Online+Documents

=ONLINE DOCUMENTS=



Technical Description
Online document viewing and editing is a recent development in the internet world. Its a website that allows viewing wordprocessing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents. GoogleDocs is the most well-known of these websites. A user can either create a new document, or upload a document- usually in a Microsoft Office document format. Either way, the user can then edit the document and do all the basic operations that a user would do in a desktop environment. Most of the more advanced features are not yet available.

GoogleDocs is similar to wikis in that users can edit other users documents. However, its in a more restricted fashion. First, unlike wikis, all documents are hidden unless shared with specific users, or specifically opened to the entire web. Also, whereas wikis can be edited by any user, a user must share their documents with editing privileges. So GoogleDocs is a much more private editing space.

Educational Usage
Online document viewing and editing is a great educational tool. No matter what computer a student is using (Mac or PC), or browser (Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox) the editing experience is the same. This allows teachers to teach in any lab or classroom and be able to still access their content. Since its free, its a great way for districts to have simple document access without paying licensing fees for software.

Teachers can put a template for an assignment on their GoogleDocs, and can have students duplicate the template and edit the content. They can then share that back to the teacher for grading. A similar, but simpler concept is to have just a single spreadsheet, and have each student edit a specific part of the spreadsheet. This is great for lower level students. A teacher in Canada did a lesson like this. Teachers also don't have to put a template up. The student can write and edit a new document- say a book report. They can then share that out to the entire class or just the teacher depending on the project.

The collaborative environment of GoogleDocs make it the perfect tool for group work. Students doing a lab assignment can all edit the same spreadsheet with their results. Students working on a book report together can all edit the report online. The teacher can use the revision history to see who did what. No more can students coast on the work of their peers. Now they can be held accountable for only doing 5 lines in a 10 page paper.