I've heard people talk about Google Docs recently and was excited to try it out myself. I began by setting up an account and watching a tutorial on youtube. Then, I selected the presentation feature and got started. I just put a little text on to try things out and decided to see if I could incorporate photos from flickr. I was surprised at how easily I was able to search for photos and simply drag them onto my project. After some searching, I was not able to locate the information to cite the photos I selected. I know it must be there, but couldn't find it. From there, I wanted to email it to my home address to see how that would go, so I set that up in sharing and will see if I can open and change it on our PC. I was also able to embed the slides into by blog very easily.
My students will begin working on group projects soon, and I think Google Docs will be very convenient. In the past, we've had difficulty opening Mac documents on their PC's, so many students have learned to move their work on a thumb drive. Using Google Docs will be much more convenient and allow each member of the team to edit the project as it's created. I really like the ability to create a presentation right there, although it's not as fancy as the Keynotes they've been making this year. I think my students are really going to enjoy using Google Docs.
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Like you, I think some of the biggest benefits of Google Docs is that it is easy to use and easily accessible. One of the drawbacks though, at least for me, is that in my experience I didnt find Google Docs to facilitate real COLLABORATION, like I thought it would. Granted, Google Docs allows for multiple people to contribute to the same document, but, with the exception of the "spreadsheet" feature, there is no way for group members to communicate in real time during the collaborative process. In other words, while EVERYONE can contribute to a document at the same time, Google Docs does not provide a discussion forum (like Instant Messenger) so the group members can share thoughts/ideas. Of course, if your class is in the computer lab, they can simply verbally communicate with each other.
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