Web Office Applications

Much like the other web based applications we have worked with this semester, online office applications can be yet another valuable tool for use in the online classroom. This is a great method to get students to work colaboratively in the online environment as they would in the traditional classroom.

Just as we have seen from students in our class this past week, instructors can use web based applications to seek student input on any given document. It could be that a professor has a new rubric that he intends to use for a future class. He could seek input and recommendations from current students by posting the document online and asking students to make changes based upon their critique. Instructors could also post assignments via web based documents. An instructor could require students to complete their portion of the assignment by filling in certain portions of a document. When all of the students have completed their assignments, the result would be a finished document.

Disadvantages of web based document editing do exist. It could be possible for an instructor to not know which student made changes. Or a student could potentially make irreparable mistakes to the document. These must be considered before an instructor posts a document for students to edit.

I chose to use Google for this assignment. It was easy to access their information since I already have a Google account, and their generic templates provided me with ample choices for a document to post. I can certainly see myself using web office applications as an instructor but there are limitations to be considered.