Thing 16: Giggle Docs

I have had a chance to use Google Docs for years. I have used them as basic office productivity applications so I could access them on workstations where I didn't have any other software, but I have also used them to work in remote teams. We set-up a conference call and everyone had a copy of the same application. It was a spreadsheet so we could change numbers as we talked and everyone could see the new calculations in real time.

Remember the first time you used a spreadsheet and 'got it.' When you realized that it was more than a collection of numbers but that it was really a collection of little calculators? Remember seeing the totals, or the averages, or other calculations updating instantaneously as you entered new numbers? That's the same kind of cool response you get when you start collaborating on a document with someone in another location. It doesn't just update when you refresh the browser, but to hear someone clicking the keys and seeing your spreadsheet recalculate all the formulae! It's just cool.

I tried to use Google Docs for collaborative discussion of a novel in my 9th grade language arts class this year. I can't tell you how challenging it was to do that without computers in the classroom, especially since I didn't have a formal procedure for getting the accounts set-up and the students weren't familiar with Google Docs. If I were to do it again (with kids) I'd want to have time with computers in a classroom where I could make sure that everyone was comfortable with the process before sending them out to collaborate.

This was a small group of the highest achieving students and the novel was one that I added to the curriculum specifically for them. It was a differentiation strategy that gave them additional reading and opportunities to work in small literature circles. Needless to say, I'd do things differently if I were to do it again.