Google Groups

First of all I must say that with this activity I am discovering lots of interesting tools that can be useful when working as a teacher. I think that everybody is presenting very useful and original tools. The 2.0 tool I am going to talk about is not that original, it is Google Groups. As you can see, Google has got several tools that can be useful when teaching, so having a Google account is a great idea for us and for the students.

Google Groups is a great tool where everybody can create groups to talk and to discuss. This page allows anybody with a google account to create a group about any subject. In fact, when you go to the website, you can choose the subject in which you are interested. Everybody can create groups but not anybody can access and participate to any group. In fact, when you create the group you invite the members you want to access it and if anybody that is not a member of your group wishes to access it, he or she can send you a request.

I think that this tool can be very useful in English lessons because it is very interactive and it promotes reading and writing. For example, we may create a group where all the students in the class can participate and we can put there some discussions, activities, information about the course... I see this tool as very useful but, as always, it depends on the use that we give to it.

Maria