What Up Docs?

As I have mentioned in a few previous posts, we have become a Google Apps School and with membership comes privileges!

Google Docs is a free online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation editor that allows users to create, store, share, and collaborate on documents with others. If you know how to use other word processors (like Microsoft Word), spreadsheets (like Microsoft excel), and presentation (like Microsoft PowerPoint) programs, you can easily use Google Docs. Instead of emailing files back and forth between collaborators or saving them to flash drives, or saving them to our school's shared server, or burning them to CDs, Google Docs allows people to work on a single version of a document together online. The chat feature on presentations makes it possible to create a "permeable classroom" by bringing experts into a lesson to interact with students online. You can also create web-based surveys and questionnaires to collect information from students, teachers, or parents.

Students can use Google Docs to:

• Work on their documents from any computer—all they need is a Internet connection.
• Get instant feedback on their work from multiple collaborators and their teacher. (They allow only the users they want to have access to their work.)
• Publish their papers and presentations on the Web for an authentic audience.

Thank you to CUE and WestEd for providing some of this helpful information.