A couple weeks ago I was at a workshop at which we used samples of forms that could be used with students in the classroom. On the last day of the workshop, the presenter told us that she would share these forms with us through google docs. Now I am a little clearer how that works! I have sent her my new gmail address and will anxiously await an invitation to share.
I set up a google docs account/page and uploaded a word file. Later I added a few worksheets that I made in Illustrator and saved as pdf's. I am hoping that now I can work and the answer key from either home or school without having to email them back and forth or carry them on a flash drive.
My next task was to try creating a document in google docs. Since I usually do my lesson plans in excel, I decided to try the spreadsheet option. It worked fairly well, except that I couldn't figure out how to edit a cell after I had moved on to another. Each time I tried, I had to completely redo the typing within the cell. Using excel, I could just enter the cell and edit it, so that from week to week, portions of the daily plan did not change (times, subjects) so did not have to be retyped.
Certainly this Thing has a range of uses for members of any type of group that wants to create, update, share, or complete a document. I am not sure how much use my young students would get out of it now--though perhaps their parents could.
Accessibility from any location is a great feature, though since my school blocks gmail accounts, I won't know till tomorrow whether the files I gave myself access to will be accessible there.
I can see that this is definitely an effective route to follow--eventually the range of files that can be created on the web will increase, the usability of the tools will increase, and users' expertise will make the use of google docs, or a similar opportunity, an everyday occurrence. But until the level of computer literacy raises, I think Microsoft is safe. (In the video about 2020, didn't all these companies end up merging and developing products together anyway?)
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Do you know why they (your school) blocks Gmail? I'm not surprised to hear that they do... but just wonder what the reason may be - since email is no more dangerous than reading a webpage.
ReplyDeleteI asked our head of technology today why we do not allow Gmail. He said that the technology committee has been reviewing their policies because they want to be able to have students and teachers use many of the Google tools, but they do not want to allow students to have email accounts of any kind because they think there is a liability issue--if students sent threatening emails from school to political leaders or such. Luckily, I can access all my tools except Gmail at school.
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