A few years ago, Google Docs was, to me, a waste of time. Whenever I wanted to print anything the formatting was wrong; if I downloaded a document it would look different in my desktop processor. A Google Docs was a nice idea, but not much use.
Nowadays, however, Google Docs has all the features you need in a word processor, with the added bonus that you can now have a large number of people working on the same document at the same time. This means that you can actually see what other people are typing, as they type (although there was a bit of a delay when I tried it).
There is also a tool for adding comments and it is possible to see what contributions each person has made to the document by viewing the "Revision History" in the file menu.
I think that having groups of students working together on an essay question would be a fantastic way for students to develop essay writing skills. Especially if they are prompted to include comments indicating whether they are describing, evaluating, providing commentary, showing understanding of issues and debates (AQA unit 3) etc.
You can find google docs here
All that is needed is for each collaborator to have a free google account - which is very easy to set up.
Have you ever tried an activity like this? How did it go? Or if you are a student, did you learn much from it?
