I’m a huge fan of Google Documents— it works (almost) like Microsoft Office, with more perks. For the poor unenlightened souls, it allows you to share your documents- be it Word documents or spreadsheets with anyone you choose to. So you type your essay or project outline or whatever into Google Docs, save it and hit ‘Invite people’ and then voila, these lucky people can access what you’ve typed and make edits that can be viewed amongst themselves!
So we can pretty much say goodbye to the forwarded PBLs/ GPPs with the message ‘Please edit and send it back to us’ because really, you just need to provide everyone with that one link to that convenient platform! I’ve even used it more innovatively once— I held a discussion on Google Docs for a project. My whole group got on the same document and started throwing out all our ideas while commenting on each other’s ideas, resulting in a really fruitful discussion.
But as they always say, technology can help… and harm. Take the recent use of Google Spreadsheets for the registration of events like Arts Day and Feeling Fab. The teachers in charge obviously created these spreadsheets with clear intentions in mind—to increase the efficiency of registration and make the whole process more convenient for all of us.
But what happened? Some dark sheep among us began to vandalise the spreadsheets. Bear in mind that everything we input can be seen by others and while the vandals might have amused some students who logged onto the spreadsheets, it was still… vandalism. Even worse, some people selfishly and thoughtlessly removed the names of other people to get into the activity they wanted. Or just for the fun of it.
Come on, how old are we? The basic assumption (and not an unreasonable one) that the teachers made was that we’d be civilised enough to be able to click on the link, put down your name in an available and desired slot, press ‘save’ and leave. I don’t know if it’s more disappointing for them or for ourselves that we can’t do something as simple as that. For them, because they’ve poured in so much effort into helping us arrange these activities so that we can take a break from the tedium of lessons and have some fun for a change… and then we break their trust in us even before the event started. Plus, they have to put in even more effort trying to solve The Cases Of The Missing Entries. Even though Google Docs has a revision history, try ploughing through that for a spreadsheet sent out to 1800 students. And the last time I checked, Google Docs only gives you an approximation of the time that a change was made, making the poor teachers’ lives even more difficult.
And it’s really unfair for those who got a place first, only to discover later that they were no longer in that activity they wanted. I mean, could you imagine how you’d feel if that happened? Especially since they made the effort to rush onto the spreadsheet to indicate their interest before you did. Queen of Convenience, another blogger, wanted to go for the Pixar exhibition for Arts Day really, really badly. And then someone took her place in the spreadsheet and she ended up going for an event that she didn’t really enjoy. Come on, Victorians, we’ve got to play fair! Don’t steal (and yes, it’s stealing) a spot that isn’t rightfully yours!
So Victorians, the next time we use a Google spreadsheet, just follow this golden rule. Type (your name in an empty slot), Save, Leave. You’ll be doing everyone around you a favour.