Sunday, November 23, 2014

Google Docs Etiquette

Google Docs are a great way to work collaboratively and know everyone is all on the “same page.”

We can all see what each other is writing, changes made are instant and we are not saving, re-saving, attaching external documents or re-naming (draft, Final, final 1, Final 2, Final final, Absolute Final Copy) It can get exhausting and easy to lose track of which copy you are using.

However, sometimes when working on the document at the same time, formatting and choosing the place to type can get challenging. It is even more so with school ages students.

When all working on a shared Google doc it is very easy to push people out the way, delete other peoples work and make sure you type what you want to type.

It is important to have patience - your name does not always need to be at the top, be aware of what colour your cursor is and what others are. I always like to go straight to the bottom to be sure I wont end up writing on someone else's work and they wont write on mine.

For infants - tables are a treat with their names already placed in the first column they are practicing scanning to look for their name and then they can work in the column next to it. I like to then add my comment in that column with their name to show I have marked their work. The image below shows6 year old students writing about Tigers.


When working with others (and encourage students to do this also) communicate while you are working, verbally or use the chat or comments tools.

Of course this post goes very well with my Absolute basics video for Google Docs. Which can you can also find on Maggie's Miss Edventures.