Google is definitely more powerful than just a search engine. Google has a number of features that can be very useful to teachers as well as students alike. Google has iGoogle, Google maps, google translator, google earth, and google educator. Within google educator is google doc which is a very powerful tool for teachers. There is a section for classroom activities, classroom printable posters, spreadsheets and google documents that can be either viewed by some or everyone or edited by the owner or certain people. Allowing people to edit certain documents makes it easier to keep only an updated version of a document rather than constantly e-mailing changes and loosing track of which is the most updated version. Having attempted to use google doc with a power point presentation with a group of 3 other people allowed to edit was easier then I thought it would be. I created the power point on just a plain background but another person in my group changed the slide background to look like a chalkboard. Since he was able to make the changes and save the document there was no duplication of the power point to try and figure out which one to use the next time we wanted to add slides.
Google docs can be useful for teachers as they can have their students have access to the document and read anything the teacher feels is important. It may contain the homework assignment for that night, announcements of upcoming events or just general reminders. After using iGoogle and google docs I feel that I will use both in the classroom to help make sure that I stay connected to my students in the fashion that they feel more comfortable with. Since the students of today are technological savvy and are very comfortable using it, it seems the best approach to use.
The following link will give you an overall view as to how to use google docs in the classroom:
https://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcdn7mjg_72nh25vq
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