Until a few years ago, I thought I had peaked as a website creator when I was a student in 9th grade, blogging on LiveJournal and formatting my AOL profile with HTML. My path back into technology began when I was working at my previous school, where most of my students were chronically absent and we had few supplies.

With nothing to lose, I tried an experiment: For one unit, I constructed a complete series of online assignments that culminated in the unit’s final essay. The experiment succeeded in some ways and failed in others. But by taking my curriculum online, I had started on a journey I’m still on.

For this experimental unit, my first mistake was that I had not first made sure that my students knew how to use Google products such as Gmail. They all had Facebook and Instagram accounts, so I assumed they had email addresses and I assumed that the majority would be using Gmail for email. I was wrong.

We spent the first several days going over the basics: creating Gmail accounts, creating and sharing documents on Google Docs, and sending emails. Then, after watching a how-to video I created by recording my screen, my students began working on the content using an outline I created and shared via Google Docs.

By having my students work on Web-based documents via Google Docs, I was able to monitor student progress in real time and help them from my own laptop. Students used the documents to build their essays. Not all students completed all parts of the assignment, but several completed their essays, using evidence and explaining their reasoning.

It was so cool to see. I had never thought about teaching via Google Docs, but I saw firsthand the dramatic impact it had on some students. One student who came to class had completed all his work through the Google Docs app on his iPhone, getting help from me through my school-only Google Voice number. This was the first time that I was able to help a student learn when we weren’t together during our allocated 45 minutes.

Last fall, I created a website for my classes, where I share files, videos and articles with my students. I am pushing them to make important connections without standing at the front of the classroom modeling all the time. My students explore topics on their own, free from a series of protocols imposed by the traditional classroom environment. They can work on tasks at their own pace, switching between learning activities the way that adults switch between tasks at work to maximize efficiency.

Wherever you are teaching and whatever your skill set is, you can jump into this new kind of teaching and build a unit that uses Google Docs, online media and other technologies that will help your students learn.

The key is this: Begin your journey at a place that is comfortable for you. After trying a few things on my website last fall, a colleague and I posted online a series of tasks about World War II and the Holocaust. The students could work at their own pace, at school or at home, using reading and listening skills that the students were taught in earlier units.

I’ve come a long way since blogging on LiveJournal about my teenage concerns, and I have a long way to go before I’m creating online units for students that hit all the marks and always succeed. (I had a flop of a unit shortly after my World War II one, but I learned from it and bounced back.)

We teachers have to step up our games, even if our schools might still be giving us blackboards and chalk to teach with, and we can.

Your first foray into technology and online units can be a toe dip. Check the water first, and use the resources and skills you already have to create something that will work for your students.

The best thing I did wasn’t creating my website; it was getting over my fear of using technology when I had so little equipment and creating a Google Doc and screen recording for students who I hardly saw in class.

Build it — whatever it is — and they’ll learn.