Tuesday, July 31, 2007

More wth Google Docs and Spreadsheets

In exploring the use of Google Docs and Spreadsheets, I found that if you upload a Microsoft Word document, some of the formatting may be lost. In the following examples I realized that my vocabulary quiz lost some of its spacing, and the text in my text box no longer was nicely spaced out. Also, when I used WordArt on my Social Studies Planning Sheet, it became blurred and almost unreadable.

Vocabulary Quiz
http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dc7xxz27_3hz5qt7&revision=_latest

Social Studies Planning Sheet
http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dc7xxz27_1g767d7&revision=_latest

Along with these examples, here is another link that shows some of the pros and cons of using Google Docs and Spreadsheets:
http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/05/21/google-apps-ready-for-prime-time/


Here is a more thorough explanation through Google about how this can work for educators.
http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs_spreadsheets.html
http://www.infinitethinking.org/stuff/Docs.Spreadsheets.pdf

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

I never know that this particular resource was available through Google. Through Google Docs and Spreadsheets you can create, save, and share word documents and spreadsheets. It is a way for you to save your work without having to put it on the hard drive or another portable device. Once you have created a document, you can choose who can view it, or who can view and edit it.

This would be great for teachers to use because they can save their work anywhere as long as they have the ability to get online. Depending on how certain schools have their networks set up, it may be difficult for them to view certain files. With this program, everything is saved in your Google account for easy access.

My idea of how I could use this with my grade level teammates is that there have been occasions when we need to send each other documents (parent letters, sub plans, etc...) when I find myself saving and emailing these documents as the only way to allow others to access them. Through this program, all they would need to do is login to Google Docs and preadsheets and print, or edit and print the documents.

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/b1.html

You can choose to invite others to view your documents, or they can view and edit. You can also schedule an event where you pick a time and day when everyone can view the document at the same time and see the revisions being made.


Here is an example of a spreadsheet I uploaded from my computer:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pnOoQ8JwAqUuPMbT5jaiKSQ

What is a Blog?

Well, obviously this is a blog, but what does that mean? Wikipedia defines a blog as:

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Blogs can be used for many different purposes. There is one blog in particular I found interesting which was used by a teacher to keep his students and parents aware of important things going on in his class. There are 2 different links below because he had to change which blog provider he was using due to issues with the school filters. I think this is a great example of how to use a blog as a communication tool for teachers.

Most of the post are from the teacher Mr. Monson, but there is at least one post from a teacher giving a general praise comment to Mr. Monson. I think this is a very efficient way of using blogs in the educational setting.

On the Blogmeister site there are also links to student work, which is organized by student name and also by the title of the assignment. I don't know whether these were required assignments for all students. It seems as if some students have many examples, while others don't have any.

Mr. Monson's blog on Blogger
http://monsonclassroom.blogspot.com/

Mr. Monson's blog on Blogmeister
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=59644

Monday, July 16, 2007

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog! I hope you find the information that will soon appear here useful and interesting.