Now that I have much more experience with working with Google Docs I can say that I really loved it and am going to incorporate it with my health and physical education staff, as well as with some assignments in my classes.
A little about Google Docs, it’s an online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor. Students and teachers can use these tools to collaborate on assignments and projects. It allows more than one person to develop and/or edit a document at the same time. Students can use this at school and at home; as there is no software to download. And, one of the best additions to the software is the ‘chat’ feature allowing multiple people to talk and collaborate on the same document.
Other ideas in which students and teachers can use Google Docs, which I found from the EmergingEdTech blog, are:
• Teachers have the opportunity to check student progress and make sure students are following the guidelines; feedback can be provided in the document; Teachers can offer advice which may lead to higher grades.
• Teachers can use the revisions history to find out who has actually helped on the project and evaluate individual participation and content.
• Teachers can discover who is not participating and have the opportunity to correct the situation.
• Google Docs is excellent for teams that are developing an essay or a presentation.
For example, a team of students can create a spreadsheet which includes assignment details and deadlines. All the team members update the spreadsheet which allows students to see who is getting their work done on time and who is falling behind. The revision history feature allows students and teachers to see a history of the revision process of a particular document. Sometimes previous ideas and information that were removed actually deserve to be in the document. With Google Docs, this deleted content can be restored.
To use Google Docs, you just need a (free) Google Account. Click here to set one up if you don’t have one already.
Resource (Tom Barrett):
57 Interesting Ways to Use Google Forms in the Classroom by Tom Barrett
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Amy,
ReplyDeleteI agree! This was the first time I really used Google Docs as well. It is perfect for collaboration especially when outside of the classroom. It is kind of neat to see the revisions happen in real-time right in front of you when your team members or project partners might be on the other side of town or in another state!
Each time I use Google Docs, I get more comfortable with it. I did notice that I had better luck NOT using Internet Explorer - choose another browser like Safari.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that I wasn't the only one 'new' to using GD. I think that the kids would also love the 'chat' feature as well.
ReplyDeleteCharisse-I found it interesting as well that you had to use something other than IE as your browser for GD to work correctly...wonder why?
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really weird since the first time I opened the Doc. I didn't have any problem. Maybe because it was still kind of a template? Carmin mentioned cutting and pasting from a pdf can cause problems. I wonder if once we got working on the document and added our links and cuttings etc. that it screwed things up a bit.
I was new to really using Google docs and I also loved it. I look forward to adding them to my class soon.
ReplyDelete