Friday, October 7, 2011

Google Docs Group Project

We created a Google Docs project titled, "Sheets." The purpose of the project was to experiment with the use of Google's version of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. On Sheet 1, we created a sample grade book that lists different students' grades on various projects, including their final grades in the form of points and percentages. We then created a corresponding colored chart that provides a visual representation of the same data on Sheet 1 for the more "visual" viewer.


You can view our spreadsheet by clicking HERE.


I was impressed by Google Sheets. The product is superior to Microsoft Excel because:


    • it’s free, whereas Microsoft Excel costs around $100 when purchased with the Microsoft Office Suite of products.
    • it’s accessible from any computer, whereas Excel is often saved to the hard-drive of just one computer.
    • it’s collaborative, whereas Excel is not.


One way that Google Sheets could enhance teaching is as a collaborative tool for an IEP (Individual Education Plan) in special education. The spreadsheet could be used by both general education and special education teachers to layout specific learning objectives and to track the progress of each of those objectives by day, month, quarter, etc. If the teachers desired, they could also grant access to the parent of the special education student as well as the professionals working on that students behalf (speech pathologists, etc.).


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1 comment:

  1. Interesting application -> to chart IEP's. One would have to be careful with privacy, of course.

    Your team will be giving a presentation on how to use Google Sheets, so be sure you include sums, average, median, formatting cells, etc.

    Looks like you have a very good start.

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