Quick Ideas for Powering Up Google Apps in the Classroom and Office

So many Google Apps at Fordham, so little time to learn how to implement them into your coursework, teaching, or administrative duties. Over 50 Google Apps are available to anyone with a fordham.edu email address. 

Below are just a few ideas for using the apps. They will get you started with using some of the most powerful and useful apps for communicating, collaborating, and organizing.

Need to activate your access to Google Apps at Fordham? Click here. 

Google Docs 

Available anytime, anywhere you have Internet access. 

Share and edit with others. Doc can also be available offline.

Students: Make notes and write papers. Purchasing an expensive word processing program is not necessary anymore.
Instructors: Share your syllabus with students. Make changes and add to your syllabus anytime; no need to print out and distribute new copies. And, since the doc is stored on Google Drive, students can’t ever claim to have “lost” the syllabus.
Administrators: Collaborate on docs with multiple authors: leave comments and make editorial suggestions. Skip the long email threads with multiple versions of one doc attached.

Google Translate

Translate text from one language to another. 

Students: Traducción de texto de un idioma a otro.
Instructors: Oversæt tekst fra et sprog til et andet.
Administrators: Humusha umbhalo kusuka ngolimi.

Google Spreadsheets

Use a template or create a unique document that 

can be shared and edited by others.

Students: Keep track of homework assignments and your grades.
Instructors: Create email and attendance lists, and record grades
Administrators: Share data with others, monitor inventory, and create email lists.

Google Presentation

Much like PowerPoint, only easier to collaborate on and share with others.

Students: Need to do a group presentation but find it difficult to get everyone together at the same time to work on it? Problem solved: Collaborate online in real time.
Instructors: Pull together your class presentation and then share it with students in the same folder as your syllabus.
Administrators: Co-create a presentation with others, even if they’re halfway across the world, and share it with your audience after the meeting. 

Google Forms

Create polls and surveys using a variety of attractive templates (or create your own). 

The results are collected and analyzed in a spreadsheet (see above!)

Students: Survey a selected population to help you research a paper.
Instructors: Anonymously survey your students for their opinions about a subject they’re investigating in your course.
Administrators: Invite the community to your event and find out their preferences for food and seating.

These apps and others are pretty easy to start using right away. But if you need help, here are some resources:

• Attend a Gapps@Fordham LearnIT or review a recording of one. 
• Attend a Teaching with Tech that covers Google Apps.
• Check out Google’s support pages. 
• Do an online search for what you want to do with an app. You’ll likely find brilliant suggestions for using and troubleshooting it. 
• Contact ITCC for someone who will help you learn more about Google Apps.
• Google in Education (YouTube)
• Fordham IT support page for Google Apps