Student Window

Over on the Docs Blog , Dr. Helen Barrett – a retired teacher educator and independent researcher – has written up some good tips about using “E-Portfolios” as a sort of digital resume, and how you can use Google tools to help you create your own. If you’re interested in learning more, check out this example and stop by the Docs Blog to read more about how you can use Google Sites and Docs – among other online tools – to build your own virtual portfolio. Posted by Peter Harbison, Google Docs Marketing Manager

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Creating your digital resume

(Cross-posted on the Google Docs blog ) The Google Docs team is getting ready for back to school. We’ve been doing our homework this summer to make your school year go a little smoother. Today we’re launching a handful of features that will benefit both students and teachers. Speaking from experience, as students ourselves, we know that these features will come in handy on any given day. Check out the schedule below to see how. Time Schedule 9:00am Spanish Literature [Bldg200-253] Writing essays about Gabriel García Márquez is hard enough in English; try it in Spanish. At least now I can make sure I’m on the right track by defining and translating Spanish words. Like any research essay, I have to double space the document and cite my sources. I use footnotes to cite sources. They are automatically numbered so I don’t have to keep track of them and they sit in the margins for easy reference. As of today, I can even print footnotes as endnotes, consolidated on separate pages at the end of my document. 10:00am Gym break I keep track of my daily workout progress using a variety of Docs templates . Today I’ll be using the Runner’s Log: 11:00am Hiking Club [Student Union] T h e o ther club officers and I make sure that we cover all important topics by collaborating on an agenda outline before each weekly meeting. As the secretary, I also take notes on the outline so I like being able to customize how the list is formatted. The officers also work together to make sure our website is up to date. With Google Sites we can each edit the site when necessary without learning html. My favorite feature is the ability to embed maps, documents, and calendars directly into a page. 12:00pm Lunch I keep up to date on the go by viewing and editing my docs on a mobile phone . 1:00pm Probabilistic Systems Analysis Lecture [Bldg32-123] This class moves pretty fast. My friends and I sit near each other and take notes on a single Google Doc to make sure we don’t miss a thing. With the new equation editor feature, it’s much easier to read and understand each others’ equation notations. And whenever I walk into class a little late, I can just do a revision comparison of our shared notes document to see exactly what I’ve missed. 2:00pm Solid State Chemistry Tutorial [Bldg5-320] In order to lead this tutorial, I often put together some slides beforehand and share them with my students. Now that Google Docs Presentations supports subscripts and superscripts, it’s even easier to make and edit these slides. Want to try out these features in your routine? Find some more detailed information about the features here . Posted by: Rita Chen and Stephanie Vezich, Google Docs Summer Interns

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Day in the life of a Docs student

It’s that time of year again. Time to brush off the sand from lazy days at the beach and hit the books. Time for group projects, club registrations, and dorm events. As I start my senior year at Stanford, this is the last time I’ll experience back to school, and I’m hoping to make the most of it with a little help from Google Docs. I’ve collaborated with classmates on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations throughout my college career, but after interning at Google for a summer and talking to many of you about how you use Google Docs, there are a few new ideas I’m itching to try, like new templates for resident assistants , teaching assistants , and student leaders . Curious to learn more about Google Docs yourself? Check out our new Google Docs page for college students . You’ll find tips and tricks — based off much of your own feedback — for great ways to save time with Google Docs both in and out of the classroom. For one particularly fun way to reap the benefits of collaborating with Google Docs, check out this video about a lovestruck student on a mission. Enjoy, and have a great school year! Posted by Stephanie Vezich, Google Docs Summer Intern

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Love school with Google Docs

