Article by Mike Tweet

Most high school and college students have access to a computer that probably already has an office suite of some sort on it. With free office suites like Open Office, it’s hard not to have access to something to make documents and spreadsheets today. One application, an online one, called Google Docs might be something that students should consider.

Google Docs isn’t quite as full featured as some office suites but it does get the job done. For basic papers and spreadsheets it that functions that most students will need. It has the ability to open your Microsoft and Open Office documents and save them back in those formats.

The technical features aren’t where Google Docs shines the most. There are certain features that are missing in this word processor compared to some of the desktop based applications that are used. While this is a downside, the sharing features is the huge benefit of using this online application especially in a classroom or group setting.

Many students have group work or group projects. With the sharing features you can let other student have access to the same documents that you are working on. This means that if you are collectively writing a paper that it can be edited and shared easily without having to email a document back and forth to each other hoping the other one didn’t make changes while you worked on it as well. When there are more than two people, the email process can become a nightmare.

Something students might consider it taking their class notes and dropping them into a shared folder with each other on Google Docs. This would give those in the class access to much more notes than before so that the material can be learned as opposed to just learning what you happened to hear or write down personally.