Kayla Wheelwright and Kaitlyn Harrington

Introduction to Google Docs Spreadsheets

What are Google Docs Spreadsheets?

A spreadsheet is a computer application that stimulates a paper worksheet.  It displays multiple cells that together make up a grid consisting of rows and columns, each cell containing either text or numeric values.  Google Docs Spreadsheets is an innovative way to share your spreadsheets with others as well as allowing them to edit right there on the same spreadsheet you created.

How do I create a Google Docs Spreadsheet?

Google Docs Spreadsheet is a fairly simple tool to learn.  Let's walk through it together..

First, lets go to http://www.google.com and sign in.

Once you are signed in we're going to click on 'more' at the top on the left hand side, once that drop down window comes down, click 'even more>>'

This should have brought you to a google sight with tons of options!! Google has gotten pretty intense. 

We're going to look on the right hand side under the bold print 'Communicate, show & share' where you will see a link for 'Docs'.  Click the link and it will bring you to the google docs page.

Next we are going to click the on 'New' and it will give us a dropdown menu.  From the dropdown menu, click on spreadsheet.

Here we are on our very own spreadsheet!

Still need help or want to learn more about formatting and editing:

This link will bring you to a step by step learning page all about spreadsheets.  There are tons of different things you can do with google spreadsheets and this link can serve as your guide, it's how we learned!! :)

http://docs.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=20322&topic=20323

Examples of Google Doc Spreadsheets being used in classrooms:

The first two videos on the following link..

http://sites.google.com/site/edinatechcamp/Home/google-for-educators--docs-presentations-spreadsheets-and-forms

As well as the video provided here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=channel_page

all show various ways students may make use of google doc spreadsheets. :)

This link here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&NR=1, shows students in various grade levels from K-12 expressing how they are digital learners.  I like this video because they touch on the levels of Bloom's taxonomy while having the student's express themselves.

The link below provides an actual lesson plan for a K-3 classroom using google docs.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dwsxzq2_153sh79shgq

Sources:

www.google.com

http://docs.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=20322&topic=20323