Stephanie is interning with the Google Docs Marketing team this summer and surveyed students to find out about how you’re using Docs on and off campus. Last month I asked you how you use Google Docs on campus. After hearing from over 50 students, I wanted to share some highlights of what we learned from you along the way: How do students mainly use Google Docs? Brainstorming Whether it’s taking notes during a group project brainstorm session or outlining a research paper, Google Docs helps you get your thoughts down quickly and allows you to access them from anywhere later. Group work Many of you use Google Docs to contribute your part to a group project, but just as many use it outside the classroom. Student groups are collecting RSVPs with Google forms, taking meeting minutes with Google documents, and balancing budgets with Google spreadsheets. Personal record keeping Have a to-do list or want to keep a weekly budget? Many of you are using Google Docs to stay on track with daily tasks. Your favorite thing about Google Docs? Collaboration Backing up important work is great too, but far and away students enjoy being able to contribute to the same document with friends and classmates. And it’s not just about the class projects. For instance, Students for Obama used Google spreadsheets to tell each other who had participated in phone banks, who was going on certain trips, and who would complete certain tasks. Most creative uses we heard from you: “Two of my friends used Google spreadsheets to play Dungeons and Dragons with each other.” – Chris, Worchester Polytechnic Institute, Computer Science “We used Google Docs to plan a spring break trip for Habitat for Humanity. It helped us keep track of phone numbers, dinner menus, etc.” – Jacinda, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science “Our club leadership used Google Docs for everything from constitution-writing to picking the new board, and during interviews, we would take notes on interviewees in the same doc.” – Justin, Harvard University, Anthropology Thanks to everyone who volunteered your time; it really helps the Google Docs team key in to what’s important to students so we can continue to make the product better for you. With back to school right around the corner, I’m interested to try out some of your ideas in my own campus life, and I hope some of these ideas may inspire you to get started with Docs as well. Posted by Stephanie Vezich, Google Marketing Intern

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The results are in – how students like you use Google Docs

Whether you’ve created an awesome group project, planned a hassle-free spring break trip, or just written a fun form using Google Docs, you can now share your ideas and creations with other students in just a few clicks. As of last week, the Google Docs Template Gallery is now accepting public template submissions. Help contribute to the collection of student templates by selecting the “Students and Teachers” category when uploading your template. If you’re not ready to create your own yet, you can still check out and take advantage of templates geared for school in the Students & Teachers section of the gallery. For more information on submitting your own templates, check out this post on the Google Docs blog. Posted by Stephanie Vezich, Google Docs Team

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Get published on the Google Docs Template Gallery

In the spirit of graduation season, we’re doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more! It wasn’t until after my friends and I had graduated and left the bubble that was our college life that I realized how much I’d taken our years of proximity for granted. For four years, we were never more than a 10 minute walk or a quick bike ride away from each other. And now we’re in all parts of the world, in different time zones, and sometimes separated by long flights. If you and your friends are scattered across cities too, you should try keeping in touch with voice and video chat in Gmail . You can either make a voice call (pretty much a phone call, but it’s free and you don’t have to use up your cell phone minutes!), or if you have a web cam, you can make a video call to chat with friends “face to face.” To make use of this free service in Gmail: Download the voice and video chat plug-in. Log back into Gmail. Make a voice or video call to any friend that has a camera icon next to their name in your chat list by selecting their name and clicking “Video & more.” So even though graduation may make you feel far away – now you can stay close with Gmail! For more Apps news Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products, check out the Google Apps Blog ! Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager

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Grad tip: K.I.T. using Gmail’s voice and video chat

Have you ever had a hard time keeping track of a big group project? Do you ever wish you could find a way to promote a competition or school event? Want to get more attention for your student group or club? In case you haven’t met yet, please allow us to introduce you to Google Sites. Google Sites are a great tool for students – for example, as a way to work with others to collaborate on a group project. You can embed a calendar to keep track of deadlines; or a Google spreadsheet to keep track of your research. When it comes time to turn in your project, you can even include videos or slide shows right in your site. If you want to promote a school event like a class election, you can create a site with videos and information about all of the candidates and even embed a Google form so students can vote or send feedback. Here’s an example site for a Ski Club , to give you an idea of what’s possible. To see how some students are using Google Sites in the classroom, check out our new Sites for Teachers page. Posted by Ashley Chandler, Google Docs and Sites User Operations team

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Using Google Sites for school projects

In the spirit of graduation season, we’re doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more! Transitioning into post-college life can be pricey, so chances are, you’re living (or planning to live) with roommates. Managing expenses and a tight budget can be tricky, especially when you’re not just managing your own. So we’re letting you know about the ’shared house expenses’ spreadsheet available in the Google Docs templates gallery. It covers all the usual house hold expenses: electricity, gas, water, Internet, phone, groceries, etc. Just enter dollar values for how much people spend on each item, and the spreadsheet will automatically display charts and details like how much each person owes everyone else. This spreadsheet template was actually created by Googlers who live together and have to manage their own household expenses together. Here’s a video of them talking about their own experience. And if you’re also interested in better managing your own money, you can browse the template gallery to find other helpful tools, like the personal budget tracker and the credit card payoff calculator . For more Apps news Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products, check out the Google Apps Blog ! Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager

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Grad tip: Manage home expenses in a Google Docs spreadsheet