Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Barbara Bray
Are you looking for an online program for collaborative peer editing and revising? Most of us are using
programs that reside on our laptop or desktop like Microsoft Word. When I want to collaborate with a
colleague, I have to attach the document to an email, send it, and wait to receive the changes. I have
been looking for a wiki type of program that is similar to Word that allows revisions and saving versions.
Found it: Google Docs is an easy-to-use online word processor that enables you to create, store, share, and
collaborate on documents. You can even import any existing document from Word and Simple Text. You don’t need to
have the same program on your computer. You can work from anywhere to access your documents. You do need a
Google account (or Gmail account--both are free) to log in and use Google Docs and Spreadsheets.
TIPS
At Palo Alto High School, CA, Esther Wojcicki’s 9th-12th Journalism class, every student keeps their entire
writing portfolio on Google Docs. The teacher checks and verifies which assignments have been turned in on a
daily basis. Everything is centrally located. Students are able to manage the entire writing process: share ideas,
create revisions, and publish their final work. The teacher can track development of each writing assignment.
1. Build a Google Earth tour for your students by selecting several resources
that you want to share.
2. Start your project by creating a new "Folder" in the Google Earth "My
Places" sidebar. Click on "Add/Folder" in the top menu. Name the folder
based on your collection of resources.
3. Select the Placemark tool in Google Earth and anchor the location of each of
the photos in your Earth file.
4. In the "Description" box that pops up with each new Placemark, name the
Placemark with the date of the image, video, stream, and audio file.
Include the resource in the Placemark Description box by typing in the
simple html image code <img scr ="URL of your photograph">. Use the
address or URL of the image as you "View Image" in your browser (right
click or ctrl click on image to "view image").
5. Add streaming videos or audio files by finding the media online and click to
Stream. As it streams, right-click (CTRL-Click for Macs) and then click
properties and copy location to paste into the placemark description box.
6. Post audio files and podcasts with your placemark. Copy the location of the streaming audio from the
properties window or from the URL and paste it with the placemark description.
7. Add Image Overlays. Right click on the web image, then click properties and copy and paste the address. You
can also add images from your computer but you cannot move the image from that location later or it will not
work.
8. Build out several more Placemarks and then highlight your new Folder by clicking once. In the top Earth menu
choose (File/Save/Save Place as) "kmz" to share with students.
Jerome Burg, a Google Certified Teacher and Language Arts High School teacher in Livermore,
California, developed Google Lit Trips (www.googlelittrips.org) as an experiment in teaching literature in
a very different way. His students create and share KMZ files about authors, plays, stories, podcasts,
and more. Keep an eye on where his students take their next trips.
Google Educators are designing new ways to use Google Tools. Too much to share in this column so
expect some more ideas in future articles and presentations.
Barbara Bray (barbara@my-ecoach.com) writes a column on professional development for OnCUE, coordinates the
PDQs (Professional Development Quick Tips) for Techlearning.com, and is President of My eCoach (http://my-
ecoach.com). Check out her new blogs: http://barbarabray.my-ecoach.com and http://newsblog.my-ecoach.com and
a presentation she created on Google tools (http://google.my-ecoach.com).