GAIN - Google Drawing

Google Drawing is a tool used to create images using shapes and lines, along with text, that you can insert into your Documents or Presentations files.  Like everything else I've covered so far when it comes to Google's software, Drawing can be opened up for collaboration with others.  While Microsoft Office itself doesn't have a standalone piece of software for drawing, there are tools in Word that allow one to insert shapes and lines, even if it is a bit obtuse in practice.  There is also Paint, an application that comes with most PCs for free, and while that particular piece of software is a little more free in terms of what one can draw than Google Drawing, it is a little bit similar in nature. 

The cool thing about Drawing lies in its collaborative ability.  The tutorial I watched depicted one person creating several shapes and aligning them the way that he wanted (which, when I tried it afterward, was very easy and convenient!  Much more so than my experiences with the drawing tools in Microsoft Word).  It also demonstrated the ability to insert text into the shapes, how to change the colors of the shapes, and introduced to me the ability to chat with others who are able to edit the document.  This allows that other person to make their own suggestions, and being able to talk to them in real time about what you are working together to create gives the project an amount of synergy that one would not find in Paint or Microsoft Office.

It is also easy to see how, according to the Graham book, one would be able to use something like Google Drawing in the Common Core standards.  Whether it is by using graphs, charts and diagrams to decipher meaning from images, or drawing shapes for a math class using certain parameters Google Drawing offers a great tool to be used in the classroom setting.