Google Drive and Google Docs - Creating Convenient Collaboration

    More and more, I'm being won over by the features offered by Google apps.  This week I learned much more about two apps that were slightly familiar to me: Google Drive and Google Docs.  Honestly, while I previously knew of their existence, I didn't utilize them in any way.  I knew that I somehow had a lot of random items in my Google Drive, but I didn't know how they got there, why I'd ever want to access them again, and why I was sometimes unable to delete them.    I had seen documents in Google Docs, but I didn't know why someone would use that app as opposed to Microsoft Word.  What I've learned this week has changed the way I view these apps and will change the way I do work in the future.  

    I really like that with Google Drive you have the ability to access and edit your files from anywhere, whether from another computer or even a mobile phone.  You can organize files within Drive not only for yourself, but for another person or a group.  This will be so convenient when I need to collaborate with classmates or with clients.  I envision working with my financial coaching clients and creating folders for them that contain their budgets, educational materials I want to share with them, forms I need them to fill out, goal trackers, and editable money maps and budget spreadsheets for them to keep updated weekly so they can show me what's going on with their money as each month progresses.  This will enable so much more collaboration and involvement with clients throughout the month and will let me streamline coaching sessions by being able to review their numbers beforehand.  

    As with Google Drive, I am happy that with Google Docs I can work on my documents from any device when I'm away from home, rather than having to bring my laptop.  The Templates are interesting to me, and I'm looking forward to exploring them more.  What I really enjoy is the ability to save versions of your documents, and especially the ability to make suggestions and comments on a document.  That feature really would have helped when I was homeschooling my daughter and was reading over and editing her papers.  I can see these features as being a benefit when working collaboratively with other students on papers, perhaps where each student has a section to write.  

    All in all, I'm excited to continue exploring the collaborative possibilities within these apps.  While I will always love physical documents and face-to-face, connected collaboration, I'm seeing the need to embrace emerging technologies as a way to provide services and organize information in an increasingly digital world.  Surprisingly, I'm finding that I am even beginning to enjoy and appreciate the increased efficiency and speed these technologies provide.