Good day ladies and gentlemen of the board. Welcome to my presentation of Google Docs software which I believe would be most beneficial to administration and staff in terms of storing, maintaining, saving data, and creating assessments, as well as for students in terms of creating, editing, and publishing documents, spreadsheets, and drawings. Wikipedia (2011) defines Google Docs as, “a free Web-based office suite and data storage service offered by Google”, which allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users” (para. 1).
Blood (2011), explained that Google Docs users can either create new documents or upload already designed documents to the application, and then invite colleagues, cohorts, and group members to view and edit documents. Blood (2011) added that, “a distinct benefit of Google Docs is the ability for multiple users to work on the same shared document, eliminating the need to pass numerous drafts of a document back and forth between users. Only the most recent version of the file is saved and stored online in Google Docs, making it unnecessary to save on a hard drive or flash drive” (pp. 305-306).
Google Docs is a cluster of technologies that began as an integration of two previous innovations: Writely and Google Spreadsheets (Wikipedia, 2011).
The Google corporation updated Google spreadsheets to produce Google Labs in that same year.
Google added presentation capability and further developed the innovation, thereby enabling, “Multiple user online collaboration on Microsoft Office compatible document formats such as Word, Excel, and Power Point (Wikipedia, 2011, para. 10).
Google first made the innovation available to users of Google Apps, the corporation then marketed their innovation offering 1GB of free space and .25 cents per GB of additional storage (Wikipedia, 2011). Google Docs is now available online as open source technology- free of charge.
Google Docs has experienced popularity among businesses, students, and educational institutions due to no user fees, easy accessibility on the Internet, and its “enhanced sharing features” (Wikipedia, 2011, Features, para. 4)
Google Docs facilitates online collaboration in real-time, allowing users to open, share, and edit documents simultaneously.
Google Docs allows users to upload and convert Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML, text, Open Office, and StarOffice Writer files (or create documents from scratch); to easily format documents; invite others by email to edit or view documents; to collaborate online in real time and chat with other collaborators; view documents’ revision history and roll back to any version; to publish documents online to the world, as web pages or post documents to a blog; to download documents to desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML, or zip; and to email documents out as attachments (Google, 2011, p.1).
Google Docs allows users to import, convert, and export formatted data, as well as PDF and HTML files; to use formatting and formula editing so users can calculate results and make data look the way they want it; to chat in real time with others who are editing their spreadsheets; to create charts and gadgets; and to embed a spreadsheet, or individual sheets of a spreadsheet, in their blogs or websites (Google, 2011, pp. 1-2).
Google Docs allows users to share and edit presentations with friends and coworkers; import and convert existing presentations in .ppt and .pps file types; download presentations as a PDF, a PPT, or a TXT file; easily edit presentations; insert images in videos, and format slides to fit users’ preferences; allow real time viewing of presentations, both online and from separate remote locations; and to publish and embed presentations in the website, allowing access to a wide audience (Google, 2011, pp. 1-2).
Google Docs was made available to Google apps users on February of 2007, and by September of that year, users were introduced to a newer version of the software which included a presentation program.
Google started testing their latest site docs.google.com on January, 2011 to advertise their benefits to potential adopters who could access documents, spreadsheets, and presentations without going to various sites or using separate software. Potential adopters could engage in collaborative activity online using Google Docs to allow group members to co-create, co-edit, chat, and present knowledge.
Bojanova and Pang (2010) developed a study regarding the use of various Web 2.0 and 3.0 technology to enhance graduate level courses and engage graduate students. They selected Google Docs, “because of its collaborative features” (p. 229), and found that 68% of their respondents preferred using Google Docs.
In their research, Rienzo and Han (2009) found that the adopters of this innovation prefer this software to its competitors due to the “simultaneous editing capabilities of Google docs and the more versatile organizational possibilities of the Google system” (p. 125).
Google Docs is cloud computing software that is available online and as such, the Internet is a major communication channel.
Jensen (2010), a champion of Google Docs, touted the benefits of the innovation to colleagues and students, and influenced her learning community to adopt Google Docs with great success. Jensen (2010) trained some students to use the software for a project and after completion of the project, she interviewed her students and learned that her students loved the software and found it easy to use.
Jensen (2010) added that the students had no previous knowledge of Google Docs before she and her colleague introduced the innovation to the class. As change agents, Jensen and her colleague were able to convince these learners to adopt the technology.
In this situation the early adopter/change agent introduced, taught, and persuaded other teachers and students to adopt the innovation. The adopter decided to continue use of the innovation over time, and also recommended that her school district, a large decision-making unit, adopt the innovation as well.
The chart shows an S-Curve rate of adoption for the innovation, with adoption increasing from a little over 200,000 users in October of 2006 to more than 1.4 million just a year later.
As opinion leaders and agents of change, ladies and gentlemen of the board, we could adopt the strategy of least resistance whereby we could impress upon the educational technologists and media specialists in our district regarding the relative advantage, compatibility, simplicity, and no cost option of using Google Docs.
Rogers (2003) sees diffusion as, “a social process with an innovation moving through interpersonal networks” (p. 297). Therefore, The staff members who would be early adopters would trigger adoption by their colleagues and cohorts as they would be respected individuals known for adopting effective best practice methods in the classroom (Rogers, 2003).
We could use the strategy of greatest resistance for those teachers who seem most likely to reject Google Docs for various reasons. If we target those most likely to reject the innovation through professional development seminars and workshops which are designed to illustrate the many benefits of the innovation at no cost to the user, and train the user by allowing trialability and observability, we could remove some of the anxiety for our most unlikely to adopt.
Google Docs is characterized by certain perceived attributes that could help the innovation meet critical mass in the realm of education. Google Docs is free to users; it possesses interoperability in that the software supports other formats and multiple browsers, such as Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome; and the program affords and facilitates collaboration as it allows users to share, edit, publish, and therefore co-create knowledge (Lynn, 2009). The innovation is relatively simple to use, and its online accessibility gives it trialability and observability.
A combination of centralized and decentralized diffusion best suits this innovation.
Our school’s leadership could act as key change agents in the diffusion process by b uilding an information exchange relationship where the change agent supplies adequate information about how Google Docs would suit teachers’ needs and solve problems they may be experiencing in the classroom regarding facilitating collaboration. Making Google Docs a mandatory addition to the tools which teachers must use to help students co-create knowledge. Motivating the teachers to develop a desire to learn more about Google Docs and the ways in which the innovation could influence pedagogy, and Assisting teachers in translating their desires into action. (Rogers, 2003).
Once the innovation reached critical mass, which was somewhere around a 10-20% adoption rate (Rogers, 2003), adoption of the innovation simply took off.
I urge the Board to adopt Google Docs at no monetary cost to us, but with definite benefits to our pedagogy and for our learners.
By including Google Docs in our list of our approved resources for making our classrooms Web 2.0 classroom, we will be supporting the use of technology in the classroom to influence pedagogy, engaging our learners and meeting our biggest need of facilitating collaboration in the 21 st century classroom. By training and encouraging students to collaborate, we will be preparing them for future higher education and future employment.
Our school’s Educational Technologists and Media Specialists may then train our faculty to use the software, and the teachers can then train their students, facilitating a vertical adoption throughout faculty and staff and a vertical adoption to students.
Most important, adopting Google Docs will allow us to model, facilitate, and encourage a formula for community, communication, and collaboration which is ideal for all classroom settings whether, face to face or online.
Thank you for attending this presentation, and for your consideration of adding Google Docs to our bundle of educational technologies.