objectives are clearly stated and the learner is presented with real world problems that can be applied to their everyday work environment. The learners are gaining a skill that they can implement immediately. The course is structured in logical succession of events and presented in clear and concise tutorials. The learning is provided audio, video, and text versions of the material. The course is also designed with assessments throughout the course and allows for the learner to assess the course themselves. The course is also designed so that it is user-friendly. The learner is only required to click on links and follow the directions. The learner also has control over the tutorials and can pause, rewind, fast-forward, and play the tutorial as they desire. The final evaluation criterion is the globalization of the instruction (Corpu, 2008). This course is appropriate for any individual. Google is a global entity and its products can be used by anyone. The only issue would be the need to be adapted to a different language. This course is created in English. Those individuals who do not speak English would need a version available in their language. Conclusion This training gives the learners multiple ways in order to obtain the stated objectives. The tutorials give visual as well as verbal directions on how to complete the steps. The content is also available in text form for learners who desire that medium. The training is able to be completed via any computing device. The training is also able to be completed anywhere the learner can access the internet. Google can be accessed on any device and there is no charge. These are just a few of the benefits of the training. The learners will see these benefits and the ease of use of Google in their environment and have the ability to use it immediately.

12 References Corpu.com (2008). How to evaluate elearning. Retrieved from: http://www.corpu.com/research/how-evaluate-e-learning/ Google (2012). Google in education. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/educator-resources.html# Hodell, C. (2011). Isd from the ground up: A no-nonsense approach to instructional design (3rd ed.). Alexandria, Virginia: ASTD Press. Instructionaldesign.org (2012). Conditions of Learning (Robert Gagne). Retrieved from: http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/conditions-learning.html International Society for Technology Education. (2008). National education technology standards- teachers. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers. Keller, J. & Deimann, M. (2012). Motivation, volition, and performance. In Reiser, R. & Dempsey, J. (Eds.) Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.) (pp. 333-341). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Kruse, K. (2010). Gagne's nine events of instruction: An introduction. Beginner Basics. Retrieved from: http://www.utsweb.net/Instructional%20Design%20Resources/GagneStyle.pdf Lackie, R. J. (2008). Google's bid to build cooperation and partnerships through librarian central and google for educators. Journal Of Library Administration, 47(1/2), 183-196.

United States Department of Education, (2010). Transforming American education: learning powered by technology. Washington, D.C.

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