Thing #18

Thing #18: Online Productivity Tools

I downloaded and installed Open Office, and I think it's terrific that a full set of Microsoft-clone writing and spreadsheet programs are available for free. Schools and students without a surplus of resources can use these programs to do schoolwork and promote computer literacy and office skills. It really levels the playing field.

But - and I don't mean to keep harping on the same string here - Google Docs (which we explored in Thing #7) are also free, and better suited for collaborative research because they're accessible to any computer, at a school lab or the library. For the same reason, they're better suited for those without easy access to computers.

So, in short, Google Docs, the wave of the future.

Thing #16

Thing #16: Wikis

I've used Wikipedia a lot and am familiar with the general wiki concept, but I thought the video did an excellent job of explaining it.

How might wikis be used in the classroom? Well, I don't want to rain on the wikiparade, here, but - from a purely practical standpoint - I don't see any difference between creating a wiki and creating a Google Document for collaborative research.

Of course I could be missing something. I'm not very bright.

Thing #7

Thing #7: Cool Google Tools

Google Maps is the best. True dat! Double true!

I already have an iGoogle page set up. I get the weather and news feeds on it, as well as word of the day and random quote of the day.

I looked through Picasa, but didn't see that it has any obvious advantage over Flickr.

I set up a Google Calendar. Right now I have mundane quotidian tasks on it, but I may use it during the upcoming school year. After creating it, I embedded it in my iGoogle page.

The find I'm intrigued by most is Google Docs. Having a text, drawing, or presentation (the program seems to be a kind of low-battery PowerPoint) independent of any one PC, and available wherever there's an Internet connection available, can be invaluable! It is true that at our school we have an intranet of teacher files, so (for example) a substitute can access an absent teacher's saved document, but this goes beyond the school building itself.

Here is a worthless web document I made to start. (The option to let others edit the document implies a host of learning and creative opportunities. It appears to me to be the perfect medium, for example, for older kids to create an ongoing and collaborative text.)