Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Google online applications

Everyone knows about the famous Google search engine, but did you know there is a complete suite of Google products that are available for the everyday user?

The applications include
  • communication tools (Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar),
  • productivity tools (Google Docs: text files, spreadsheets, and presentations),
  • a customizable start page (iGoogle), and
  • Google Sites (to develop web pages).

Google stores all of the files and content centrally and keeps a record of the different versions of a file.

With Google Apps, sharing content is as simple as granting someone access, which facilitates collaboration, peer review of academic materials, and the collective generation of knowledge.
This is a great way to share files and information if your files are not on a shared network

Check out the full list of Google products and services.

Google Docs

Free online word processing is now available allowing people to create and store word documents and spreadsheets online so that they will always be available wherever there is a computer with internet access. Google Docs is one such program.

An example of using Google Docs can be found at
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3EjGU7c772QwhbJidHLmRw

This spreadsheet ( a tracking log for the Learning 2.0 program)was produced on Google Docs. It is a basic excel spreadsheet. It can be edited by selected people (using a user name and password)
However it can also be published. Once publishe it is assigned a html link. Everytime the spreadsheet is updated, the link is automatically updated also.
No network access is required to share the file; just a shared login.

Resources

Tour of Google Docs and Spreadsheets - the official tour of Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Workshop activity

Go to Google Docs, login and create a new document.
Save the document and return to the homepage of Google Docs.
Create a spreadsheet.

Google Maps

Resources

Tour of Google Maps – the official tour of Google Maps
Information on Google

Task

Go to Google Maps Australia and find the following:
-your place of work
-your home

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