Google Docs

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This week in my teaching with technology class we were introduced to Google Docs. This is an application used to upload any documents and by doing so you are able to open that document on any computer. You can also invite specific people to view or edit your document.

We uploaded our resumes to Google Docs and invited certain colleagues to edit them. This way, people can view my resume and make changes to it themselves. Then, I can log onto Google Docs and see what changes my colleagues have made. This saves me from emailing my resume to all these people and looking at their changes separately. This way, there is one document and all my colleagues can make changes to that one document. It saves me time and effort!

I think Google Docs would be a great application to incorporate into the classroom. Students can upload their stories or other documents and invite the class or a certain group of students to view/edit their work. This would be a great way to peer edit other students writing. When they are done and their work has been edited and revised, they can invite me to view their work and grade it. This way, paper is saved and there is one document for each student that has been revised by their peers.

Another feature of Google Docs that can be useful in the classroom is students without computers at home can upload a document they created at school and open it on other computers at a friends house or at the library. It is not only saved on the computer they created it on. It can be accessed anywhere.