Friday, February 5, 2010

Google Docs in Plain English

I am surprised at how many of my students and colleagues don't know about Google Docs. I do a lot of collaborative writing projects (mostly grant proposals) and Google Docs has been a tremendous boon. This Common Craft video shows what Google Docs is good for:



But just recently I discovered another power of Google Docs, the ability to publish your document as a web page. Now when I create materials for my students I do it in Google Docs and publish it as a web page. Rather than upload a Word doc to Blackboard, I just post the link. If I need to make changes I do so in the Google Doc and click "save" and the web page is automagically updated--without having to go into the clicky monstrosity that is Blackboard. Some examples are the readings schedule for my public history class and my handout on How to Integrate Quotations into historical writing.

4 comments:

Diana Walsh Pasulka said...

Thank you Larry, this is SUPER helpful. I will try it for my upper level course today.

Sharon said...

Thanks - I've been using GD for months and I hadn't noticed that option at all!

Larry Cebula said...

If you go to YouTube and search for "Common Craft" you will find quite a few helpful 3 minute how-to videos. Another I use frequently is "RSS Feeds in Plain English."

Kelly in Kansas said...

We also use Google Docs and Google Groups for our TAH grants so that our teachers can also post their work to share with one another.

Thanks for pointing this out to those that aren't familiar with its robust features.