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Hello all!Do you know what GoogleDocs is? Well, believe me, it's a wonderful web tool.
GoogleDocs is a free, web-based tool offered by Google. Creating your account in GoogleDocs enable you to write, edit, store and share documents online. The types of documents that you can work on are: word documents, worksheet (like in Microsoft Office™ Excel™), PDF files and presentations.
That said, one might observe that what I've just mentioned is more or less what we can do with Microsoft Office™ or OpenOffice; therefore, I'm going to tell you why this is not the case.
The peculiarities of GoogleDocs are:
- GoogleDocs is NOT a software package so it's different from Microsoft Office™ and OpenOffice. It is an online service, you don't have to download it on your pc or buy it;
- you can always have access to your documents. Since is a web-based tool (like Bloglines and Del.icio.us), you can log into your account from any computer and work on your documents wherever you are;
- you can upload, create and edit documents directly online. You can also share them - in a private way - with your peer students, friends or workmates. You just have to send them an invitation mail to join GoogleDocs;
- you can benefit from an online, real-time, shared collaboration. All the people you share a document with can edit it simultaneously and see who's working or worked on it (see 'history function'). The funny thing is that all these people can be wherever they want, they just need a computer.
What comes out is that, like any other tool in Web 2.0, GoogleDocs allows you to work, communicate and share information with peers, no matter where they or you are...You just need a computer!
Bye
Giorgia
(photo source)
P.S. I love GoogleDocs 'cos I won't lose hundreds of usb devices anymore ;)
