Student Writing with Google Drive

I was asked today about netbooks and their word processing capabilities. My initial response was netbooks are internet only devices so word processing is not available. After some thought it does seem like it would be possible to have word processing capabilities via Google Drive.

Last year we used a virtual Windows that permitted printing and saving to the 027 user space on the networked drives. Teachers would create a folder and students would all log in with 027 and 11111, with the teacher editing and printing at a later time. This only worked so so since the teacher would have to log in the 027 user space for initial setup as well as editing / printing.

So here is the idea - visual learners can skip to the video - a teachers creates a folder that is shared to "Any one with a link" with "edit" access. Confused, you are a visual learner watch the video. What this means is that anyone who has the link to the Google Drive folder has access and editing rights. The folder will not come up in Google search and the probability of someone without the link guessing it is very minimal.

With that said, I would see these settings as temporary for the project duration. After the end of the project I would change the access permissions to private.

This will allow any student putting in a url to have access to their document for the project. All their work will be auto saved into the teacher's Google Drive folder. At a later time the teacher can go to his / her Drive and print or edit student documents.    

As I mention in the video I am more than willing to help with an easy to remember customized url for the folder. If this sounds like something you'd like to try but have reservations on the technology front, I am more than willing to support you with that.