7 Ways to Use Google Tools to Maximize Learning ...

This is one of the lesser known ways to use Google tools for learning. You use the Google image search function to find images of academic interest. You may find images to answer a great many questions from what a Facebook widget should look like to where the nose is located on a Kiwi bird.

This is a well known tool that also works well if you are using the cloud. They are a great set of tools for getting work done online and are there for you to use if you are not sat at your computer but are on a public or college computer.

This is one of the ways to use Google tools for learning when you are writing. These days thanks to the MS word spell checker there is no need to look up spellings, but there are times when you may want to look up a word to see if it means what you think it means. For example, the words “kernel” and “colonel” sound the same, but which is the one related to the army? Principle and principal are two different words, but which one is the boss of a school? The Google dictionary can help you figure this sort of thing out.

Some people find that distractions on the screen are a real problem. This can be a motivational thing if you think that seeing the time is a problem. Sometimes it is hard to work to a deadline if there is a clock on the screen. You can use Write Space to create a screen where it is just the writing space and nothing more. This also helps to stop you seeing little notifications for things such as emails and Facebook messages, which are a major distraction.

It is a nice little research tool, and even though it is mostly filled with mistruth and lies (the Internet in general is), you can often find small details that you may add to your work. So for example, you may find the date of a certain event or simple provable facts such as that without having to look through your textbooks again. You can use it to search websites yourself instead of relying on the navigation of a certain website. It is very good if you are looking up references you found on another essay. You can snip out certain parts of the references such as the author’s name and then use a “site:” function search on a single website to see if that specific author is mentioned. There are also Google functions that let you view only content that was published recently.

With this tool you may submit a question on to other people. You may also send on your ideas and other people may see them. It is a moderator in a semi-social sense and you are able to submit ideas on a PC or on a mobile device. Other people are able to see ideas and questions and use them themselves in their work.

This is a tool that allows you to set questionnaires for other people to read and fill in. The questionnaire idea is as useful as the user makes it. If the student gets nobody to fill it in or asks questions that divulge no usable information then it is the fault of the student. It may also be used as a collaborative tool and may be used to take in suggestions on the work that is currently underway.

Google is so much more than a search engine. With a little knowledge, some imagination and creativity, the ways to use Google tools for learning are plentiful and useful. Other than for “searching,” how do you use Google for learning?