Google Docs

Well, I am using Google Docs for the seventh grade Our Town project. You know something works when students who are absent collaborate with students in class. I couldn't believe it! Not one, but two students decided to work on the assignment from home, so they didn't miss anything their groups added to the project. The students are working in groups to create a one act play, and Google Docs is perfect for this assignment. Last year they shared the Word document through email, and it was messy. Google Docs allows me to keep track of their progress. Because each student writes in a different font, I can also track how much each student contributes. I often ask students to create Power Point presentations in groups to demonstrate their understanding. I will definitely ask them to use Google Docs for this in the future. I thought Google Docs was just Word, so I'm excited to learn that there is more to it. I do have one complaint, though. I don't like the formatting in Google Docs. It is much more difficult to deal with spacing and indenting than it is in Word. For example, students struggled to format their works consulted correctly because of this. I'm playing around with the Power Point ideas in Google Docs, so I will post it when I'm finished. It's nothing that I will use for class. I just want to see how it works.