Google provides a variety of web based tools such as email (GMail), online mapping (Google Maps), and video sharing (YouTube), but two lesser known tools are Google Groups and Google Docs which may be of particular interest to instructors looking for more ways to collaborate with students and colleagues via the web.
Google Docs
Google Docs is a web based word processing tool with an interface similar to Microsoft Word. Logging into Google Docs shows you all of the different documents you have access to and how recently they have been modified. Google Docs supports Documents, Spreadsheets, and PowerPoint-style slide presentations. In addition to the convenience of having important documents available to you over the web, Google Docs is built around collaborating on documents. Once you start a document on Google Docs you can choose to share access with colleagues. This can make life a lot easier than trying to manage multiple version of a document being emailed back and forth between a group of people. Google Docs provides an a built in tracking system so you can see who change what and when. I have personally made use of Google Docs for all of my collaborative papers over the last year of courses, and Google Docs is quickly becoming a staple for graduate students “in the know.” In short Google Doc is a great tool for collaborative word processing and would be worth exploring the next time you find yourself writing a document as a group or assigning group work to students.
Google Groups
Google Groups provides a collection of web based tools built around group communication and collaboration. One of the most popular components of Google Groups is the communication tool that allow for the creation and management of mailing lists for group emails. Google Groups also allows for the creation of simple web pages and the sharing of files with group members. The creator of a Google Group can choose who can access the group and what kinds of controls other group members are permitted. Google Groups is another tools that you may wish to alert students assigned group work to be aware of, it might also be worth exploring for use with your next committee or group research project.
Learn More:
Google Docs in Plain English (YouTube video) 7 Things You Should Know about Google Apps (PDF)
How safe is Google?
A frequent question I get from instructors is how safe are these tools? It is important to recognize that when you are using many of these web 2.0 tools you are creating content that lives on a server you don’t control and is not affiliated with the University. As such though these services can provide convenient ways to communicate and share content, they would not be an appropriate place to store grade-related data or any other confidential information.