Getting students on Google Drive

It's been an exciting few days for Mrs. Heath and Mrs. Guillory's third grade classrooms. Over two class periods, we successfully got 52 students signed in to their Google accounts, created shared folders, and wrote their first documents. It was so smooth. Really. I do this all the time with adults, and I can say the experience was easier and more fun with the students. Here's how we set it up. Feel free to use anything you find helpful.

Google Apps for Education
I started by creating every student an account in our Google Apps domain. This step is key because third graders can't create their own accounts. But what makes the Apps domain so awesome is our control. I created generic school accounts, grouped them, and then shut down everything except Drive, Blogger, and Sites. The students have no access to email, Google+, Hangouts, or any other social site. Parents will get their student's account information in order to support learning at home as well. 

Tutorial Videos
I wanted to try out something different, so I flipped the instruction. Kind of. I created three short videos to explain the three steps of the process. Next, I uploaded them to my YouTube channel and gave the links to the teachers. Before I arrived, the students watched the videos to get a feel for their task. Here are the links if you'd like to use them:

• Accessing Google Drive
• Creating and Sharing a Folder
• Creating a Document

Step by Step Handout
I wanted the students to be supported to work through the process independently. So I created a simple handout to guide them through the process. Here's the link: Google Account Handout

Account Information
This was a bit tricky. I made a slip of paper for each student that included their Google email address and password. We passed these out to the students when they were at their computers. Then we recorded the name with the account for future reference.

Success with Mrs. Heath's class!

Lab Time
Now it's time to brag on those students. By the time I started walking around the lab, most students had accessed Chrome and were starting to enter their account information. Literally, it took less than a minute. Ten minutes passed, and most had their work folder created and shared with their teacher. By the twenty minute mark, everyone was busy typing their "All about me" document from the shared folder. It was ridiculous how efficient the process turned out to be. It was so impressive to see the student partnerships supporting each other. The biggest issues, just like with adults, was entering the email and password correctly. Minor bump. And some didn't know how to type an "@". That's it. 

Seriously, that was the most productive time I've ever spent in a computer lab. With students or teachers. The students were so excited because they had confidence and were doing a complicated task with relative ease.  The next step will be to show them how to access their new accounts on their class iPads. It's going to open up a world of possibilities.