Fourteen years earlier when I first began using Google Docs with students I got the idea to have my whole class take notes on the very same file. In practice it was a catastrophe as my trainees were rapidly frustrated by mistakenly composing over each others notes. Eventually, I decided to put a grid into the file and have students write within a square in the grid.
Today, when I have students working in small groups and recording notes, I appoint them to a Google Doc (Google Classroom makes that easy to do) that has a preformatted grid in it for them to write in. When students are working on troubleshooting processes, Ive used this technique in my computer system tech classes. Ive used this method when I taught U.S. History and had students reading and assessing historic documents. Both of those examples are described and shown in more information in this brand-new video that I recorded on Thursday..

, if you want to find out more about utilizing Google Documents in your class I have a complete video summary of how to get started with Google Docs.. And here are ten other Google Docs modifying functions you must know how to utilize.