Hold the Wheel and Drive

Google Drive:

Do you remember floppy disks?  Then the 3.5 hard disks?  Flash drives? Drive is essentially a mobile memory keeper for documents, spreadsheets, photos, forms, slideshows, and drawings.  One stop digital organizer; big deal.  However, the sharing option makes it much more. With other users of Google Drive you can share any of the types of documents, mentioned previously, and make collaboration digital rather than in person. I used Drive to collaborate with two teachers to make the rubric you see below.  One teacher is about 3 hours north, and the other a few towns over, but we haven’t met in person to do any collaborative work.  I felt like I take this for granted, but this is the day and age in which this type of collaboration is common place.

I could use Drive in a similar manner for my own students. The opportunity to collaborate on a project, monitor progress, provide feedback, and conference about next steps are easily accomplished.  It’s almost a no brainer, but I still haven’t done this because my students don’t have access to their google accounts yet.  Something I need to remedy for next year.  

Google Drive can also be used on iPads, minis, and desktops.  It is password protected and documents and students are safe because of the option to view users, editing history, and other alterations.  Since it a document creator, it can span all content areas and allows a range of cognitive learning.  Drive is a nice vehicle for organizing and tracking learning.  

Communication Tool Rubric

	User Friendliness	Safety	Customization for Educators	Cross-Curricular Application	Cognitive Differentiation
EXCEEDS 4	Is more user friendly than traditional means/methods of teaching and/or completing standards, and/or can be used as an alternative method for students who struggle with the traditional methods of instruction/assessments.	Can be closely monitored by teachers/gatekeepers to ensure all participants (students, community members, etc,) abide digital citizenship standards with strict security measures and clearly stated privacy policies.	Can be customized to support collegial professional development AND classroom instruction, assessment, and/or reporting.	Can be used to develop units of study that tie in learning targets from multiple subject areas and connect to the world beyond school in order to increase relevance.	Can be used in all levels and a variety of processes of Marzano’s taxonomy.
MEETS 3	Can be used on a variety of devices and is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teachers/ gatekeepers and allows for opportunities to select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship and with moderate security measures and a reasonable privacy policies.	Can be customized to meet the needs of individual educators according to grade level, subject area, class size, experience with technology, professional development needs, etc.	Can be applied to multiple learning targets across subject areas and/or can be used to help design or support cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of processes and levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
PARTIALLY MEETS 2	Can be used on a variety of devices or is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teacher/ gatekeepers with limited opportunities to be select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship standards and minimal security measures.	Can be partially customized, but not enough to fully meet the needs of individual educators.	Can be applied to only one or two learning targets in one or two subject areas and would need modification in order to support the development of cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of categories on one level of the taxonomy or a few processes on various levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
DOES NOT MEET 1	Has several barriers which make it difficult for students and/or teachers to use.	Does not allow for monitoring by teacher/gatekeeper and permits disregard for digital citizenship standards.	Does not allow customization to meet the needs of individual educators,	Does not apply to learning targets in any more than one subject area.	Is limited to only a few categories of one process of Marzano’s taxonomy.
Additional notes