Instructify

BY KEVIN HODGSON

I often have to remind myself not to put all of my digital eggs in one basket. I think about this just about every time I open up Gmail, then check Google Reader before moving over to my Google Docs to write something. That’s a lot of Google in my life. If Google falls apart, so do I. So I am often on the lookout for sites that could supplement my Google-rich writing environment, either for my personal use or for school use. Crocodoc is an alternative to Google Docs that seems to have a lot of the same features, particularly around collaboration and storing of documents online that can be easily accessible from just about any computer.

I set up an account within minutes and uploaded a Word document as a collaborative test. (You can add your thoughts to my document, if you want, by accessing it here.) The interface is very similar to Google Docs, with easy-to-understand buttons for sharing, embedding, and more. Collaborators can add comments, write in the original document (where revisions are saved), and even add a drawing element.

There is both a free version and a paid version, which gives you some advanced functionality but nothing that is worth the annual fee, in my opinion.

In the Classroom

Crocodoc is a viable alternative to Google Docs for cloud computing, storing of student writing, and collaborative projects. A teacher might have to set up a classroom account if students don’t have email (like at my school), or students with their own email could set up their own document sites within Crocodoc (adding the teacher as a collaborator).

Crocodoc

Related stuff

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