As we are now well into the school year and parent/teacher conferences have just been (or will soon be) held, many families may be reevaluating their student’s progress and ability to accomplish their school-related tasks. The iPad may play a key role in your child’s school day, but printing and sharing work is often a challenge. Many school districts are working to minimize printing requirements and move toward cloud-based sharing of documents with services like Google Drive.
Google Drive is a free app that allows you to share files that were created in a different app. To utilize this document sharing app, you will need to download it first and sign in or create a Google account. Once you are in My Drive, you may want to create separate folders for each class (separate folder for Language Arts, Math, Science, etc.). Then, go into each folder and Add People, making sure to also add the affiliated teacher for each class by using his or her email address. For elementary school children, you may still want to create separate subject folders even though there is only one homeroom teacher. This will encourage organization and keep all subject-related documents together. Another helpful suggestion is to name your documents with your initials, the date and subject, which will allow you to opening each document individually to identify it. Fortunately, many of my favorite productivity apps allow sharing via Google Drive.
- SnapType: When sharing a worksheet, share as a PDF, then select the Google Drive app (Copy to Drive). The document/worksheet will then upload into your drive and will be listed under your Files. If you would like to put it in a specific folder, hold and drag the file to the folder you want.
- iAnnotate PDF: In order to share via Google Drive, one of your toolbars must include the tool Open in External Application. Select this option and select the Flattened version of your worksheet. Then select the Google Drive app (Copy to Drive). It will then upload to your files and you can hold and drag it to the folder you want. While SnapType is a bit easier to use, iAnnotate offers many more annotation tools such as the pencil, highlighter, stamp, etc.
- Co-Writer: This app works a bit differently with Google Drive as it uploads its own ‘Co-Writer’ folder vs. your files. If you would like to move it to a different folder, simply open the Co-Writer folder, select your document on the far right side where the three vertical dots are located and select Move from the menu. Then select the folder you want to move it to.
- myMemoir: Documents in this journaling app can be shared as a PDF, then exported to the Google Drive app. To do so, select the arrow icon in the upper left corner and select Share, then select PDF. Scroll to the bottom and select Export. Once the export is complete, select Open In and choose the Google Drive app (Copy to Drive). Save and upload the file and then hold and drag it to place it in a folder.
I hope this information will make your iPad even more functional and productive this school year!
-Nicole Weckherlin, OTR/L