Google Drive

Familiar Tool
I have been using Google Drive for several years now. There are several aspects of Drive that I have used extensively and found very helpful professionally and personally. The most obvious feature of Google Drive is that I can save files online and access them from any device with an internet connection. Even better than that, I can edit the files directly in Drive without having to download from the cloud, edit them on my device, and then upload them back to the cloud. This only works because Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are completely compatible with Microsoft Office, which is another amazing feature.

A further benefit of Google Drive is the ability to share files with others and even allow other users to edit them. I have used this feature many times to collaborate with other teachers. For example, it has made it so much easier for all teachers to document their school improvement plan intervention results. Of course, one of the reasons this is easier is that everyone can access the file, but it is much more than that. Everyone's changes are automatically saved, and the revision history can be viewed to see who updated what at which time. It is all very handy.

New Uses
Even though I had used Google Drive quite a bit, I did learn some new things this week. I had never used Google Forms before, and it is an extremely easy way to collect information from students. I was surprised by how easy it was to create many types of questions. I could use this for online assignments or for student surveys. It also conveniently creates a spreadsheet so I could view and sort the results. Here is a video tutorial for creating a Google Form:

I also learned a couple new ways to share files from my Google Drive. Previously, I would send someone the URL via e-mail. That person can then click on the link to access my file. I can set permissions to allow certain people to view or edit the file. One of the disadvantages to this method, is the extremely long and complicated URLs. (For example, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PBVT5u-9x_rnhfBh8DlqZkkeM4qiqJU3hN0bIl93WU4) The website Tiny URL allows long URLs to be converted to short ones. You can even create your own customized URL. This makes sharing Google Docs a little less daunting for the recipient. I also learned how to share files by attaching them to an e-mail directly from the Google Drive and how to share files directly with another Google Drive user. All of these make the great features of Google Drive even greater. In fact, earlier I took a poll regarding my opinion of Google Drive. I selected "Pretty Cool," but I think I want to change my response to "Amazing!"