GoogleDocs

=Google Docs in the Classroom= [|Find Google Docs here.]

Resource Links
[|Google Docs Tour] [|Google for Educators] [|Google Docs Training Videos] [|Google Docs Templates] [|Google Docs Tips from TechLearning 12/13/07] [|Teaching Collaborate Writing with Google Docs] [|Keep Updated with New Features in Google Docs] [|14 Interesting Ways to use Google Docs in the Classroom] [|Tutorial created by a third grade class outlining how to log in to Google Docs] **Google Docs provides an online office suite that allows you to access your documents from any computer via a web browser. It also facilitates collaboration and sharing. More -** [] Basic primer on the Google Docs []
 * [|Resources for Google Doc Poetry project] **
 * Get Started ** : [|http://docs.google.com]

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=__SWOT ANALYSIS__=

Strengths:
**Weaknesses:**
 * 1) It's free.
 * 2) Instead of losing track the location of my document (on my memory stick, home computer or work computer), I can store it in a central place and access it from any computer, always sure I am working on the latest version!
 * 3) Up to ten users can edit a word processing document or presentation simultaneously, and each user will see the changes made by other users almost instantly (fifty people can simultaneously edit a spreadsheet).
 * 4) Up to two hundred people can view a document simultaneously.
 * 5) Can automatically convert the body of an e-mail (and/or an e-mail attachment) into a word processing document.
 * 6) Can post documents to a variety of blog sites directly from Google Docs.
 * 7) Can feed a spreadsheet with live data gathered from the Web.
 * 8) Automatically saves revisions (can save hundreds of them), so you can revert back to an old version easily.
 * 9) One is able to embed comments in the document.
 * 10) Widely used and offers opportunity to peruse and use many different templates and opportunities for google search integration.
 * 11) Integrates technology into the daily curriculum.
 * 12) Students become more excited about writing tasks due to this inclusion of technology.
 * 13) Expectations of students are raised as their peers will be viewing their work.
 * 14) **Presentations, documents and spreadsheets can be created with Google Docs, imported through the web or sent via email.**
 * 15) ** A strength for poetry is that are not a whole of distracting bells and whistles to play with and students can concentrate on their content. **
 * 16) Promotes cooperation between students and peer editing skills.
 * 17) The Google Doc promotes group collaboration and creativity by having your students record their group projects together in a single doc.
 * 18) Do not need Office to use google docs
 * 19) No need to buy Office if you only have basic needs
 * 20) Can print straight from online document
 * 21) Can now share whole files
 * 22) The website allows teachers to post files in PDF, Word, Excel, or Link Websites.
 * 1) It takes a little time to get comfortable with navigation.
 * 2) Be sure all users know the features it has available since it does not have all the features of Microsoft Word.
 * 3) Very minimal layout and design features. Users can't "jazz up" their document with many graphics, fonts, and/or special layouts. Expect to create fairly "bland" documents.
 * 4) File size limited to 500kb for word processing documents, 1MB for spreadsheets, and 10MB for presentations.
 * 5) Internet down = No access to documents
 * 6) Section 11, clause 1 in Google Docs' terms of service agreement seems to give Google tremendous authority over work saved on their servers.
 * 7) Whoever you invite to see your document (collaborate on it), has to have an account and sign on each time (I've received feedback about this point from many people).
 * 8) Complicated revision history makes it more difficult than a wiki to determine who contributed what.
 * 9) If your district does not allow teachers or students to sign into their email they cannot use Google docs at school, since it requires signing into your Google account.
 * 10) HTML base makes it ideal for capturing text to use on the web, but lacks certain creature comforts one might look for when printing.
 * 11) Unable to share .pdf files with a larger audience (via link)
 * 12) Old data may be difficult to find because it is not easily accessible by category or searching.
 * 13) Only a small number of users can collaborate synchronously.
 * 14) In a class setting where each student is at a computer, hardware problems may inhibit instructional time.
 * 15) Documents in google docs don't convert to Word 2007 or from Word 2007 without formatting issues.
 * 16) Can only see who the last person to open it was
 * 17) When uploading files, a new window is opened automatically without closing. Distracting if trying to upload several files at once.
 * 18) While most files can be uploaded, larger files and files attached to larger programs will upload but not run properly.
 * 19) Sharing link to be accessed from within a password protected site might cause the link to be inaccessible.
 * 20) Saved Links with URL might "go Bad" for no apparent reason.
 * 21) **Students must be 13 years or older to use Google docs, in compliance with Google's Terms of Service. (schools using google apps are responsible for compliance with COPPA including obtaining parental consent)**
 * 22) **Users must seek permission to join groups to access documents.**
 * 23) Allowing everyone in a class to edit a Google Doc requires maturity and trust (one student could edit another's work, erase or add extra (inappropriate) things, etc)
 * 24) When you click "print," the printed page of a Google Doc rarely looks like the computer page.

