Module 1 - Assignment 5 - Google Docs - hmmmm

So before I begin, allow me to say that I have experience using Google Docs for school work and for administrative scheduling, and while I am familiar with that aspect of it, I would be lying if I said I enjoyed using it for those purposes. :) My experience has primarily been limited to the "Word processing" portion of it, and so I was very excited to listen to and learn about the many other options available. As soon as I saw the spreadsheet during our first session, and then heard the tutorial, I immediately set one up for my National Honor Society students to fill in. We have a terrible time finding common time for meetings, so I decided to have them all sign up for a G-mail, and then fill in their information on the spreadsheet I created. I then posted a Google Doc announcing our upcoming events and asking for feedback.

As much as I thought this was a great idea, they have been slow to adopt. When I watched the video about the Collaborative writing exercise, I think I see why. While the exercise she was doing was great, I saw a lot of students talking one on one to each other, changing things only after talking to each other, and only a few people making edits. To me, the concept was wonderful, but their implementation sort of missed the strength of the program. I would rather separate them and see how well they communicated and worked together. That is the value of the program and its importance in the marketplace. They might as well have all been in a group and one person taking notes. I like her idea, I just don't think she was challenging them enough.

I intend to make my NHS students amend their present Constitution via Google Docs, outside of meeting time. Since it's not a class I don't need to worry about a grade, but it will be valuable to see how they handle it. They need to join together to create something we all can use - and since it will affect all, they better get involved.