Getting Google to organise the work (23rd Jan 2012)

You have now created the handbook, assignment, coursework and atom videos/MP3.  You have made them available and so now you are ready for the new academic year.  So, let's get organised.

The first thing you will need is a GMail account.  You can skip this stage if you have one already, but you may want to set up a new one for work so that you don't mix that with your extensive social life.  Google change their set up regularly, but the video creating a gmail account will soon get you started.  You can also include the link to this video in your induction documents so that your students can set up their own accounts.

Having got a GMail account you are now ready to start.  Go to the Google home page and from the More>> menu item select Documents.

Getting organised is easy - create a folder for the academic year, e.g. "2012-13", by clicking on the red Create button and selecting Collection.

You will now be asked to name the collection, so just type in what you want, for example:-

Press the blue OK button and your new collection will now appear.  You will see a small boxed arrow to the right of this collection when you run your cursor over the new folder, numbered 1 in the image below.  If you now click on that arrow the first menu will appear.  Running your cursor over the first option, Create, will show you a second menu.  This menu lets you add a collection to your collection!  Doing that allows you to add a collection in the name of a student.

From here you can either enter the name of a student or a class.  If it is the name of a class you can then highlight that to create a collection in that class for each student.  In this way you can organise your work so that finding something is easier.  I have been using this system for five years and can lay my digital finger on any piece of work for any student - a real boon when you are being inspected. So, the structure could end up looking something like this:-

Sharing is good ... particularly if you are sharing with me.  So you can file their work by dragging and dropping it into their folder when your students share their work with you.  This allows you to find what they have completed quickly and easily - and this is important as you will see in the next blog.

The final stage in the preparation is to create the same structure in you email account.  Click on the GMail link at the top of the Google screen.  You will be taken to:-

Just above the word Chat is a thin grey line.  Running your cursor over that produces a longer list of options.  The last of these, Create new label, is the one you need.

In Docs folders are called collections.  In GMail folders are called labels!  No, I'm not sure about their right and left hands being on speaking terms either, but the system works and is free, so I'm not complaining ... honest.  Clicking on the Create new label link brings up this box:-

You can now create a "label" (read folder) for the year group, e.g. "2012-13" by entering its name in the top box.  You will now have:-

As you can see, the new label appears underneath Circles.  You can repeat this trick to add a label inside "2012-13" for Class B.  Run your cursor over the thin grey line above Chat and choose the Create new label link again.  This time you need to click on the Nest label under: check box so that you can select the label "2012-13" as the place in which Class B lives.

You can then nest a label under Class B for each of the students in the same way so that you end up with:-

Your filing for the year is now a matter of dragging and dropping.  You just add the label to an email and it is filed.  You never have to delete emails because the Inbox is HUGE.  I have been using this system for five years and have never deleted an e-mail from a student (except the ones telling me they have shared work with me - it appears in my Docs so the email is superfluous).  I have used 25% of my space allocation.  This makes checking/finding things later much easier.