I will be looking at Google Docs and Spreadsheets technological advantages and limitations, as well as how it relates to use in education.

__Technological Features__

Advantages

Free - Google does not require a subscription to use these applications. There is a cost for your computer and connection, or to get to a public computer. There is always a need for inexpensive office productivity software. I have made it a point to find a free alternative to MS Office for students to try so that they can keep down their costs. I encourage students to investigate NeoOffice, and now I have another possiblility for them.

Simple feature set - The tools are akin to the early days of word processing. The most frequently used editing tools are represented to various degrees. For example, there are only 11 font choices (and ugly ones at that), and seven font sizes. There are some basic insert tools, too.

Online storage - The files are stored on Google's servers reducing your hard drive space needs. Can be down loaded to your local computer in most common formats (HTML, RTF, Word, OpenOffice, PDF, Text).

Ubiquitous availability - You can get to the documents from any computer with an internet connection and an approved browser.

Can be shared - You can invite students and colleagues to contribute to the file by inputting their email.

Limitations

Out of the way - You must go into your browser, and do some logging in to get there. For a class, you'd have to link the students to it.

Higher technological requirements - You must have a computer with an internet connection and real browser. In fact they only work with a few browsers.

Limited file sizes - 500k text document, with a max of 2MB per inserted image. Ample Spreadsheet maximums, but you can only have 200 in your account.

No Presentations - yet.

__Educational Applications__

For classes on site & on line

Fills the obvious need for a text editor for students. Soon, it will offer a presentation software alternative, too.

Additionally, it approximates a collaborative editor, like SubEthaEdit. This is a fantastic way for students to work on a document together. For example, I upload a document with many writing errors in it. The students are each given a grammar point to check in the document. Han Jin - verb tense, Hsiaofen - SV agreement,… Then they go into the same document and edit it. They can also be asked to edit anything they see and mark it with a color. It's best if they introduce themselves and their color at the top of the document.

Where this falls down, is that it refreshes at an interval (about 10 or 15 seconds), so you won't see changes exactly as they happen. It is similar to the problem of stepping on each other's edits in a Wiki, but not as big. It is no SubEthaEdit, but it is a possible replacement.

In the same way, it could be a central repository for group writings. the teacher can get in and make suggestions, highlight important concepts to explore and abserve the groups progress.

For teachers in a class

Create documents ahead of time and make them available to students as the semester progresses.

Monitor group writings as they develop.

For Support personnel in an academic department

There is only one thing to say: TELECOMMUTE. It is a consistent interface for your work and it lives in a location you can always get to, assuming there is no concern by your department about proprietary documents in a non-school computer.