Google Apps as LMS and PLE

In the digital era of Education, Learning Management Systems are delineating themselves as good allies for the teaching practice, providing a canvas to place contents, PLE curating tools, a secure environment to work in, different collaboration modes, activity control systems and several ways of assessment.

But, what LMS would suit you best? That depends on your needs, your audience, your digital abilities, the LMS’s complexity and your budget. There are multiple options, as Moodle, Edmodo or Google Classroom, among many others.

This article is going to focus on the free edition of Google Apps. During the last years they have been put to an enhancement process, and, nowadays, they can be effectively used for educational purposes. To do so, they have to be synergistically constellated to create a consistent and coherent system. If you aren’t familiar with them (or don’t know how to use them), have a look at Google’s documentation: http://learn.googleapps.com/home

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Google Apps

Google Apps has finally made the difference. And with its offline applications your productivity will boost incredibly. Go on reading…

Google Apps is a bunch of office-like applications, as docs, slides or sheets. If you have a Google account then you can go directly to drive.google.com and sign in. It's free!

Even though its functionality can look scarce in comparison with other applications, as OpenOffice, there are plenty of advantages to make the shift:

1. Integrated tools: research, dictionary...
2. Easy way to embed links, images, citations, graphs...
3. Compatibility across Google apps.
4. Compatibility across multiple devices (I'm writing this article using my mobile device while I'm lying on my towel tanning under the sun).
5. Offline working mode.

The offline functionality option has been, in my opinion, the key to beat Google’s competence. To enable it go to Chrome Web Store and look for offline apps. Install docs, sheets and slides (you could also install Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Drawings…).

From this moment on you can create,view and edit documents/slides/... using your Chrome browser. Offline applications are gathered inside a new icon on the bottom bar. Next time you go online Chrome will synchronise everything automatically. In the meanwhile your data will be saved to your computer.

As you can see it's a great way to work while going to the school by train, when at the beach... You don't have to worry any more about saving your work, taking your memory sticks with you, or even fear of losing your data.

Remote control of devices

Didn’t you know you can control one computer through another? Even through your mobile device! And even use your webcam to check a place!

The funny thing is that setting your computers up is really straightforward. You just need a Google account, Chrome and the Chrome Remote Desktop app.

First of all, sign in inside Chrome with your Google account. Then install the app. You should see something similar to this (except for My Computers, which you are going to set up in the following steps):

Click on “Enable remote connections” (gray button in the bottom), and enter a PIN (you’ll need it to access the computer you're configuring from another one). Once you’ve done it you should see a list of “My Computers” with their names.

When you click on the other computer’s name you’ll be prompted to enter the PIN, and if everything has gone appropriately then you should see the other device’s screen:

The interesting point is that you can do it from your mobile device with this app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.chromeremotedesktop&hl=en

You’ll automatically see all the computers linked to your Google account. Just click on a name, type the PIN and start sliding your finger to make the mouse pointer follow it.

The uses for remote control are abundant:

1. Laptop control inside the classroom (you’ll need different accounts, including a generic one for your classroom; remember you can quickly change accounts using the upper left head-like icon).
2. CCTV: configure your vigilant laptop not to sleep or hibernate. Switch on your webcam (Yawcam is a free app for that), switch the screen off to save power and place the laptop in a strategic location to record that corner you are interested in. I did it when I went on vacation this summer, checking my house through my mobile device.
3. Parental control.
4. Server management.