by Guest Columnist, Art Gelwicks 

At the beginning of this school year we began a bold new experiment.  Our goal - to implement a collaborative method of document development and processing for the staff of our school with the eventual release to the students of the same technology.  The tool that was chosen:  Google Docs.  Whoa, hang on a second...Google Docs?  Why not go with some big, powerful package that could be completely manipulated, controlled, and overseen by the administrative powers that be?  The choice was Google Docs because it's not some big, powerful package that can be completely manipulated, controlled, and overseen by the administrative powers that be.  We signed up for Google Apps for Domains and switched our email over to the Gmail platform for all the staff members.  Since email is such a "killer app" it made it easy to bring the added functionality of Google Docs along for the ride.  Once users started churning email, we were able to get them to start writing and sharing documents using the word processing and begin to use the presentations (as soon as they came available) with a minimum of muss and fuss.

The question is...why?  Why go with this kind of a platform?  To start, teachers and students live in a very "time-shifted" world.  The moments of free time vary by location and duration on an almost daily basis.  The ability to work on a document, save and close it, and know you will be able to get to it from any other Internet connected computer is liberating.  No longer is there a fear of floppy failure or virus spread, USB drive disappearance, or accidental deletion due to a mistaken mouse click.  The word processor is basic to be sure but it handles 80% of the things that most users need when writing documents.  I wouldn't use it for the Great American Novel but for papers, memos, letters, requests, and the other bulk communications of daily school life there's no question it fits the bill.

The ability to collaborate within documents is the shining star of this suite.  It's best explained by example:  A teacher writes up an assignment and shares the assignment document with their students via an email link.  Students write their responses and rather than emailing them back to the teacher, adds the teacher as a collaborator to the document.  The teacher can now sign in, review the document, and comment directly on the paper in an interactive mode.  This back and forth can continue to refine and improve the result until it's ready for final submission.  Make a mistake?  Use the Revisions function to back up to a prior version.  Need peer review?  Add other collaborators.  Want to create a pretty, paper version?  Export your document to [insert your favorite word processor here]. 

I haven't touched on the features of the spreadsheet and presentation software since they're separate discussions (but valuable in their own right).  As with all online suites there are as many drawbacks as strengths but if you're looking for a way to get teachers and students to start working together whenever and where ever they are this is a good place to begin.

About the Author

Art Gelwicks is the Director of Techology for Coventry Christian Schools in Pottstown, PA and a long time technologist.  Specializing in educational technology on the web and in the classroom his primary goal is using the Internet to expand and improve the interactions between students, teachers, staff, and families in the educational journey.