Okay, first I must say that I finally have the hang of this reader thing. I can’t believe how easy it is, and I can’t believe I didn’t use this when I used blogger with my students. I was working waaaaaay too hard to keep track of the little buggers online. Ahhh…hindsight is always 20/20. I am now itching to try this out again with my students with a blog or a wiki.
As I surfed through all the amazing pieces of information, including catching up on “All Things Considered” from NPR, I couldn’t help myself but to be drawn to all things Google. Google docs, Google earth, Google gmail, Google, Google, Google. Wow, what a giant!
Google Docs can revolutionalize how students collaborate on the revisioning and editing of a piece of writing. I checked out the professional development tips from Technology Learning, only to find easy tips on how to use the docs feature of Google, as well as some wonderful links to other resources, including a posting on “Why I Love Google Docs“. Of course, I couldn’t really buy into what the previous blogger had to say, as she had numerous spelling and grammar errors throughout her blog. This is actually a good learning opportunity with students, showing them how bloggers gain your trust and respect when your words are crafted with care.
The blog Infinite Thinking Machine featured a blog post on “Google Apps for Your Domain in Education”. This piece of information is especially interesting for schools who are trying to cut their tech budgets, but still offer some of the most cutting-edge communication tools out there, all the while using your school’s domain. It is interesting how the school district rolled out the Google applications and helped the staff and students learn the ropes.
As if that isn’t cool enough, I had the opportunity to see a video of the Google Doodle Artist himself. The blog Infinite Thinking Machine posted an announcement that students can enter a contest for their best Google doodle. The video shows how Dennis Hwong draws all the doodles on a graphics tablet. The video is edited in such as way that it speeds up the process visually, making the art look so simple and yet inspiring. I am going to keep my eye on the Google folks. They really are leading us into the future with simple, efficient, and timely 2.0 tools.
I agree that Google has so many amazing features especially the docs. Do you think teachers will “buy” into using Google Docs rather than logging onto the terminal server? Could docs eliminate frustrations or would it create more?
I think the possibilities of Google Docs is awesome. I can see students collaboarting and peer editing, as well as working on group projects without having to go through the extra step of a terminal server or using email. It’s like an electronic diary that everyone has the keys to, so they can add their own thoughts. As for teachers, well, I think if they are used to managing their whole set of folders and personal desktop from home via terminal server, they aren’t going to want to give that up; however, if they do not know any better, maybe it’s a good way to go. It can certainly save a school the budget of investing into a terminal server, not to mention the time in managing of it on a regular basis.