Classroom 2.0/Collaborative Documents
I followed the Classroom 2.0 discussion on collaborative document sharing where the originator of the discussion was interested in exploring alternatives to Google Docs. There was a good deal of participation in this discussion. The originator took a very active part in it and that probably helped. Some of the applications that came up were:
www.Yourdraft.com
www.YouFig.com
www.writewith.com
www.writer.zoho.com
www.stixy.com
www.spruz.com
She has apparently evaluated several of these tools. Many respondents seemed pretty pleased with Google Docs and one teacher mentioned that his students had participated in a national writing project using it. Another respondent said that he really enjoyed Zoho for the following reasons: only one sign-in, it offered functionality with spreadsheets, presentations, and a set of templates. The also have a quick upload and a new virtual meeting feature he finds useful.
Another respondent suggested YouFig. The originator tried it upon his advice and found it to be different than other document sharing applications in that there were 2 side- by-side frames. The 1 side holds the discussion and the other the document itself. Collaborators can view and compare different versions of documents and they can embed videos and images into them. They can even edit html.
Spruz was another application that was mentioned which apparently offers similar functionality and is very user friendly in that it offers step by step instructions that appeals to many people.
A couple respondents mentioned a concern that their districts block either Google Docs or another document sharing application. The originator of the discussion suggested that he try Google Apps for Education. This is a free version and can be set up so that it is only allowed for users within the school domain.
I found the discussion interesting and also like the “follow” feature, which feed you emails when someone else responds to that discussion.
4 comments:
Very cool. I don't like google docs that much so I'm going to check some of these sites out.
Great job on all the information! It was very informative, I plan on checking out the information.
Similar to what Dana stated, I am not entirely confortable with goggle docs and would be interested in trying other sites that can perform similar tasks.
I have only used Google to collaborate documents and would be interested in trying some of other providers to see what additional services they offer. I think that using collaborative documents is a very useful tool when you have several people working as a team.
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