Thing “20″ GoogleDocs 1
Posted by arlieosborne on March 13, 2009
K12 learning 2.0: Tools for 21st Century Teaching & Learning
THING “Twenty” (Session Nine)
Task: Exploring Google Docs…
Google Docs is another great tool for collaborating on various types of projects. I still remember one experience from an online class where we emailed our presentation file to other members in our class for editing and input. After it made its rounds, then, it was finalized by the group leader and submitted. If this is your common experience, then Google Docs is better than sliced bread.
Some users have given up offline “office suites” and do nearly all of their work through online sharing using tools like Google Docs. I am not ready to go that far because I feel their is still a need to keep some information strictly confidential and should not be placed in an arena where it may be compromised. Google Docs is a great tool and has many benefits.
In the classroom, students can collaborate on writing projects. Even with busy schedules, they can work together and access the material at their convenience. Complex projects are made easier. One great thing for students about Google Docs is that it supports writing academic papers. If you upload and download your documents, the formatting is a little different. Students could publish a weekly or monthly newsletter by inviting others to contribute. Group work is made easy and it it easy for new users to add content as well. Students can do book reports and upload them and have others to give reviews and feedback.
Teachers can utilize this tool as a way to improve communication with students in the form of useful writing assignments and feedback. By implementing this tool, a teacher may be able to have two or more classes interacting and contributing to a writing project. The students can benefit from the feedback and insights by students in other classes.
This is a great tool for teachers or staff writing “draft policies” which need be modified and updated. It’s nice to be able to save the document in PDF form. One of the best things about using Google Docs is that it is free and helps contributors beat deadlines or other difficult timelines.
My example of a Google Doc is a list of resource links for various Web 2.0 tools. It would be a time saving reference if much of this information is organized into one document. I was able to link an image but was not able to upload a image.
GOOGLE DOCS – WEB 2.0 RESOURCES & LINKS . . . (Please feel free to add to it)
How To Use Google Docs – An Introduction
OTHER DOCUMENT SHARING SITES
Zoho – Free account has 1 Gigabyte of space.
Office Live Workspace – Feature by feature comparison to Google Docs.
Approver – Document Management, Collaboration and Alerting
Docverse - Sharing documents. (In private beta)
Docuter – Upload and share documents.
FlySuite – Collaborative Document Sharing Site.
iNetWord – Unparalleled formatting, collaborative, customizable.
Writeboard – Shareable, web-based documents.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Google for Educators - Overview, presentation, tips and tricks.
C4LPT.Net - Using Google Docs to collaborate on an online document
Slide Video - Ways to Use Google Docs in the Classroom
Digital Inspiration - How to do “stuff” with Google Docs
Google Docs - Keyboard shortcuts while using Google Docs
Google Docs and Spreadsheets - Collaborating in the Classroom or Library
Google Docs Community Channel - Lots of Videos available.
Technology Evangelist - Using Google Presentations in the Real World
Directory of Learning Tools - Documents, Spreadsheet and Database Tools
Google Docs Comments - From those who selected Google Docs as their Top 10 2009 tool.
