Educational technology broadens the possibilities of the typical research assignment. Teachers should now ask new questions, like: Can my students share their research with a larger audience through a blog, website or video? Can students collaborate on research papers? Can students collaborate on a Google Slides presentation to teach their peers?
This is not to say the research assignment is a thing of the past. Google Apps for Education have enhanced writing and collaboration for both teachers and students.
There are many new ways for teachers to facilitate discussions, and enable students to practice ethical and academic writing. Here are some GAFE-friendly tools you can use for your next evidence-based writing task.
KAIZENA GOOGLE DOC ADD-ON
Within Google Docs, teachers can make verbal comments using the Kaizena Add-on to give deeper and more personal feedback. Students can better receive and understand feedback through audio, and they can even collaborate by responding through the Add-on, too.
GOOGLE DOCS RESEARCH PANEL
Educational technology has also improved research and citations. Using Google Docs’ built-in Research tool, students can research the web, academic journals, images, and more—without ever leaving a document.
IMAGINE EASY SCHOLAR
Imagine Easy’s premium service, Scholar, lets teachers assign projects to students who have the ability to highlight digital texts, take notes, build an outline, and create bibliographies. Using aChrome extension and Google Doc Add-on, students can conduct research across multiple source types, create bibliographies, and build a paper using various Google Apps.
Scholar includes individual and class-wide analytics for teachers. Teachers can also view individual source lists and notebooks to track how students approach research and writing from start to finish.
ADDITIONAL ADD-ONS AND EXTENSIONS
Other ways to support students is through Imagine Easy’s EasyBib. Students can search for books, journal articles, and websites and cite them inside Google Docs with the EasyBib Google Docs Add-on. The EasyBib Google Chrome extension lets students create a citation for a website while helping them evaluate source credibility, too.
TRY IT FOR YOURSELF
Teaching research-based writing is an important part of preparing students for University and their professional lives. Using technology not only saves you time (leaving more time to focus on teaching), but it modernises and improves the student experience, too.