I LOVE Google Docs and have for quite some time. In my job, I need to be able to work on documents sometimes whenever I get the chance. That might mean that I have ten minutes at a school while I’m loading server-based software or I have five minutes in a media center while I’m waiting to meet a teacher. Those minutes can add up to productivity if I am able to log into Google Docs and make edits or additions to a document. Mobility and accessibility are two wonderful advantages.

Does Google Docs (Presentation and Spreadsheets) have disadvantages? Sure, all three are not Microsoft Office and certainly do not have all of the features, but the advantages more than make up for it. If I could change two things about Google Docs right now, that would be the ability to embed a Google Document into a wiki, blog, or web page and to have a chat. You can embed a spreadsheet and chat in Google Spreadsheets, but not a document, which to me is puzzling since they are both under the Google Docs umbrella.

As for how to use these? Currently we are updating our Media Specialist’s Handbook and I needed a way for all fourteen of them to be able to edit the document, but without creating 14 copies of the same thing leaving me to compile all of the edits. The solution? Google Docs. I took the entire document, split it into four and each media specialist chose a section to work on. They are making their edits and when they are finished, the others will be invited to view their changes, making any last edits before the final document is put together. This also allows them to work on it at their leisure in between the time we meet as a group.

For students who are tasked with a group project (the dreaded group project), Google Docs can allow them to work on a single document all at the same time, while providing accountability for the work they’ve contributed. The beauty of Google Docs allows the teacher to see who has contributed which parts, something that hasn’t been possible in the past using a normal paper/pencil or word processor options.

Not my idea, but I read about a great example for using Google Docs for collaborative story writing. Students were paired together between two different schools, four total, two at each school. Using two computers, one using Skype and the other using Google Docs, students were able to communicate and discuss their story while writing it live.

Google Spreadsheets is an incredible tool, especially the Forms function. The ability to create quickly publishable forms that are also embeddable presents some great opportunities. The following ideas were taken from Tom Barrett’s blog post 10 Google Forms for the Classroom.

1) Getting to know you – A teacher can gather all kinds of information about their students by having them fill in the form with information about their favorite things, clubs, and more.

2)Emotion Graph – Students indicate their feelings at certain points of a story. Data can then be used to create a graph indicating the class reaction.

3)Library Book Reviews – Collect children’s opinions about the books they read. It can be used as a resource for others to help them decide the books they would like to read.

In my job, I have used forms for course registrations and for end-of-course assessments. I found the latter to be quite useful as course participants, I felt, were more candid and provided me with more feedback than they would have using a traditional paper review.

I’ve dabbled in Google Presentations, but haven’t created anything that I’ve used. Personally, I found it limiting. However, I do like the fact that you can conduct a chat while showing the presentation, creating a back channel. I have participated in several of these presentations both live and streamed and have found that feature to be quite useful.