Google Ideas

Google Docs

www.docs.google.com
There are a number of ways to use Google Docs in your classroom. The nice thing about Google Docs is that it can be interactive and allows students to collaborate on a piece of writing since more than one person can be editing a document at one time. You could do writing projects as a class, pairs or individually.
Some ideas I have used in my classroom include:

Writing prompts for journal entries - click here see a document a few of my colleagues and I created with all of the ELA 10 curricular questions as well as using Blooms Taxonomy for leveled writing. I used this in my classroom by choosing a prompt about once a week or sometimes two that dealt with the part of the unit we were working on so that it fit in with the literature. Many of them are creative so students do not get so bored, but also these prompts serve well for deeper understanding. I would have students write their journal entries on the computer with Google Docs, then either publish them to a wiki or blog - maybe even their own so they have a collection of writing. The other thing they could do is just directly email their responses to you so you have a paperless journal response system - as long as you are not marking them every time then it is nice to be able to read from home.
Collaborative group freewriting - I once had a university professor who taught my group of classmates the art of freewriting. It is such a unique tool to bring out in a classroom because it gives students a chance to expand their thinking. It is not easy to pick up where others leave off and so it is something you may want to work on but I've done this in a couple of ways....you could have students write on your computer as you're hooked up to the SMARTboard or projector so that the class can see it progress, or you could have one computer logged in and students sit down at the computer to continue on where another left off and so on (this way you could still be doing some other work), or you could have them do a short story in partners with both logged into the document at the same time. It is just a neat idea and something that is a bit out of the ordinary from everyday writing. The most fun thing about this assignment is the reaction when you read it aloud at the end of the class!
Essays - Google Docs make essay writing and editing a whole lot simpler when students write essays and have you added to share the document. This way when they need you to or at any point really, you could just plug into their document and edit away or give some notes or pointers. It also ensures that students are not plagiarizing as easily when you are constantly checking up on them (or at least they think you are). :-) It is always nice to be able to sit down with your computer and read at home instead of bringing home a 5-6 page essay for 25 students - quite the heavy bag to take home.