Introduction
Do you get frustrated when the version of Word in your home won't play nicely with the one at school (or vice versa)? Do you need to create a document or spreadsheet with other students, but don't want to bother sending email attachments back and forth and wondering if you have the most recent version?
Do you belong to a club or team that's planning an event, field trip, or conference?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Google Docs may be for you. Google Docs is one example of the Web 2.0 concept of cloud computing: applications that work through your Internet browser instead of being installed on the hard drive of your computer, thereby allowing you to create documents from any computer with Internet access and retrieve or revise them later on an entirely different computer. Here's an overview of how this might help you:



Using Google Docs
You'll need a Google account to use Google Docs. If you have a Gmail account, you may sign in with that user name and password. If you don't have a Gmail account, click the blue Get started button near the bottom left of the Google Docs home page, input your non-Gmail email address, designate a password, select your location (United States), type the word verification, and click I accept. Create my account. It's that easy. Here's a tutorial that shows the sign-up steps and highlights the basic features of Google Docs.



Google Docs supports creation of documents, spreadsheets, forms (which is really part of spreadsheets), and presentations. You may use the forms feature to create surveys, polls, quizzes, contact forms, and similar data-gathering instruments. Plug-ins are available that enhance the functionality of these applications, such as a Swivel It button for Google Spreadsheets that integrates with Swivel.

Comparatively speaking, Docs and Spreadsheets are more powerful applications than Presentation. There are alternatives to Google Docs such as Zoho and, specifically for presentations, SlideRocket; however, because of its graphic intensity, SlideRocket works best with a high-speed Internet connection.

For bite-sized tutorials about how to do specific tasks within Google Docs, peruse Atomic Learning's menus of tutorials about Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentation. To view some of these tutorials, you will need our school user name and password. This information and a menu of tutorials listed by application can be found in the Library Media Center folder within both the student and faculty share folders. Open the PDF named atomiclearningmenu or save it to your flash drive. Mrs. Chappell manages our account with Atomic Learning.

Google Docs in Education
Not convinced? Listen to students, teachers, and administrators explain what they like about Google Docs.