Tag: comments

Google Docs for Collaboration
Using Google docs to create documents is easy. It especially works well when a document is being created by a small team, with each user the document is shared with able to make suggestions or edits.

Create a New Document

Open up Google Docs (http://docs.google.com)
Click on the plus + in the bottom right corner, or open an existing document.

Make sure that you change the name of the document! Click on the name of the document and rename it. Click OK to save the name change.

Sharing Google Docs

The first thing you will want to do (possibly) is share the document with others. To do this simply click on the blue share button in the top right corner.

Then just simply enter in the email addresses of those who you wish to share this document with.

You can change these permissions after you add them by clicking on the words below the “People” input box which says “Shared with……………”

You are always the owner of any document that you create.
Can edit are able to completely change the document with the same level as owners
Can comment allows people to make comments on the side of the document, but are unable to change anything in the document itself.
Can view allows people to see the document, but not make any comments or edits.

Some common uses for these roles:

Can edit: Another teacher that you are collaborating with.
Can comment: Sharing a unit plan with another education professional who you want their feedback on. This may also include BLENZ Teachers, RTLB, Van Asch Teachers etc…
Can view: Students who have logged on and you want to show them an assignment that they need to work on the Chromebooks with.

Sharing is available for ANY Google Doc, not just the Unit Template.

Commenting and Collaborating

The great thing about Google Docs is the ability for others to contribute and edit a document. Doing this can take different forms depending on what you want to do.
On the right hand side, below the share button is the style of ‘editing’ that you can use.
- Editing: This is for editing the document in place. This is the default editing mode and makes the changes to the document.
- Suggesting: This is very useful when collaborating with others. Using this mode, users can make suggestions of additions or changes to the document. Upon doing this, it puts it in a different colour, and puts a ‘comment’ box to the right of the document. It also shows an “Accept” or “Reject” tick box system, in which the other collaborators can either accept the ‘suggestions’ or remove them. This is very useful as it shows up in a different colour, and also allows for draft entries, especially for when you’re not sure or want to put forward an idea for others.
- Viewing: Quite simply, this removes all editing capabilities, and just allows you to read and print the document.
In addition to this, if you have a “Can edit” or “Can comment” status when the document is shared with you, there is a Comments section next to the Share button.
These allow you to leave a comment for the other editors and commentators that you have shared the document with, or with documents that others have shared with you.
Comments can be applied to specific parts of the document by first selecting the text, and then clicking on Comments → Add a comment as above.

Revision History

The really important part of Google Docs is that it keeps EVERY change you make. It saves automatically, and keeps a record of those saves.

This means that any changes you make are kept in a log.

Click on See revision history. A window will show up on the right which will have a list of major changes and save dates. You can click through these to see the changes.
If you need a more detailed view of specific changes, you can click on ‘Show more detailed revisions’.
This will show just about every auto-save in the history of the document.
Clicking on each revision will restore that version. This allows you to go back to a previous edit of the document, if you or any of your collaborators have made a mistake you wish to go back and remedy.

Other than that, Google Docs pretty much operates as any other Word Processor. Feel free to explore the menu’s to find out more. Google’s Help menu has a lot of good information about how to use it.
January 28, 2015
Using Google Apps in the Classroom
Please read my full article here: The Use of Chromebooks and Google Apps in Education

There are multiple reasons why we decided to head down the Chromebook and Google App path. While I do not wish to delve into all of these, some of them include:
- Google Docs automatically Saves – having to remind students to save their work was horrendous, let alone the fallout when documents weren’t saved when the device crashed..
- Searchable Drive – Needless to say, even if the student saved their work, there was no telling if they saved it in the right place, or that they could find it later where they saved it. Being able to search the Docs makes this easier, as well as the fact that each student has their own drive, and does not need to save into a Class Folder on a Windows Server somewhere.
- Comments & Editing – By sharing their work with the teacher, teachers can provide almost instant feedback, that the students are able to view and address the next time they come to work on their work, or adjust while they are working.
From the outset, I encouraged students to share their work with me through my work email address. This enabled me to check on their progress of their publishing at the end of the day. It also established an expectation and some excitement as the students rose to this new responsibility of being able to email their teacher.

During my experimentation with Google Docs, I eventually realised that you can see others editing in real time. I already knew that I could comment on a document, but this new realisation enabled me to work with James on his Maths problems. I created a very short screencast of this process as it happened. Once again, this is timely feedback, with additional support and encouragement for a learner who otherwise struggled to remain on task, let alone be motivated to work at home.

Throughout the video I have made notes as to when I used any of these acts of teaching, and by the end of the three minute clip, I realised that each and every of the seven Deliberate Acts of Teaching had been used. It made me aware that not only had I just been helping a student out with some homework, but that the process had enabled me to offer some additional teaching with sound pedagogical base. Not only that, but by the end of this online session, James had completed the worksheet, and had shown how he accurately uses different strategies to solve subtraction problems. These are what we have currently been learning in class, but now they were being practised and solidified at home.

For a long time I saw the motivation of technology to be more of a surface feature that was more bells and whistles than anything worthwhile. By seeing the value of real-time feedback, the ability to provide next steps along with examples, all completed seamlessly while checking emails at home, it is impossible to ignore this as a viable learning possibility. The potential within Google Apps is difficult to comprehend, as more and more ideas are developed and utilized within the classroom. Teachers will need to find themselves not only having to be technologically savvy, but also technologically creative in the way they are able to use technology in their classroom; not just as a gimmick or a reward for early finishers, but as the foundation for further learning in any and every curriculum area. As we continue to move into a world where technology is becoming ever more integrated into everyday life, it is only fitting that schools become a place where this is not only enhanced, but innovated, and become places where tomorrow’s citizens begin their technological journey.
August 24, 2014