This year Holton began using Google Apps for Education. We were attracted to Google Drive in order to create a more efficient workflow for material from the student to the teacher, specifically students using iPads.
Note: we use finalsite course pages as our LMS to deliver information from the teacher to the student.
Testing during the summer went well. We were very confident as we entered the school year - maybe too confident. As the teachers and student began using Google Drive I received mixed feedback. Some teachers had great luck, others seemed to have one problem after another.
THE PROCESS
Students created 'hand-in" folders for each of their classes using provided naming conventions and then shared the folders with the appropriate teacher. Having the students create the folders, reduced the initial set up time for the teachers, which was a plus and specifying the naming convention of the folder allowed for easy organization, also a plus.
THE INSTRUCTIONS
Student Handout - Creating and Sharing Google Drive Folders
Student Handout - Submitting Work
Teacher Handout - Teacher Management
THE REALITY
Unfortunately, Google Drive did not prove to be reliable. Often times students would send a document from within an app to Google Drive, on the students end it would appear in the correct folder, however on the teacher's end the document would not appear - even after quite some time. At first, deleting the teacher's app and reinstalling it seemed to do the trick. When the problem returned, deleting the students app and reinstalling it also helped temporarily. In the meantime teachers who were having trouble resorted to collecting student work via email, which turns out to be incredibly reliable. In addition, with the use of mail folders and rules, outlook can act as an organized dropbox.
While I love many of the benefits Google Drive offers, I completely understand that teachers have to use what is efficient and reliable - and for some teachers that means using email to collect student work!
UPDATE - 12/10/13
Maybe things will get better! I was thrilled to see Google released an update on December 10th to the Google Drive App. I am hoping that "some under the hood speed and usability improvements" will address the problems we have seen. Stay tuned - only time will tell!
