Thing #7

The first Google Tool that I explored was Google docs. I uploaded my LLLS 6231 midterm presentation and published it so that it would be public. I embedded the presentation above. I think that Google docs has great potential for the education community. It has collaboration written all over it. You can tell though that they are still developing the platform. I noticed that when I uploaded my presentation there were some formatting differences in the final Google product even though my file was in .ppt format like they requested. Overall though it's a highly productive tool to utilize for creating and sharing projects.

The second thing I explored in Google was Google calendar. My husband has been encouraging me to explore this tool, so I thought this was as good a time a ever. I created up a personal calendar, imported all of my calendar information from outlook, "shared" it with my husband so that he can see my schedule, and set it to sync with my iphone so that I now have one seamless calendar! I am so excited. I decided to not make my calendar public, so you won't find a link here, but I would definitely suggest you explore how to create your own calendar at Google calendar if you haven't already. Teachers could use Google calendar in their classroom to set up a class schedule for both parents and students to access from home. Homework, projects, reminders, and current studies could all be listed in this central place. A librarian could create a calendar for the school to use for scheduling time in the library. The centralized/shared calendar would allow teachers to independently see when the library is available and schedule what time they would like to come. Collaborative units could also be placed on the calendar so that everyone in the school can all the great ways in which the librarian is collaborating with teachers!