Why Should Students Use Google Docs As Their Research Tool

Why Should Students Use Google Docs As Their Research Tool?Recently, I read an interesting article on a blog titled, 'Why You Should Use Google Docs for Your Essay Writing' and I found the content very informative. The article mentioned that teachers are teaching students how to use a Google Docs presentation for their essays, and several teachers said that the assignments would also be used for their project evaluation. I thought this was an interesting idea and I decided to write this article about it.My colleague and I started to investigate and discovered that several student groups at some of the universities across the country had started to use Google Docs as a research tool to get ideas about various topics they were studying. Most of the papers being created were summaries of the topics they were studying, so it didn't seem like too much of a stretch.When a teacher uses Google Docs as a research tool for his or her student work, the result is much more comprehensive and usab le than one could expect from simply using the whiteboard to draw a graph. For example, when a student has researched a topic using the whiteboard, he or she can look at the graph later to see if the graphs match up to what was discussed on the whiteboard. However, when a student creates a document in Google Docs using this research method, the graph will show the same data as the student drew, but the student will also have all the information already sorted into charts, graphs, and tables for easy viewing.So why did our colleagues find it so useful? One of the teachers noted that he got a lot of feedback from students when he was presenting the graphs and charts he created using the Google Docs approach. He could have given them the charts directly to show them, but he found it much easier to provide them with a link to a PDF that would serve as a reference for their final papers. He found it easier to present their data using these PDFs rather than having to manually enter the da ta into his spreadsheet.In addition, the teacher used Google Docs as a project evaluation tool to help his students evaluate the effectiveness of his project plan. The teacher had set up a chart in his spreadsheet where students could input their grade for the project, and he used the spreadsheet as the basis for his grade report. While he was filling out his grades and notes about the assignment, he had all the data in his spreadsheet, which he could access and use later.The teacher has a set goal in mind, but he doesn't have any way to measure progress until he evaluates the project evaluation. Using a spreadsheet as the basis for his grades allows him to do this at any time and any place. He gets all the data at any time, and he can use the spreadsheet's powerful editing tools to modify any of the data in the spreadsheet at any time.One of the teachers actually turned this evaluation into a game. He began to randomly edit a line in his spreadsheet with a pencil until he found a g rade that he was satisfied with. Then he gave this grade to each student, and they had to try to come up with the next grade after randomly picking a different grade.In this way, the grade isn't set in stone. It can change based on the student's creativity and resourcefulness. It's also much easier to teach the kids using this approach than it is to get them to focus on a particular grade, since the grade can easily be lost or altered between the students.