Google Apps

I had the opportunity to use Google docs for my applications class this past week. I have had some experience using Google docs in the past, but not too much. So here is my impression of the good, the bad, and the ugly of Google Docs.

First, the good. I loved using Google docs and saw MANY uses for it in my current position. For example, while I mainly use the computer in my classroom for work related documents it would be a huge relief to be flexible to move anywhere within the school building to work, or even at home in those rare instances that I am able to work at home. I typically use flash drives to do this, but found them to be unreliable. Over the summer i made the grave mistake of making one of those impulse buys at a store that had 8GB flash drives for $10. My spiddy senses should have gone off at the point realizing that a flash drive of that size at that price had to be too good to be true. I found out why 3 days later when I plugged my drive into the usb port and everything I had was gone. Luckily, we were not too far and I did not loose too much but a lot of trouble could have been avoided if I just used Google Docs and my Google drive. I also love the ability for multiple users to edit a document simultaneously in real time. This is another great feature I could use in my current position. I have to make individual schedules for each of my students. However, I need to include the schedules the adaptive phys. ed. teacher, music therapists, occupational therapist, speech therapists, transition coordinators, and any other person that needs to see the student into account. I have done this for 8 years now and not once have I made it through without there being some sort of scheduling conflict that has been overlooked. Utilizing google docs would hopefully eliminate these conflicts.

Now the bad. There are fewer "bad" issues and they are minor. The main bad issue is that the storage is unlimited for Google docs created or converted files. However, when you want to store files in different formats you run into storage limits. There is a 5 GB limit for free storage on Google drive of non-Google doc formats. I tend to do a lot of activities on Boardmaker Plus and Boardmaker Studio. These files take up more space than Google docs so its not a big issues but not something that can be looked over either.I have also not looked into how easy it is for non-Google users to edit shared documents. This would definitely be something that needs to be taken into account if I plan on using this before the rest of my school is on board. Anothe issue I had was the print function. I was a little put off by google docs having to make things into PDF then having to print separately from the PDF. My margins in the document were not the same from Google to pdf which can cause issues when formatting documents to be on a single page.

Finally, the ugly. The issue is not so ugly for me, but I can see some people I work with having a HUGE issue with moving to Google doc created schedules. For example, the adapted phys. ed. teacher would have too many individual schedules to edit. There are 24 classrooms on our campus, 21 rooms have 7 students, 1 room has 6 and 2 have 8 students - that is 169 individual schedules she would have to edit. I certainly sympathize with this I do see this as a way of avoiding those scheduling conflicts that come in the beginning of each semester and summer session. While this issue has some possible solutions, such as having one of our teacher aides take care of this, it must be addressed in order to gain support from all different staff members.

Overall, I am impressed with what Google docs and drive have to offer. I am going to start using this and hopefully convert some of my coworkers to using this to create schedules, share lesson plans, and create curriculum.