Word Processing in the Classroom

This week in class, only five of us were there, but we still had some very meaningful and thoughtful discussions (and good licorice thanks to Bryan:)). We did two major things, looked at different search engines and learned more about Google docs. I found but of these activities to be very applicable to the classroom.
It was very interesting to look at different search engines. You get so used to using just one you wonder why you should try another. I learned that the different search engines may serve different purposes. Google, for example, is the search engine that I use and I was not aware of the function of making your own search engine. This is great for the classroom because then you can somewhat control and filter the information that the kids are looking for. I also discovered askkids.com which is a kid-friendly search engine that I would also feel comfortable using with my class. In fact, I used it the next day with a student who was looking for images.
As far as Google docs goes, I think that it is a great tool for the kids to know about since it is free, accessible from home and school, has a presentation feature, and can have multiple users. However, one draw back for my level of students is that it is written in HTML and there is no tab. I have to teach them the proper rules of word processing a paragraph and that is a major one. Our district has been looking at new word processing programs for elementary and it would be a HUGE cost saver to just use Google docs.