M6: Blog Post 5- Google Classroom & Proloquo2Go

 

Online platforms and digital tools are changing K-12 education by shaping how students learn, how teachers instruct, and how families stay connected. Each year, individualized learning and content delivery is being transformed and integrated into curriculum. As both a community college educator and mother, digital technologies within K-12 education vastly impact my everyday life at home and work. Each digital tool and learning platform play a unique role in enhancing student accessibility, communication skills and learning outcomes within diverse populations. In this blog post, let’s dive into two commonly used digital technologies within K-12 education and special education: Google Classroom and Proloquo2Go. By analyzing their functions, impacts, and the necessary literacies required to navigate them, we can then better understand and apply their use.

 

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a cloud-based learning management system (LMS) that was launched in August of 2014, by Google to allow teachers to manage coursework, distribute and organize digital content, streamline communication, and provide feedback in real time (Santos, 2021). It’s widely used across K–12 settings to facilitate hybrid, remote, and in-person instruction (Santos, 2021). Google Classroom was created to collaborate well with other existing educational tools in Google Apps as well (Santos, 2021). Google Classroom accomplishes the goal of a paperless classroom and a classroom unified in and outside the classroom walls (Santos, 2021). This LMS became an essential digital tool amid the COVID19 pandemic when K-12 school systems temporarily closed. Students use the platform to complete assignments, access learning materials, and collaborate with peers. Teachers manage coursework, communicate through announcements and private comments, and track student progress (Santos, 2021). Parents of students do not interact directly with the LMS platform but can receive weekly summaries that allow them to stay informed about their child’s work, progress and deadlines.

Google Classroom is an educational space that shifts classroom communication toward digital interaction (Santos, 2021). Students often use comments and discussion posts to ask questions or reflect on their work. This can reduce communication barriers for shy or anxious students, while also promoting accountability and peer support (Santos, 2021). The platform encourages multi-modal learning by giving students access to curated videos, readings, slides, and audio files (Santos, 2021). Google Classroom facilitates a learning approach that is more personalized approach and self-paced for individualized student learning (Santos, 2021). Google Classroom enhances learning by streamlining access to instructional materials, allowing students to directly submit their assignments and has been found to improve productivity (Santos, 2021). Despite this though, educational inequities in device access and digital literacy can still exist and may negatively affect learning outcomes for some students that lack effective digital skills and internet access (Santos, 2021). Google Classroom is considered to be safe internet usage, but this also depends on how schools manage permissions and student data. Teachers are required to guide students in understanding digital etiquette, appropriate commenting, and safeguarding personal information. While this LMS is easy to use and requires little to no training, educators must still have an open line of communication and support to students as well as parents (Santos, 2021). Both student and parent experiences with this LMS (and any digital tool or platform like this), ultimately affects the success of learning outcomes.

Required literacies for the utilization of Google Classroom include the ability to navigate the platform, use productivity tools, type, write concisely as well as respectfully communicate and submit assignments. Students must also be able to critically evaluate resources that teachers have linked to this digital space. Parents must also be able to access, understand, and evaluate their child’s assignment tracking. For educators, required literacies include the creation of classroom announcements, assessing and providing the correct classroom enrollment code, file creation as well as evaluating file submissions. Because Google Classroom is so commonly used in various educational spaces, there are several resources available to teachers, parents and even students, to make required literacies simplified.

See Youtube short video for example! 👇😁👀

https://youtu.be/3tgu4J4iTEA?si=OLAE9ChPCjFjhnv2

 

Proloquo2Go App

Proloquo2Go is an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app that gives nonverbal or minimally verbal students a voice through a symbol and text-based interface (Loran & Griffen, 2023). The app is commonly used in special education to support students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or developmental delays. As a mother of a now eleven-year-old son with ASD, I can confidently say that this AAC app is highly effective in increasing communication skills. My son came home with a school iPad device with Proloquo2Go at the age of 6 and we still use this digital technology to this day to effectively communicate. Proloquo2Go facilitates communication with single graphic symbols to express wants and needs as well as allows more complex communication through sentence structuring (Chavers et al., 2021). This app assists in building language development as with each graphic selection, a word and/or phrase is spoken aloud.

Students use Proloquo2Go to communicate needs, answer questions, and participate in social or academic discussions with less frustration. Educators and parents can customize vocabulary sets and layouts to match a child’s learning level and communication goals (Loran & Griffen, 2023). Parents can also use the app to reinforce language skills at home and promote consistent communication strategies (Chavers et al., 2021). Proloquo2Go dramatically transforms communication by giving students with complex needs the ability to initiate and sustain conversations with others (Chavers et al., 2021). AAC apps using speech-generating devices increases multistep requesting and supports the use of generic small talk in children with severe autism (Chavers et al., 2021). Lorah and Griffen (2023), also demonstrated that the app can be used to teach functional communication skills, even while traveling across locations.

The app facilitates understanding through visual symbols and auditory feedback, which is critical for students who process information nonverbally. Students also build receptive language skills by navigating icon grids and associating symbols with meaning (Lorah & Griffen, 2023). Proloquo2Go fosters student agency, supports IEP goals and increases classroom participation. AAC instruction not only improves expressive language but also helps students build social skills (Chavers et al., 2021). However, without proper training, educators and parents may underutilize this digital tool or fail to customize it effectively to each individual student.

Proloquo2Go is typically installed on individual student devices provided by the school. Privacy can be accomplished with lock codes in which only the app can be utilized on the tablet it is downloaded too. However, it is important to be mindful of what is customized within the app involving personal student information such as address and descriptions of a child’s home. One way to still accomplish this security is to customize an emergency page or graphic that then vocalizes emergency contact, allergies, address, etc. Essentially, it is very important to accomplish privacy and security of information by responsible device management and appropriate supervision. Required literacies for its use include symbol recognition and interpretation, the ability to select icons to express thoughts, and customization. The app is an assistive digital technology which means that learning content and information will need to be updated, individualized, and used within the appropriate educational and home environments. Parents will also need to effectively update and customize the app with pictures from home, pictures of family members, and prompts to assist with the child’s daily-life routines.

See link for more! 👉💥  https://youtu.be/uB-NHcs0QNc?si=7iPYRLK4-bhXuNEL

My son’s device with Proloquo2Go next to him after he told us on his device that he wanted to go to Chic-fil-A after his dentist appointment 👏

In sum, both Google Classroom and Proloquo2Go illustrate how digital tools can transform K–12 education and special education settings. While Google Classroom enhances instructional delivery and communication on a broad scale, Proloquo2Go provides a lifeline for students who struggle with language development. These tools serve different purposes but share common educational goals such as, promoting equitable access to learning. For teachers, mastering these platforms involves technical knowledge and understanding of each student’s individual needs. For parents, engaging with these tools supports consistency between home and school. As school systems continue to integrate digital tools and LMS platforms like Google Classroom and Proloquo2Go, students are supported in personalized learning and inclusive education. With digital technologies like these, students build and grow in their literacy skills, communication and see technology as enhancing their education and not a barrier or overwhelming aspect of learning.  

References

Chavers, T. N., Morris, M., Schlosser, R. W., & Koula, R. (2021). Effects of a systematic augmentative and alternative communication intervention using a speech-generating device on multistep requesting and generic small talk for children with severe autism spectrum disorder. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2476-2491. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00353

 

Lorah, E. R., & Griffen, B. (2023). Teaching children with autism traveling skills for using a speech-generating device for manding. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 35(3), 509-522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-022-09863-8

 

Santos, J. M. (2021). Google classroom: Beyond the traditional setting. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 79(4), 626-639. https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/21.79.626