Today I figured out some things about Google Reader and Google Docs.
Google Reader is a good way to organize blogs; it serves as an RSS feed that constantly streams in new materials to read. Apparently I'm already subscribed to some blogs, but I learned how to subscribe to some more "bulk" RSS feeds, so I subscribed to one on News. This Google App seems mostly like it's about reading; it reminds me mostly of Diigo and Delicious. Like those apps, I think it'd be most useful in preparing the student to write a viable research paper.
I also learned more about using Google Docs. Apparently, it's a word processing program, not just a place to read and collaborate on documents. An author can create a Google Doc, just as one can create something in MS Word--even a spreadsheet or a presentation. People may collaborate on Google Docs in several ways--but the people with whom you collaborate HAVE to have a Google account and MUST be e-mailed (invited) in order to collaborate. The collaboration may be done asynchronously or together, at the same time, even by Publishing the Doc to the web. I could see my students using this for online peer review, even the English 0090 students, a couple of times.
I think I need to explore Etherpad a bit more because it seems pretty similar to this collaboration in Google Docs.
No comments:
Post a Comment