My Take
Google Drive is an essential tool for higher education students. Why? It's free, easy to use, and completely portable through internet access. For students, this product works well because it gives them flexibility in technology - moving from rooms, classrooms, and inability to get to a computer. Secondly, in the composition classroom, this product is fantastic for collaborative editing. In the documents part of Google Drive, the author can "share" with collaborators and invite them to make comments or edit alongside the author. Some of my students aren't quite sold on it, but those who use it can really take advantage of it. Because Drive is internet based, not on a hard drive, it helps eliminate the "my laptop crashed, and I couldn't get my paper in on time" excuse.
Teachers - this is great for teaching! Logistically, I really enjoy using Google Drive because I can move from work laptop, to classroom PC station, and back home without having to remember or use a thumb drive or emailing something to myself. It's a great way to have all of your presentations, documents, and work in one place. Also, I don't believe I taught a course without using Google Drive Presentations (their version of Microsoft Powerpoint). The drawback of Google Drive is that there aren't as many options in terms of style, layout, and themes, as Powerpoint. But, Drive presentations have made it easy to integrate videos, pictures, and charts, so I use them nearly every week in class. Also, it's nice that it's easy to edit them. Another drawback might be that some computers, if they don't have Chrome, won't support Google Drive. Overall, a great tool for preparing and teaching!
For teachers and students, this collaborative is helpful for projects, editing, and composition assignments.
It would be great if those collaborative Drive documents could be used by a whole classroom (i.e. 20 users editing), but it can't handle that amount of people. But, for a teacher and student, or peers working on a project, it works well.
How I Use It
For teachers and students, this collaborative is helpful for projects, editing, and composition assignments. I use this in the writing classroom in higher education because we do a lot of editing, writing, and revising. Students can quickly sign up for a free Google account, if they don't have one. Once they are using Drive, they share some written assignments with the teacher (me), and I can sign into the document and make editing notes during the drafting process. For peer review and workshops, Drive works well because I can assign editing partners (or groups). Then, the student can "share" his or her document while the peer editor can log in to make notes or edit. This really works well in the collaborative writing classroom because it gives us a larger forum of which we can share writing. Drive editing gives both teachers and students more freedom and time to edit, revise, and write as we move through projects. Furthermore, it makes our peer collaborations more effective and efficient which creates more time to work on writing projects.
It would be great if those collaborative Drive documents could be used by a whole classroom (i.e. 20 users editing), but it can't handle that amount of people. But, for a teacher and student, or peers working on a project, it works well.
Overall, Google Drive is surely here to stay, and I highly recommend it for teachers and students.