Google Docs

The single most important tool for interacting with students

  • Its use in helping students with feedback on their writing should be obvious.  
  • It can also be used to negotiate topics (have students write a topic and help them with a thesis statement)
  • It is essential in helping them create questionnaires 
    • Help them with the PURPOSE of their questionnaire
    • Help them arrive at questions which match the purpose
    • Help them word questions from the point of view of someone taking their survey
    • When they collect data, get them to explain what it means
In order to use Google Docs, you and your students must each have a Google Account
  • Try to avoid confusion between Google and Gmail; the former grants you access to multiple services
  • Understand that Google Docs has become Google DRIVE
  • You can use the NEW interface for Google Drive or go to settings and revert to the old one
  • Your students need to share their work with you at your Google acct (happens to be your Gmail address)
  • When students share with you you are notified at your Gmail address
    • You can delete these notices as they come in
    • You can see what the students have shared via your view of http://docs.google.com 
    • You should learn to organize your work in folders (also called collections)
Setting up a Google Acct: 
  • I have a handout for this but Google changes their web interface
  • Students can usually manage this on their own, but 
    • Make sure your students include a recovery email address so they can retrieve lost passwords
    • If your students don't have mobile phones, have them avoid supplying a mobile phone number
  • When Google detects multiple attempts to create accts from the same IP address it temporarily blocks further activity from that address. Thus you might need several class periods before your students are all enrolled in the service.  This is annoying, but once you're there, it works great!
There are two major issues at KBZ
  • The students are being forced to provide a mobile phone number to which a verification will be send, and they can't proceed without that verification.  I have tried having them NOT give a number (this seems to prompt Google to then demand it).  It COULD be that the students are clicking in an option to skip the capcha step, which will also trigger a request for phone #.  Also if the students don't give a recovery email address, they will be prompted for a phone #.
  • The second issue is related to the first.  The error msg is a cryptic: "You have exceeded your sharing quota".  The Google forum on this issue suggests that this msg appears when your students have not verified their acct details (they need to check their recovery email).
I've found these handouts useful to have on hand, for distribution as needed:

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