Google Docs Editing on Mobile Devices

Google has just announced that they will begin supporting the editing of Google Docs on mobile devices. For a while now Google Docs could only be viewed on mobile devices such as Android Phones, the IPhone and IPad.  Google as announced that they will be supporting editing of documents by the end of this week.

Here is a snippet from Information Week Magazine:

"According to Google, Android devices running 2.2 Froyo and iOS devices running 3.0+ will be able access these new feature from their device's browser. Users will need to navigate to docs.google.com and sign into their account. Once a document is open, users will have to toggle an "Edit" button in the nav bar to have access to editing features (as long as they have permission to edit that particular document).

Editing features include inline changes to text, the ability to edit tables, and, for Android users, the ability to input text via spoken dictation. Users will also be able to edit spreadsheets." Zeman , Eric. "Google (Finally) Brings Docs Editing To Mobile Devices

InformationWeek." InformationWeek | Business Technology News, Reviews and Blogs. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. <http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/mobile/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228300058&cid=nl_IW_grok_2010-11-18_html>.

Our district has recently begun an implementation of Google Apps for education. This new feature set will offer many opportunities for us as we explore the integration of IPADS, IPOD Touches, and Android based tablet computers.  Imagine being able to read and comment on student work while waiting in a doctors office from your phone. How about typing and editing a lesson plan while a passenger in a car from your phone?  How about writing curriculum on a shared Google Document with 4 other colleagues simultaneously within a Google Doc from a chair on the beach with your smartphone or Ipad! You can even quickly review or respond to a shared document from anywhere in our schools with a phone or tablet computer.

Enjoy!

Online Document Management

I have been starting to plan a strategy for online document management for my staff and students. We are implementing a new Wifi network in my district. I plan on creating a guest SSID just as i did in my previous district. I wrote about that in a previous post.

My plan is to allow faculty and students to be able to bring in their own mobile devices. In order for this to be successful I want them to have access to their documents while on and off the network. Setting up the guest SSId for internet only is the easy part. I need to find a solution for accessing documents over the web. This will ensure they will not have to be added to our domain to get to their files.

There are of course a number of options these days. Google Apps for Education, Zoho and other open source document management platforms are available. In the case of Google Apps it is a major change.  My biggest obstacle is that Google Apps uses email as its primary communication and collaboration tool. There are many concerns with providing email accounts to our students. While the details of this are another post it is a noteworthy concern.

Microsoft has recently introduced Office Web Apps. You can access the beta called Microsoft Office Live currently. It provides the ability to access word, powerpoint and excel documents online. You can even share and collaborate on them. I have heard that office 2010 will offer the ability to host this online cloud on your own servers. I am hoping that if hosted authentication can be handled with LDAP.  This might be a solution for us. It is of course a very expensive solution in comparison to Google Apps. The good news is we are already paying for it with our MS volume license.

Here is a quick blurb about MS Office Live.

Office Web Apps, the online companion to Word, Excel®, PowerPoint® and OneNote® applications, allow you to access documents from anywhere. You can even simultaneously share and work on documents with others online. View documents across PCs, mobile phones, and the Web without compromising document fidelity. Create new documents and do basic editing using the familiar Office interface. By offering more ways to access files from almost anywhere, Office Web Apps enable you to get things done according to your schedule.

I will continue to look into an open source solution that we can load onto our servers. If anyone has a recommendation I would love to hear it!