Thing 17: Googledocs

Many people use email and attached documents to share various versions of a project. This may work, but there are several obstacles to smooth exchange and editing. Attachments may not open or you or your collaborators may not have the same software program or the right version to open and edit a document. It is easy to lose track of which is the current version with all the changes.

Web 2.0 tools make collaborating on creating a document or other publication easier. Documents are online and available from any computer with Internet access. Edits are easy to make and save. The program saves a document’s history with all changes made and indicates who made the changes. A full set of word processing tools makes formatting simple. Click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, indent, change font or number format, change cell background color and so on.

Get the idea from Googledocs in Plain English (our favorite videos for learning!).

In this Thing, edit a famous document using these two collaboration tools. Both are free. You don’t need an account to edit these public documents. To create and share documents, you must sign up for an account.

Use Google Docs to create basic word processing documents, presentations, or spreadsheets from scratch or you can upload your existing files. Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. You can share documents with a select group or make the document public.

Discovery Exercise

1. Watch Googledocs in Plain English (our favorite videos for learning!).
2. Look at this public document in Google Docs.
3. Send an email to SWC023@gmail.com and we will invite you as a collaborator.Make as many edits and changes to the documents as you wish, using the various editing tools available.
4. Read some Collaborative Learning classroom applications from techlearning.

Blog Prompts

• Which of these tools is easier for you to use?
• How do the features of each compare? Does one have features that would make you choose it over the other?
• How can I use this for/with our students?
• What would the Founding Fathers think?

Challenge (optional)

1. Sign in to your Google Account.

2. Create and share another type of document using other Google tools—Sheet (spreadsheet), Show (presentation tool), Notebook, or Wiki.

3. Publish the document (Public) and post the link on your blog for others to view and/or edit.

4. Blog about the tools' ease of use, potential in the school, and other thoughts.

Other Resources

Slideshare is self-proclaimed as " the best way to share your presentations with the world. Let your ideas reach a broad audience. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to create a webinar."