Microsoft Word Online vs. Google Docs

Why Both Are Great:

  1. Collaborate and share with others - work on a document in live time; collaborate on whole folders of documents; share with others via a link or email with various levels of editing rights
  2. Auto-save feature - no more backup files as documents save every few seconds
  3. Sync all your documents in a clouded drive - access your work from any device by signing into an account


    How They Differ:

    At first glance, One Drive and the comparable Google Drive offer many of the same types of documents to create. OneDrive does not offer a Drawing option, but this is not that great of a feature in my opinion as there are many better drawing tools available online.

    A major benefit of One Drive over Google Drive is an online version of OneNote.

    But apparently Google offers OneNote as as an App in the Chrome Store:

    What’s a greater concern is the mere 3 GB of storage space on One Drive with the ability to upgrade by recommending the service. This is extremely limited when considering that Google offers 15GB of free storage (30GB if you are signed up at work or school).




    For additional reasons Google Docs edges out the competition see this article: 10 Reasons Why Google Docs is better than Word Online.

    On the flip side, there is a not-as-convincing list: 5 Reasons for Microsoft fans to dump Google Docs.

    Though the above article does bring up a key problem with Google Docs: FORMATTING. If you don't know what I am talking about, read about the way Google Docs often alters original formatting when documents are converted.  

    Personally, the only time I ran into formatting issues in my daily use of Docs was when I printed pages, but I do admit it can be a problem. Ironically, it was the Word Online document’s formatting that was disarranged during my demo.

    The Bottom Line:

    If you work in an environment that is already utilizing Microsoft products or produced highly formatted documents, Word Online is an ideal tool to increase collaboration and sync work. However, if you regularly use Google tools (like I do in a Google certified school) than it makes more sense to stick with Google tools.



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    Social Media in the Classroom - Twitter Pilot

    Social media is a great tool to integrate into the classroom and I have experienced with various platforms such as Edmodo, Blogger, Google Sites, Facebook, Skype and most prevalently Twitter. I used Twitter in my practicum classroom back in Ontario and it went over quite well. The students stayed in touch with me and their peers from the ease of their phones and home computers. I was able to send links to the students easily and recommend educational resources related to the topics were were learning about in class.

    Last year, I piloted a Twitter program at my school and Hong Kong and did not have as successful of results. Twitter is not popular in Asia and many of the students had never even heard of it before. After the chaos of getting 90 students signed up on the website, I found Twitter not to be very user-friendly for 12 year olds. Unfortunately the students were not very engaged in using Twitter as it was not a form of social media they were interested in using. In addition, we ran into many problems with the students’ inboxes getting spammed with adult content.



    In the end, we found other collaborative web 2.0 tools such as Edmodo and Google Docs a better fit for our students. I personally use Twitter to connect with other educators and find it a valuable tools for collecting resources and having conversations with other educators.

    For those new to Twitter, see this document about the basics of using Twitter (I made this for my students). Here is a presentation and instructions for signing up to Twitter we presented to the teachers after our pilot project.


    Follow me @CrisTurple

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    My Move to Google Drive


    I made the switch. After a year of flip flopping between various formats and learning platforms in an attempt to distribute materials in the most effective way to my students, I transitioned to Google Drive. 

    I started using Google Docs about 3 years ago. In my past teaching, I have created lessons on Docs when working with other teachers and had students use them when collaborating on group projects. However, the lack of technology in my past school did not allow the foundation of my teaching to be in the Google cloud. 

    Now that I teach at a one-to-one laptop equipped school, I feel very fortunate that this is even an option for me. Perhaps it was the Google Apps for Education Summit I attended last June that pushed me over the edge. Learning about many new Google Apps, made me think that Drive could be an equivocal solution to compiling all my lessons and resources in one place.


    Recently, I ran a professional development workshop aimed at familiarizing teachers with the key features of Google Drive. See my presentation with links to further resources to get you started if you are new to Google tools.

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    Contemporary 3 Ring Binders: Organize Your Multimedia Teaching Resources

    I will be presenting a short session on LiveBinders at the fourth annual Brock University Education Technology Showcase. This PD event showcases innovative educational technologies, and more importantly, how such technologies can be integrated in the classroom.
    LiveBinders is a Web 2.0 tool which can be used to organize websites, blogs, photos, videos, word documents, Google Docs, Voice threads, PDFs, and so on. Visualize it like a bookshelf in your room. On each shelf are binders containing information on various topics. Each binder is organized by an overall subject. Each subject is further divided into sections, and smaller subsections using tabs.

    LiveBinders allows you to bundle online resources without printing hard copies of the information. But more importantly, links are automatically updated as they would appear on the web, and other mediums such as Livescribe Pen files, Google Docs and webpages can be added as well.

    By making LiveBinders public, you can make your binders open for others to view. Or you can decide to just search other Livebinders while keeping yours private. It’s like borrowing someone’s book and making a copy for yourself. But no physical storage space is needed, it’s accessible from any device with an internet connection, and we’re reducing our eco footprint by not printing off a stack of papers.

    The following is a video tutorial I have created for new users of LiveBinders: