How might you use this tool in your personal and professional life? What issues come to mind about using this tool with students (ie, they need email addresses to log-in)?
I was introduced to Google Docs during the Technology Workshop at RESA at the end of July. I love the concept of this tool. There are so many times that I am collaborating on a document with a colleague and we all need to make edits. It can get really messy very quickly. Google Docs is perfect for a collaborative situation. A great example comes to mind. Recently another teacher and myself were working on a document to give to all of our students on our team. He sent it to everyone and asked for feedback. We all sent him back changes, but that meant he had to take the changes we all sent him and integrate them into the original document. Messy and not time effective. The only hindrance right now in using this is getting everyone in a group to learn how to use it and agree to using it instead of email (quicker).
I want to use this with my students. I hate it when they are working together on a project and a student saves it in their folder only to be absent the next day. By using Google Docs students could collaborate at home and not be held back by who "owns" the file. There are issues though and the biggest one is each student having an email. I do not want them using their personal email accounts at school. I don't want them public or forced to share with other students if they do not want to. I have approached my administration about getting my students special Google educational email accounts just for my class but they are hesitant. I am also hesitant because it is one more thing that needs to be monitored closely to prevent any abuse.
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