Google Web Tools Making Homework Easier

After he split with his wife, Gregg La Montagne found it hard to help his fifteen-year-old daughter with her schoolwork because she lives in another state. For her recent Spanish class, La Montagne told her to compose her assignment in an online word-processing application made by Google Inc.

La Montagne, a sales manager in Austin, then visited his daughter's homework online, using the same web tool through his home Internet. A native Spanish speaker, La Montagne was then able to offer grammar changes, which he put in at the bottom of his daughter's work. His girl, who was online at the same time, was able to view her father's corrections in an instant as her screen refreshed, and then make the changes for him to see.

"It makes it easier to participate," says La Montagne, 50. "It's not the same as being with her, but it's at least a step in that direction."

La Montagne is one of an increasing number of parents using Web tools to review and aid their children's educational work. Google Docs & Spreadsheets, which La Montagne used, gives word processing and spreadsheets that a consumer can access using just a Web browser.

Such Web tools are part of a broad move toward hosted Web applications, where software and documents are accessed over the Web rather than stored on a hard drive. (In the case of Google Docs, for instance, the files are stored with Google.) Many of these tools are free and allow multiple users to access and edit documents simultaneously.

"Teachers have started to see the benefits of bringing online tools into their classrooms to engage their students," says Jonathan Rochelle, product manager for Docs & Spreadsheets at Google.

"We've seen examples of teachers using Docs & Spreadsheets to manage their own information like grades and assignments as well as new ways to provide feedback to student essays and tests," he says.

Google Web tools are a great way for multiple Users to access a document.

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