Google Docs

Google Docs have been set up for the school and now it is the role of the ICT specialists to teach and integrate these applications into class learning and ICT lessons.
This term I am working on a unit with Year 6 centering around bridges and bridge building. One of the first activities was a knowledge gathering, immersion stage. The students have to gather names and photographs of bridges in Vietnam and then around the world. There are 5 main types of bridges and ideally the students should have one bridge from each atypical type. We have begun this activity by working in co-operative groups and making a small presentation in Google Docs. The stable of Google applications mirrors that of any computer applications, in that the word processing document is called document and the PowerPoint presentation type document is called presentation etc. The students are working as a co-operative pair on the one presentation. However the power of Google docs means they can both work on the document asynchronously from different computers. While in my room the student pairs are dotted around the room each working on different aspects of the presentation. Some of my pairs have seated themselves side by side. This allows dialogue and discussion around bridges, bridge types and more importantly the editing of the work. For this purpose, this is a powerful ICT tool.