Thing # 7: Google Tools

Wow! I really didn't think it would work. I'm so surprised. I created a Google doc (a spreadsheet) and saved it, using my new Google account. By using the URL, I searched for it on the Web. It came right up exactly as I saved it. Amazing. You all can access it using the following URL also:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=thOnXf22E87C40x71rE8d1w

This is such a great tool for the classroom. If students want to share original work, including pictures from Flickr, for example, they can make them public as easily as I did. And with the URL, anyone in the class can access the information. Incredible. This means every student in a class of 20 could view and even print the work of 19 other students before or after the work is completed. This would give those reluctant learners a real push to try, since there would be examples to learn from. It's like in my kindergarten class where I would always have a finished product for the students to look at so that they didn't have to ask a bunch of times what to do. It would work for older children as well. Great teaching tool, and so easy!

I also looked at the Google alerts. You can make an alert by giving Google a term(s) to keep an eye out for you. The type of alert could be for it to look for Web sites, videos, groups, blogs, news or a comprehensive one of all of these. You can also specify how often you would like to receive alerts: 1X per day, 1X per week, as it happens, or by e-mail. This is great to keep track of a news story, competitor or industry, celebrities or events, and sports team performances. Students would love this for fun things like celebrities or clothing or sales at stores. And they would not have to go searching on the Web for them. That leaves more time for texting, I guess :) I know I will definitely use it for fun things. But, also, if I'm planning a lesson that requires a theme, I could set up an alert for this. And I could just sit back and get e-mails instead of searching for hours.