Extensions of Google Drive

As a member of a Google school, I'm always exploring new ways to push the envelope using Google in the classroom. The reach of Google keeps expanding, and maybe one day, they'll produce the database app I've been coveting. For now, though, one interesting extension of Google is the way third party applications are integrating into Google Drive.

In this post, I'll propose one possibility of how to use a third party whiteboarding app called Conceptboard within the Google world. Conceptboard is a rich whiteboarding environment where multiple users can draw, insert pictures, and type on a common whiteboard. There are free and paid accounts which can be linked to one's Google account. Here's the basic idea. I am just a beginner, though, and there are features I haven't yet explored.

From in the desktop (as versus mobile) version of Google Drive on the iPad, one can Create documents using the button in the upper left for apps other than Google's own document types (below).

The choices you see (below) are the apps which you have given access to your google edrive. (Because are a whole host of integrated third party apps by using the 'connect more apps' link at the bottom of the 'Create' menu.

There are photo and video editors, graphing calculators, and all manner of other potentially useful apps to browse through and link to your Google account. Some are free, and some are paid. 

One example is Conceptboard. Conceptboard, like many apps, has free and paid levels with different features. The free account has a limitation on board space that I have not yet run over, though I haven't used it full scale with a class for anything but basic brainstorming. At any rate, once you have linked the app to your Google Drive, it shows up as an option when you try to create a document.  Below is the New Board I created through Drive on iOS Safari to show Josh how the app works. You can then share the document the same way you would share other Google documents.

And here is how the same board looked on Josh's Mac laptop.

Once the document is saved to your Google Drive, it shows up like any other (New Board below) and can be clicked on to launch. One caveat for iPad users... The mobile version of Google Drive doesn't seem to work quite right. You apparently need to be in desktop version which you can get to from the very bottom of the screen.

This has great potentials for real time collaboration and group work of all kinds, and the app developers keep adding neat new features. While you do have minor account set up to do in the beginning, your work is part of your Google Drive and easy to find and organize. I don't want to get into excruciating detail about Conceptboard because the real point is to show you there are other possibilities than the standard for students at a Google School.

If Conceptboard isn't what you need, there are scads of other kinds of apps to look at. Enjoy!