Sunday, September 16, 2012

Google Drive Updates: Finally...

Finally, Google has made changes to improve tablet and mobile device computing. With the Google Drive App things have moved from simply being able to read a Google document on an iOS or Android device (iPad/iPod/iPhone or Android tablet or phones) to having enough functionality to actually create and edit documents. You can also create new folders and organize your documents from a mobile device. While it's not the full editor that you have on a computer, it's a lot closer than it was and enough to make it worth using as a collaborative writing tool.

The functionality on the Android devices is a little better as it has the "commenting" feature while on the iOS tablets/mobile devices commenting is not there. But like on a computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made which takes collaborative writing to another level of cloud computing. You can now also watch Google Presentations on a mobile device.

This upgrade makes me think that using Google Apps in a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) learning environment is much more feasible and affordable for schools. Or, setting up a classroom as blended environment using a combination of devices for students to allow both full functionality/creative tools to handheld mobile devices~ with some full suite laptops or desktops in the room that are priced in the $500-$600 range combined with Nexus 7 tablets at $199 (you could use iPads but at $500 each the Nexus 7 is more affordable). In addition, in the blended classroom students could use their own smartphones or hand held devices for the less intense creative work as well. Things like; document editing, reading, Internet searches, watching videos, recording short video/audio, managing their calendars, checking email, and leveraging some of the many mobile device apps for learning.



read more on the upgrade

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