Tuesday, July 2, 2013

WatchDoc Extension for Drive

Today marks the third Google workshops offered to the staff this summer to learn the Google Apps for Education Essentials.  I have done the first three of the series with the help of the Tech Team  and really enjoyed working with people and seeing the excitement that is coming from all of the "ah-ha" moments.  I have tried to share unique ideas at each of these events and then to be sure they are on the Google+ feed and or blogged about.
Extensions in Google are like little additions to the Chrome Browser that allow Chrome to do something special that it couldn't otherwise do as easily.  We have looked at VideoNotes Extension in a previous post. A new one I just read about that might be really helpful for teachers is called WatchDoc. This extension will keep an eye on the docs in your Google Drive and alert you to any changes in the document that someone else makes.  The extension loads an icon in the toolbar area of Chrome and then when there is a change to a document a small red number appears indicating how many changes to your shared documents have been made.  Click on the icon and a small popup window appears showing you the document title, person who changed the document and when the change was made.  This would be a super time saver if you are collaborating or keeping an eye on progress.  Clicking on the icon clears the notifications.  How easy!