During my pre-student teaching experience, I introduced my mentor teacher to Google Docs. He was looking for a way to have groups of students collaborate on presentations in such a way that all members would have access to the same information at the same time. The method with which he usually goes about doing this type of project involves calling the IT department at the school, giving them a list of each student in each group, and having them set up a shared folder for each group that only students from that group can access using their individual accounts. Of course, this is something that takes time to set up, and students must have an active account and/or know their school account information.
This setup would eliminate the “...but we can’t present today because “Bill” has the presentation and he’s not here today” scenario. However, you are still left with the dilemma that students are only able to work on the project from a school computer that is linked to the school’s network. This proves to be a problem if students are absent, as well as cutting into valuable instructional time since students cannot work on it from home.
“Why don’t you just use Google Docs?” I asked.
A puzzled look... “What’s a Google Doc?”
After explaining to him the various features he told me that I would be teaching the class, and him, how to use Google Docs. The instructional lesson went relatively well. I was surprised at the low number of students that were familiar with Google Docs, compared to a previous high school I had been at where almost every student had been using Google Docs for a few years. There were some technical issues as well. The students were required to create a Google account using their school email address, which was problematic since most students do not use their school email address and could not remember the account information to be able to gain access. It took an entire class period to get all of the students set up with a Google account. Another issue was the slow network at the high school. It took a long time for some of the documents to load, especially towards the end of the projects when there was a lot of information contained within them. However, when students and I worked from home we did not experience this problem.
The benefits of using Google Docs has made these little frustrations well worth it. There were several students that were absolutely excited to hear that they could finally type up papers for class at home using Google Docs and then print the assignment once at school. A few of my students have access to the computers and internet but not to Microsoft Office. Google Docs also gives me the ability to monitor the students while they are working on laptops during class since the students are required to share all work with me. I can check a students’/groups work without having to interrupt their work, as well as provide instant feedback.
This setup would eliminate the “...but we can’t present today because “Bill” has the presentation and he’s not here today” scenario. However, you are still left with the dilemma that students are only able to work on the project from a school computer that is linked to the school’s network. This proves to be a problem if students are absent, as well as cutting into valuable instructional time since students cannot work on it from home.
“Why don’t you just use Google Docs?” I asked.
A puzzled look... “What’s a Google Doc?”
After explaining to him the various features he told me that I would be teaching the class, and him, how to use Google Docs. The instructional lesson went relatively well. I was surprised at the low number of students that were familiar with Google Docs, compared to a previous high school I had been at where almost every student had been using Google Docs for a few years. There were some technical issues as well. The students were required to create a Google account using their school email address, which was problematic since most students do not use their school email address and could not remember the account information to be able to gain access. It took an entire class period to get all of the students set up with a Google account. Another issue was the slow network at the high school. It took a long time for some of the documents to load, especially towards the end of the projects when there was a lot of information contained within them. However, when students and I worked from home we did not experience this problem.
The benefits of using Google Docs has made these little frustrations well worth it. There were several students that were absolutely excited to hear that they could finally type up papers for class at home using Google Docs and then print the assignment once at school. A few of my students have access to the computers and internet but not to Microsoft Office. Google Docs also gives me the ability to monitor the students while they are working on laptops during class since the students are required to share all work with me. I can check a students’/groups work without having to interrupt their work, as well as provide instant feedback.
I am also in the process of using Google Docs to facilitate collaboration among 3 science instructors and 12 honors research students. This situation is unique in that the students are spread out among three instructors and not all of the students working under individual instructors meet during the same period. Most of my communication with this group of students has been through Google Docs and email. Through this project, we hope to facilitate collaboration between students and instructors in a manner similar to that of professional scientists and researchers. The students will benefit from this by being prepared for the type of work and collaboration that will be expected of them in collegiate level science courses. The instructors will benefit by continuing to build a collaborative relationship within the science department, as well as becoming more familiar with technology that students today are using and ways to incorporate it into their curriculum.
