Going Paperless: How to Share and Assess Assignments using Google Docs

Sophomore history teacher Father Andrew and I recently assigned an Annotated Bibliography as part of a larger research project. I just finished grading the papers shared documents.

Two things were new: (1) it was the first time I required students to use EasyBib (we have a paid subscription) and (2) the assignment was 100% paperless.

The EasyBib part went smoothly. Our students navigated through the process with ease, for the most part.

There were some kinks to work out with going paperless, and out of the unkinking process came this screencast, which explains how sharing and grading in Google Docs can work. Google Docs is simple, quick, and effective.





I learned a lot from this assignment and I feel better prepared for the next project!

Come the end of spring break, Mrs. Middleton's U. S. History students will be the next group to go paperless using Google Docs -- at least for the Annotated Bibliography portion of their project.

I hope more teachers will consider paperless grading!

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@mauilibrarian2

Online Colleges Trickery ALERT -- and how @fnoschese got my back!

I got caught in an online marketing scheme this morning, and a Twitter stranger rescued me!

This is what he tweeted directly to me, after I had posted a "Top 100" blog list from online colleges.

"Please read this about 'top 100 blogs' http://bit.ly/lGyOGN And RT!"

A money-making ploy, and I was an unwitting promoter!

I did a little checking. Some of the URLs of these Top 100 lists change as the page is loaded, redirecting the viewer to online colleges. You can be sure I'll be checking URLs from now on, and warning my students about this kind of online trickery.

@fnoschese raised the bar of online consciousness for me. So I decided to investigate this Good Samaritan. Turns out he's Frank Noschese, a high school physics teacher who's very highly respected for his opinions. Our Chemistry teacher @elacanienta would love him, I think. (....ah-HA, I see she's already following him!)

Check out: Topic Page for Frank Noschese on Wired.com

He pens Action-Reaction | Reflections on the dynamics of teaching, a blog to which I now subscribe.

Yes, Frank Noschese's act of kindness led me to his blog. But it was not the only reason I subscribed. I really like his 3-post discourse about Khan Academy, specifically this last article:

Khan Academy: My Final Remarks

@fnoschese is not afraid to tell it the way he sees it, and his arguments are spot on. I'm very happy to be learning from him on Twitter!

... And it all started with a single tweet.

Mahalo (thank you), Frank!

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@mauilibrarian2