Google Docs: More Than Enabler of Student Messages via Its Comments Function
June 8, 2020
Teachers are often befuddled by their students. Google Docs makes it possible for students to use the comments features to exchange interesting messages. When an adult approaches, a click makes the content disappear. Great for students, not so good for some teachers and parents.
“How Google Docs Became the Social Media of the Resistance” explains what may be another facet of the Googlers’ code Byzantium. Google is ubiquitous and most people don’t think too much or too long about the implications of collaborative tools for word processing and Excel-like software.
Boring, right?
The write up explains:
… Google Docs has emerged as a way to share everything from lists of books on racism to templates for letters to family members and representatives to lists of funds and resources that are accepting donations. Shared Google Docs that anyone can view and anyone can edit, anonymously, have become a valuable tool for grassroots organizing during both the coronavirus pandemic and the police brutality protests sweeping the US. It’s not the first time. In fact, activists and campaigners have been using the word processing software for years as a more efficient and accessible protest tool than either Facebook or Twitter.
Let’s assume that the article is accurate. Will Google take some action to control what its “users” do with its Microsoft Office clone? WWGD (what will Google do) is a new company watching sport. DarkCyber believes that it may become more interesting than bird watching.
Is information stored on Google Docs accessible for monitoring? Maybe Google is not responsible for what is users do? Hmmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, June 8, 2020
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