Google Docs for School

In this blog, we will discuss how to use Google docs for school.

Google Docs is a very powerful real-time collaboration and document authoring tool where all the documents and files can be saved on Google Drive for free.

Multiple users can edit a Google Docs document at the same time while seeing each others’ changes instantaneously. All you need is a Google Account and a device with an internet connection to access all your documents from anywhere and anytime.

Since Google Docs is available to everyone without having to purchase with some money or install any software, it is a wonderful collaboration tool to use in schools. Many schools started using Google Docs for real-time collaboration among students and teachers.

Let’s find some more functionalities of Google Docs and some interesting ways to use them in schools.

Why Google Docs for schools?

Schools are using Google Docs to

Google Docs for students

Students can use the Google Docs online environment to manage the entire writing process:  

Best of all, the teacher can easily track the development of each writing assignment as the students work through multiple revisions.

As students seamlessly work on their writing at home, school, at the library, and with their friends, there have been noticeable improvements in the quality of their writing.

Google Docs – The collaborative work environment for students

Let us explorer Google docs for students.

Let’s say a class is separated into groups and each group is assigned with a project. This could be really difficult for school students who study online as they would need to get together to work on the assignment, each with different notes or copies of the same draft.

Without an online collaborative system, each student has to work separately and create their own flow chart or visual diagram, however, with Google Docs a group of students can collaboratively work on the same flow chart and contribute to the groups’ ideas and designs.

The collaborative feature of Google Docs allows school students to learn to work as a team. With this feature, every school student gets an opportunity to contribute to the assignment and include their ideas by working on the same document from different places or times.

The most useful feature of Google Docs is that any changes made by any student or teachers in a class can be immediately seen by all the other people in the class who are working on the same document.

With visual diagrams and representations, students can collaborate to explain their ideas and workflow and brainstorm ideas and solutions. Arrows and geometric shapes with different colors can be used to emphasize and summarize work, as well as track the latest changes.

Each student can make a positive contribution to brainstorming the project each at their own time and convenience.

Besides these, by using Google docs students can easily insert images, GIFs, or videos, and more.

Google Docs – Benefits to Teachers in Schools

The collaborative work environment of Google Docs is not only a great benefit for students but also teachers. Google Docs allows teachers to review student assessments and provide comments and feedback in real-time.

The student does not have to bring the document to school the next day to be reviewed and then wait to get the document returned with comments added. The “Add comments”  feature will help to give the feedback immediately.

Teachers can even create quizzes in Google Docs where students can take on their own time using Google Docs, instead of using valuable class time and resources.

Teachers write the quiz, submit the correct answers, and then students can all take the quizzes as they choose. 

Google Docs – The bridge for school students and teachers 

Students and teachers can use Google Docs to collaborate on assignments, projects, essays, and more. Teachers no longer have to wait for students to update their status of work.

Teachers have the opportunity to check student progress and make sure students are following the guidelines. Teachers can provide feedback in the Google Docs document instantaneously.

• Teachers can use the revisions history to find out who has actually helped on the project and evaluate individual participation and content.
• Teachers can discover who is not participating and have the opportunity to correct the situation.
• Teachers can use Google Docs to inform students about upcoming assignments.
• A team of students can create a spreadsheet that includes assignment details and deadlines. All the team members update the spreadsheet which allows students to see who is getting their work done on time and who is falling behind.
• The revision history feature allows students and teachers to see a history of the revision process of a particular document. Sometimes previous ideas and information that were removed actually deserve to be in the document. With Google Docs, this deleted content can be restored.

Some great functions in Google Docs for Students

Google Docs “Research” tool for school students

Essay writing or doing new projects by doing research is now a lot easier with the Research tool in Google Docs for Android mobile.

Students can search Google without leaving Google Docs, and once they find what they are looking for, they can add them to their document with just a couple of taps in their mobile.

That means less time switching between multiple apps, and more time saved for doing the given assignment.

Google Docs “Voice typing” tool for school students

With Google docs Voice typing, students can record their ideas or even compose an entire essay without touching their keyboard.

Activating Voice typing in the Tools menu is quite simple when using Google Docs in Chrome. Since voice typing is available in more than 40 languages, students can do their homework for French, Hindi, Tamil, or any other subjects.

Google Docs “See new changes” tool for school teachers

Teachers can easily find what was added or deleted in the Google Doc and who made those changes. Whenever teachers or even students left the Google Docs document and come back to it later, they can just click “See new changes” to see what are all the changes made in the meantime.

Google Docs “Chat” feature for school teachers and students

This feature in Google docs lets you invite others into a conversation that is working on the same document you are.

You may like the following Google docs tutorials:

Hope you have found some interesting ways to use Google Docs for schools. You no longer have to find a convenient place to meet up for collaboration among teachers and students. Now both teachers and students can work on the project together anytime and anywhere. Students can use Google docs for students.