Google docs is a document that's online and multiple people can work on it together. It's a collaborative tool for classroom use where the teacher and the students can work on the same document at the same time. For example in English a text is given with multiple paragraphs, each paragraph can be given to a student to work on and then students can go and review or edit the other student's paragraph. The teacher at the same time can see what is happening on the projector or their own screen. Therefore students are assessed at the same time, giving real time feedback to the students.
Other than ordinary documents google docs has other file types like forms, spreadsheets and presentations. This gives teachers and students a variety of tools to get creative when producing work and all can be done collaboratively.
The advantage of using Google Docs is if I'm team teaching with another teacher we can create a file and work on it together with updated information at the same time no matter where we are. We don't need to be in the classroom or sitting down together working on a lesson. We simply sent permission to have access to the file or the lesson and work on it.
My only concern would be one of my own students hacking into my classwork , i.e. if I'm having a discussion about exams, a student could be watching. I'm not sure if it actually does happen, but it could. Also what if the internet is down that day and I'm desperate to use google docs that day.
I can see this being useful with my special needs teachers to collect data on students and classroom progress. Since google docs has different file types it gives me and my students the option to use the files in a variety of ways. One of my staff is already in the process of using google docs in collaboration with the students to check on their essay drafts.
