Inspired by Tom Barrett and his comprehensive blog on using Google docs I decided to have a go at my own project with my year 6 children.
Aim
To use Google docs to create a shared word document relating to our History topic which was post war history through the eyes of John Lennon.
What Happened
First of all I tried to get the children to set up their own Google mail account. This proved slightly problematic as the children were using 35 wireless laptops routed through the same server.
After about 13 or so setups the Google server decided that we were some sort of spammers and refused to create anymore accounts until the next day. This was slightly annoying, but not insurmountable. Tom got around this problem by buying a domain from Google, but I’m just a cheapskate!
Once the accounts were set up I got all the children to email my account. By replying to these emails their details were automatically set into my Google contacts. I then set up a shared spreadsheet with columns for our email addresses and names and invited all the children using the ‘invite contact’ option. Now the children entered their own emails and names into the shared resource.
I appointed some group leaders who were then asked to set up a document that they would them invite their friends to.
The documents themselves had individual headings in them such as ‘Early life’ ‘The Beatles’ so that the children could work on the same document but in different areas.
I then let them loose!
Lessons Learned so Far
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Buying or owning a domain would make life a lot easier setting up emails
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Sharing documents wirelessly slows things up hardwire preferable
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In a shared ‘word’ doc you can’t use a chat window, but if you agree one font colour for chat it seems to work well.
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You can leave marking / suggestions in the same way. (I use pink at the top of the doc)
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Takes time to set up, very exciting once it’s going!
I’ll give further updates as I go along!
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