Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and PRESENTATIONS — Oh My!

I am going to start this post by simply pointing to this post by Vicki Davis and this post by Brian Smith — two of the MANY collaborators and co-learners in an amazing “event” that occurred spontaneously today. I stumbled into the event by way of a tweet from Twitter (just like Brian did), and what happened next was simply AMAZING. I don’t know that I can express my thoughts any better than Brian did in his post:

What I “saw” was learning in it’s truest form. I observed a group of interested individuals collectively devour the new application from Google. As the “mob” increased, more of the tool was disected and consumed by the collective group. Using the chat feature, embedded in the presentation mode, individuals posted questions and others set off to see what the application could handle and what what it could not. The really cool thing was that they were learning together.

Google Presentations. In one word — WOW!

From my end, sitting in my office, the backchannel chat was exciting, energetic, and inspiring. Later in the afternoon, our Campus Educational Technologist stopped by my office to talk about something completely different and she was floored when I showed the new tool to her. She became just as excited about it as I was — especially when I popped in to the backchannel and showed her how quickly and easily it was to communicate with others who were viewing the presentation. We had a short discussion about the possibilities that sounded something like: “Wow! So we could… and students could… and administrators could… and the revisions are tracked so teachers could… ” You get the picture — our conversation was as energetic and animated as the backchannel conversations!

Yes — there are some features still lacking — but for those of us who see the potential, this new tool is a welcome addition to our arsenal of web tools. I think the chat feature and the revisions tab are two features that more than make up for some of the features that are lacking. I also have some confidence that in time Google will give us some updates with more useful features.

The presentation that became this amazing (as yet still unfinished) collaboration can be viewed here.

I would like to end this post with a BIG public thank you to everyone who participated in this amazing learning experience today. It was fun and I appreciated the excitement that everyone had for exploring this new tool together!