First session for the Edubloggercon 2008. Hard to decide which session to start with, but I’m sitting with a group of folks right now for Kevin Jarretts’ Google Apps session. He’s starting with explanation of Google Team Edition, which allows student access to documents WITHOUT needing email accounts.It’s a slimmed down version of Google Educator’s Version (which requires administrator with knowlege of setting up a domain). Kevin starts 8th graders with no instruction other than providing the URL and with the direction to figure out what to do with the application. This was in a science class. Evaluation by students showed the students who jumped in to do the work, loved the application; the slackers, not so much.

Students drafted documents in Google Team Edition, which has no bells ‘n whistles, and then fine tuned their writing in Word – great for writing process. Another advantage is access to Google Apps at home, which is not always the case for students with MS Office programs.

Setup – Starts with Google Account (which does not require gmail). Go to Education edition. Kevin provided a link to his instructions. Mark Wagner has also contributed Google Resources, along with a complete tutorial.

Ideas for using Google Docs – Digiteams (wiki project with Vicki Davis) – older students providing younger students with digital citizenship strategies.