We've been using Google Docs at The Potter's House for the last 2 years. Our school e-mail now goes through Gmail, so Google Docs is at my fingertips and my entire address book is available for collaboration in a click. Here are the things I LOVE about it:
-Instant collaboration: Kids (and staff) can work in real time on group projects without having to get together. This is especially handy for my younger students who don't drive (and for my middle-school-aged son, as well).
-Access to past versions of documents: If they go one direction with a presentation and then decide to change their minds, they don't have to start over from scratch. Also, if one group member changes something or "accidentally" deletes someone else's contribution, it can be rescued and returned to the original version easily.
-Access from anywhere: No more "It's on my other flash drive," "My flash drive is in my room at home," or "I SWEAR I saved it on the server!" Far fewer excuses, plus my kids who have to use the computer at the library, at their aunt's house, or after school in the lab can get to everything from one place.
-Automatic saving every 30 seconds: Almost no one loses anything when their computer (or the school server) crashes. They can also still access their documents, even if their laptop or home computer got a virus.
-As the video overview said, no more attachment blizzards!
There are a few frustrating things, as well:
-Formatting documents with anything beyond basic paragraphs (especially columns) is very difficult. This is slowly improving, but has a long way to go.
-The view on your screen isn't necessarily what you get when you print. You have to flip back and forth to "print preview" regularly, because it downloads to a pdf before printing.
-If Google is experiencing peak traffic, it can be very slow.
All in all, I love Google Docs for basic presentations, documents, and spreadsheets. I also LOVE that Google understands the need to convert to and from other formats, and you can upload and move between document types very easily. It doesn't default to some annoying proprietary format that takes 10 steps to move into Word.
As to Word (and the other Office products), I still prefer working with them and then uploading the document to Google Docs for easy transport and sharing. Or, I'll create the basic document on Google Docs and then download it to the appropriate Office product for final formatting and printing.
I don't think the cloud programs are ready to replace Office yet, but they are FREE, which is a HUGE bonus, especially for schools. They're all that most young students need, and when my high schoolers want to do some of the fancier formatting, they can use Open Office (which is nearly as good as its Microsoft namesake). I predict that Google Docs and other cloud programs will increasingly bite into Microsoft's products. I notice that Microsoft has created an online document viewer/editor with hotmail, so they're dipping their toes into the cloud computing water, too.
It will be interesting to see how schools respond to this new wave. Our tech director saw this coming and set us up 2 years ago. He says it's Harvard's system, too. Also, last week I attended a GRCC fall orientation session with one of our alumni, and their system is entirely Gmail and Google Docs. They sang its praises, and I generally do, too. Here are some ways I use it (or can see it used) with students:
-I can get on a document with a struggling students and begin a sentence or paragraph for them, to get them over the "I have nothing to write about" hump.
-I can create and share a document with errors, and they can go in and edit it for me, each student choosing a different color. It makes grammar and proofreading practice much more fun.
**Not my original idea -- borrowed from a colleague.
-We're moving to editing rough drafts online. Particularly for our research papers, the students write rough drafts and then I put in corrections electronically. Google Docs has an option to highlight a word or section and then insert a comment bubble. The student can then go in and make the correction, and then I delete my comment when I see they've done it. LOVE it!
-Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration! This is far and away the best use, and the sky is the limit. Kids teach each other (and staff do, too). I'm told it tracks how many minutes each student is logged on, as well (and logs them out after some down time), so the teacher can see who contributed how much to the group's final product. I haven't actually tried to use that feature yet, but one of my friends swears by it.
So -- give Google Docs a shot. It solves a number of document problems, it's free, and it functions very much like the Office products we all know and love. Wade into the cloud computing waters -- you'll find them warm and inviting.
