Google is Taking Over the World

As many of you know, Google is taking over the world. Well, maybe that’s a slight overstatement, but with their wide array of products and offerings, and the scope of the material that they cover it is amazing how many technology categories they seem to dominate. One area that looks to be very useful, specifically in the classroom, is Google Documents (Docs). We have all had group projects before, and we know how much of a hassle it can be to continuously email attachment after attachment trying to share our information with everyone. I wish I would have known about Google Docs sooner, because it would have made everything so much more streamlined. With everyone able to view the same document, it saves so much time and annoyance over the traditional email route. Let’s say you have your class in a computer lab. Traditionally, you would print out a copy of a paper and pass it around the room in order to share it. Hmm… let’s think about this, a kid in a computer lab…with a sheet of paper in front of him… what is he going to want to pay attention to more? Emailing an attachment to the students would create a whole other set of its own problems. Using Google Docs allows students to all access the same document, and also allows them to make changes and provide feedback; making the whole process much more interactive, and in turn effective. Kids can also be more motivated by the fact that all of their classmates are able to critique their work, so I higher level of pride and ownership is likely to be taken. The benefits of Google Docs are too many to cover in a short blog, so try it out for yourself, and let Google make life easier for you and your students.