Opportunities:
**Threats:**
 * 1) This is a wonderful tool for collaboration. Even children from different classes can collaborate together.
 * 2) Since writing is a process this tool encourages multiple revisions and peer editing which also can spark stories for others and get them to the next level of writing.
 * 3) For example, two presenters want to make a joint proposal at a convention with only one single, collaborative document to propose, but they are miles apart and will only meet immediately before the presentation at the convention site. Their document can be edited by both parties with a collaborative proposal that is endorsed by both.
 * 4) Sometimes teachers give assignments that require two or three students (paired and/or group work) such as labs, question-answer assignments, screenwriting, interviews, etc. Since there was collaborative work on these types of projects, teachers could justify giving the same grade to all participants.
 * 5) Teachers help to break down the digital divide between "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" as they incorporate the use of technology.
 * 6) Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.
 * 7) Can be used for a language teacher as a online environment to manage the entire writing process: share ideas, do peer editing, create revisions and publish their final work.
 * 8) Using 1 of 300 templates, users can easily create custom documents like albums, flipbooks, cards, calendars, schedules, certificates, labels, business cards, letters, faxes, resumes.
 * 9) Teachers can keep track of grades, attendance, or any other data using an easily accessible, always available spreadsheet.
 * 10) Grade wide collaboration projects
 * 11) In addition to grading, students can comment on and critique each other's projects after posting (peer review).
 * 1) Students will need guidelines and checklists to follow when editing since this can be a very sensitive project for some students.
 * 2) Is all the information that is written correct? How soon is erroneous material edited depends on how often the teacher/editor manages the document.
 * 3) Importing and exporting files is limited to only a few formats.
 * 4) Any type of collaborative creative content will involved “creative differences”, teacher needs a management tools promote cooperative effort.
 * 5) Documents could be accessed by those not given access.
 * 6) Members of groups can delete or incorporate information not approved by group
 * 7) Non-educators can gain access.
 * 8) There is no verification of users being educators.

=IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM/SCHOOL=


 * Students can collaborate on projects from home, working with partners or small groups.
 * Consider a jigsaw where each student researches part of a chapter, then creates a collaborative presentation to summarize the reading.
 * Write a "blook"- each person writes a chapter of a mini book or chapters of a story and they can use a writing buddy for feedback.
 * Write a "bilingual book"with a person who knows a second language.
 * Have students to turn in essays using Google Docs, so it's faster, facilitates teacher comments, and helps monitor students progress.
 * Have faculty colleagues contribute to one collaborative document so that everyone has an input.
 * This format for collaboration would serve as a medium for science teachers to have their students create new labs as a class. The students wouldn't have to recreate the wheel, but after each lab carried out in class, they could start creating a lab similar (as simple as using different variables).
 * See "14 Interesting Ways to use Google Docs in the Classroom" under the resource section at the top of the page.
 * Administration, teachers, and parents will cut down on countless emails while communicating about students and their work.
 * Have the teachers in your grade level contribute to a document about cutting across the curriculum for a grade-wide project that involves all subject areas.
 * Have the parents communicate their thoughts/concerns/questions with other parents that have students in your classroom.
 * Enables teachers and students to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations that can be tagged and archived for organizational purposes. Collaboration between the students and the teachers will take place. Students will be able to go back and revise their work and keep track of their progress.
 * Teachers and students can share their link to the published presentation and invite others' into the chatroom and the others can be in the room or anywhere in the world. Suddenly, presentations can be interactive and can create a permeable classroom by allowing experts and peers into the room - and allowing students' thoughts out into the world.
 * Buddy Book Reports from students consist of multiple students read the same book and collaborate on their final book report in an online document
 * Writing assignment: For younger students type a page of complete sentences and sentences that are not complete for the children. Have each student correct the sentence if it is wrong and create a new sentence.
 * Send Important handbooks to parents such as rules and code of conduct.
 * Students can share notes with each other.
 * Students can go paperless and write notes from lectures to their virtual notebook using google docs.
 * Collectively students can... Read the same book and write a book report
 * Share reflections of a field trip.
 * Create a story from a story prompt.
 * Recreate an historical event.
 * Develop a math word problem.
 * Create articles for the school newspaper.
 * Write a script for a play.
 * This tool can be used to indirectly drive student instruction. For example a teacher can send out a survey on their students music preferences. As those results come in they can see the graph being populated. This then can be compared against other schools that you may or may not send the survey to. From this point, based on your content area, you can determine where to go. If you teach history, and you realize through the results that your students like Rap, you may want to see what some of the major events in rap music where and what was going on historically at those times. If you are a science teacher, you could take the same results and move to a unit on the low frequencies found in most rap music. Finally if you are a music teacher, you may take those results and bridge the gap between your current music repertoire and rap music with the fundamentals of form and structure or dynamic contrasts of the pieces.

Since this information has been posted about Google Docs, there have been some upgrades to this tool. Google Docs now allows you to upload pictures and other media through the use of the image link (which allows the user to add to the document without actually saving to the computer). Another feature that was added to Google Docs is the option to program an auto-save to prevent loss of work. Google Docs also lets you download the content in multiple forms such as a PDF, RTF, Word, Text, and HTML. You can also communicate with other users while working on the document in the chat box. Now you can also control settings so that a person who does not have a g-mail account can access the document, you just have to send the link to the person's e-mail address. You also have multiple ways to share Google Docs, not just through e-mails (this is really convenient if you do not have the person's e-mail address you are trying to share with). Google Docs can now be shared via Google+, Facebook, and Twitter (most people have at least one of these accounts). You can also create folders to organize your work for easier finding--folders are considered as "my collections".
 * Google Docs Updates** (by Allison H)

One problem that I continue to have with Google Docs is that when multiple people are editing at one time, view of changes are not always simultaneous and can be a bit delayed. Another problem I continued to have, as stated above, is that when you go to save the file, sometimes the formatting is changed.

Google Docs has been a great tool for me, being a college student! When you have a group project to complete and it is difficult to get multiple college students with multiple jobs and multiple schedules together to work on it, Google Docs is a great solution to collaborate.