Thursday, July 17, 2008

Item 18 Online Productivity Tools

I explored Google Docs. It surprised me to realize I have been using a form of Google Docs for over two years. In HISD, librarians can select promotional copies of books and keep them for their library if they write a book review/preview. The book previews are posted online in an Excel like chart. I have posted close to eighty such reviews online using a Google account and one of the free online Google Doc services. So that's one good use for an online tool - other people can have access to the document.
I also explored the picasa program. I had 11 pictures in there that I didn't remember placing there. That was kind of interesting. I like the fact that you can embed a slideshow into your blog or some other web page. That sounds like a good feature to use at some future point. Picasa also allows for one free MB of picture storage (enough for 4,000 standard photos).
Google Docs included the Reader service (I looked over what articles had been pulled for me but online news gathering will never be my first choice). I thought the Map service was kind of fun but you can find similar products from many other sources. Of course, the price of Google Docs is very good. All teachers like FREE. I don't know that there are that many services here I would use, mostly because I'm already using some other software to do the same thing or because I don't have a real need for that service. Still, it's good to know what is out there.

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