Google Docs

Use in educational setting

Schools can use Google Docs for the purpose of bringing communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free. Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing tools. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime, from anyplace.

Pros and cons

In discussing the pros and con of central storage, A. Bylund 2006 concludedTemplate:It would rock to have a single point of storage for all my online profiles and activities. This is the strongest defense in support of Googledocs. To the classroom teacher whose work space may be at the school computer lab, the faculty lounge or the library, the online access to a web based storage is prime. In addition Googledocs is

• free; and
• familiar, having three programs for word processing, presentation and spreadsheet.

Other features include an automatic save of an active document every couple of minutes. Uploads of any external file of word, power point or spreadsheet document from a computer makes it possible to share with others online, or just have access to it from any computer. Simultaneous editing from different sites promotes collaborative work. Pictures or clip art may be inserted in the document file.

The ease of access in Googledocs is diminished by

• private data is automatically stored on the google server without user option for where data gets stored;
• formatting capability is limited. The presentation application does not offer many features like themes, templates, transitions, and animations;
• files cannot be accessed without the internet;
• users need to sign up as a Google user;
• Googledocs is not supported by the Safari browser;
• presentation slide show does not present as slide show in the Mac preview;
• published or shared files must first be accessed from email, ergo users must all have email accounts; and
• loading of file is slow.

Examples

Some Examples on How Teachers Use Google Docs

Google Docs' sharing features enable you and your students to decide exactly who can access and edit documents. You'll find that Google Docs helps promote group work and peer editing skills, and that it helps to fulfill the stated goal of The National Council of Teachers of English, which espouses writing as a process and encourages multiple revisions and peer editing.

Teachers are using Google Docs both to publish announcements about upcoming assignments and to monitor student progress via an interactive process which allows you to give guidance when it might be of maximum benefit – while your student is still working on an assignment. Through the revisions history, you can see clearly who contributed to what assignment and when; if a student says he or she worked on a given project over the last two weeks, it will be documented (no more "dog ate my homework" excuses) Students will find that Google Docs can help them stay organized and keep on top of their assignments. They never have to remember to save their work; it happens automatically. It's easy to collaborate online with fellow students, even when they aren't in the same place, and they can get feedback easily from teachers, parents, relatives and tutors, and enter updates anytime from anywhere. And kids can go back to the revisions history to see how their assignment has evolved, and who has helped.

On spreadsheets... For teachers who already struggle to organize multiple versions of spreadsheets and other data lists, Google Docs is an effective time-saving solution. You can use spreadsheets to keep track of grades, attendance, student projects and assignments. You can maintain multiple spreadsheets, each for a specific purpose, and easily import data from other spreadsheets. And spreadsheets can be a valuable tool for numerous lessons; you and your students can use them.

Along with specific assignments, students can use spreadsheets to keep track of their grades, assignments, semester goals, baseball statistics, car expenses, or anything else that strikes their fancy, piques their curiosity and gets them learning to manipulate data in effective ways.

On Presentataions... Teachers who want to use a simple presentation format to communicate to students, parents or other teachers can use presentations in Google Docs. You can create a presentation collaboratively and even co-present it online with live chat, for example with a sister classroom teacher. Students can easily create group presentations and access them anywhere.

References

Bylund, A. (2006). The pros and cons of central storage. Retrieved from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061107-8168.html

No Author. Google Educator. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html on November 20, 2007.