Thing 16

I love Google Docs! I can see all kinds of uses for it, both in my personal and professonal life.

Personally, this would be a great way to share a common calendar with friends and family when we are trying to pick dates for trips and events. This way, a lot of the e-mail clutter would be eliminated, and we would never have to worry about having the wrong or old version of an e-mail.

Professionally, there are great possibilities. There are three or four people in my department that all teach the same (or similar) biology classes. Therefore, there are a number of assignments that we have in common. This would be a great way for us to all take a look at an assignment (on our own time), be able to comment, make changes, and see feedback.

I also think this would be a great way for students to collaborate. Currently, we have no common space on our server at school for students to share files. This would be a great way for them to work collaboratively, and even to hand in work (they could share it with me). I can think of one project where students create PowerPoint presentations on various genetic conditions. Then they need to look at and evaluate several other presentations. This would be a much better way than me walking around the room, getting all the presentations saved on my flash drive, and saving them all to a drive that they can access!

I can see issues with logging in for students. I know that school has some e-mail sites blocked for students during the day (I don't know if they would be able to log into their Google accounts). Although most students do have e-mail, that is also an issue. And I'm sure that it would again bring up issues of students "sharing" work when they are supposed to be completing work on their own. But there are lots of other ways that students can do this if they want, so Google Docs would not be their only option.

Overall, I think that the potential for Google Docs outweighs any negative aspects. But, I guess as I try to use it more (which I definitely will!), I can then make a more informed assessment.