Google should really be lauded for just how much it gives away. It is a massive company, but most others would have charged for the many, many tools that it has created and uploaded, and yet it does not charge for any of them. Maybe that is one of the first reasons why you should start using them, so that other companies cannot start sneaking in and charging people (especially when those people are cash strapped students).
1 Voice Comments
People can leave voice commands during things such as peer reviews, which is always going to be more helpful than leaving annotations if you use the additional Chrome app for voice commands. But, that is not where this tool starts and ends. Voice commands is a convenience tool too, which means that students will always benefit from it because they tend to benefit from things that add a little more convenience into their lives.
2 Write Space
This tool allows you to work in a distraction free environment. It is a customizable text editor that allows you to strip down what you see on the screen so that nothing distracts you in any way. You do not even have to have formatting ribbons or boxes up on the screen so that you have next to nothing that is going to distract you whilst you write. You can store your work on your local hard drive as well as online.
3 Research Tools
This research tools are available for you to use in the Google Docs section, in presentations and spreadsheets. It helps students to do a range of things such as search for images, research videos, find quotes and more importantly to find references. The fact that a student may find references means that they may also find research material that is going to help them score higher in college and school essays.
4 Google Forms
It is a tool that allows you to create surveys for your research projects. You can use this tool in a number of ways such as checking the mood of other people on your project team, or finding out the validity of your ideas by surveying people about them. You can even use it as a collective brainstorming tool or as something to support your ideas on a paper. It has text-to-speech features too, which is always handy.
5 The Google search engine
Of all of the research tools available to people on the net, this has to be one of the best things. Let us not forget that most of what you read on the Internet is exaggeration or outright lies, but you can use the reference sections to see what books and journals were used to make a point and then you can verify your information on there.
6 The Google dictionary
The dictionary is a lot more use than you think. It has far more misspellings in it, in the same way that the Google search bar does. This means that you only need to type in how a word sounds phonetically and it can suggest the right one for you, which is something that word documents have a far shorter supply of. For example, if you are looking for a word such as risqué, then you will find it in the dictionary far quicker than you will find it in the spell checker on your word document.
7 Google Moderators
This is a tool that allows students to submit questions via the technology of their choice. It is normally done through some sort of mobile device. Still, it allows people to contribute to projects, submit topics and ask questions.
8 The Google image directory
This is packed full of images that you can search, and has a far better searching system than most other image directories. Sadly, we are still at a time when you cannot describe what you are looking for in a picture, but the Google image directory is so large that you can search for hours and eventually find something suitable. You can also search via license for if you want to commercialize your work in the future.
9 Google Templates
This is all part of efficient classroom management and flexible formative assessment. It is possible to set up template lesson plans and save them in the Google Drive cloud system. You can then leverage shared creativity with other people.
10 Google Docs
You may use this tool to access your documents online from any location. It means that you can work from home or away from home. You may load up information on one computer and then access it from another. It is also handy for transferring your document from one computer or device to another. It may even be used as a collective note taking device for if you are working on a group or class project in college or school.
