As more and more laptops find their way into middle and high schools, educators are using Google Docs to do collaborative exercises and help students follow along with the lesson plan. The students, however, are using it to organize running conversations behind teachers’ backs.
Meh. Actually, as more and more teachers disallow phones and school IT administrators block access to Snapchat, Instagram, Tiktok, and other popular social media, students are leveraging the tools at their disposal to not pay attention.
And bonus: it includes ways to hide the conversation by making it look legit!
They’ll clone a teacher’s shared Google document, then chat in the comments, so it appears to the casual viewer that they’re just making notes on the lesson plan. If a teacher approaches to take a closer look, they can click the Resolve button, and the entire thread will disappear.
It kind of reminds me of how the US general was using a free email service to converse with his reporter mistress by composing emails that were not sent.
Polymath Parent 