Google Docs certainly has its uses. We just used it in a tech committee to collaboratively edit a ‘scope and sequence’ list for the technology curriculum, and it worked really well. And, like del.icio.us bookmarks and other 2.0 tools, it’s nice to be able to access a document, a list or anything else you need, from anywhere, without being dependent on a particular machine or software or cookies.
Possible educational uses:
- a solution for students who have different computer operating systems at home, or different/older software (WordPerfect instead of MS Word, for instance)
- data entry for a group research project (for example, a class of students collecting water samples from area creeks and entering data in a single spreadsheet)
- evidence creation for 2-person debate teams
The WP mode seems to me very like a wiki, the difference being that the end publication of a Google WP doc would be to paper, while a wiki is published to the web. It’s good to know it’s there, but right now I’m not rushing to think up ways to use it. When a project comes along for which GoogleDocs would be useful, at least it’ll be in my 2.0 toolbox!
