Google Digital Applied Skills

TLDR: Google Applied Digital Skills  offers dozens of projects for students that use various Google projects in real life applications. My 5th graders have loved them!

What is Google Applied Digital Skills?

Teach and learn practical digital skills needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow with our video lessons that are free of charge.

The process:

Get started in just a few steps

• 

  Sign in to create an account

  Sign in to fill out your profile and view your teacher dashboard

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  Create a class and add your students

  Share the class code with your students or import your roster from Google Classroom

• 

  Find a lesson

  Filter lessons by grade, digital tool or topic, or search by keywords

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  Prepare to teach

  Use resources like lesson plans and rubrics to tailor your teaching to meet student needs

My Google Applied Digital Skills experience:

I originally tried Google Applied Digital Skills for the $100 gift card on Donors Choose (which I received today!) Info on the offer here. But my kids LOVE it.

Each project includes 6-10 videos (3-6 minutes long) with step by step instructions. They follow the steps, test out Google products, and complete a real project.

I have done 4 (and they are begging for more!!)

My students--from my gifted student to a student who struggles with reading and math--have all completed the projects with little direction. One student who struggles to stay focused and on task was the first one through the AI project--and he was even able to help another student who got stuck.

On the first project, I did a short intro ("How does Spotify or Hulu know what to recommend?" and how do we use AI in every day life?) We watched the first video on the Promethean Board together, and I stopped so they could do the steps on their Chromebooks. (Steps: Copy file to Google Drive, Rename, etc.)  Then I set them loose. I only had a couple of questions from students--and I most times I referred them to re-watch the video.  

We invited the Principal to come in and watch as we presented our Visual Dictionaries--complete with AI generated drawings, Google translate pronunciations, and links between slides.  Several of my students chose to go back and add more words to the dictionary. (The assignment called for three words).

The assignments we completed were:

* Discover AI in Daily Life

Tools used: AutoDraw, Docs, Quick, Draw!, Slides, Translate

Skills taught: Creating a report, Critical thinking, Presentation formatting, Slide design, Slide hyperlinks
Final product: a Google Slides—Visual Dictionary with links to pronunciation.

* Make Pop Art in Google Drawings

Tools used: Google Drawings

Final product: Pop art

*Google Sheets for Beginners

Tools used: Sheets (like Excel)

Skills taught:  Organizing data, Project management, Spreadsheet design, Spreadsheet organization

Final product: Google Sheets --budget with calculations

*Work with Fractions in Google Sheets

Tools used: Sheets

Skills taught: Advanced formulas, Data representation, Spreadsheet design, Spreadsheet organization (They even learned how to FREEZE the top panels!)

Final product: Google Sheets--Recipe conversion spreadsheet