Experiments with Google Docs

Productivity tools seem like a great way to have kids collaborate. Perhaps the best part about them is that they are accessible to most anyone. Our school has set up Google Accounts for every faculty member and students and thus Google Docs is an easy way to have kids work together, maintaining documents with revisions on the server. My early experiments however have been a mixed bag. The main culprit has been internet speeds. I do not know if it a software problem or a problem with our school’s bandwidth, but at times Google Docs is slow to respond. This frustrates students and derails a lesson. Your technology based lesson will only be as good as the technology you use, but this also iterates what we have seen as a common theme in integrating technology into the classroom, always have a backup plan in case you have technical difficulties.