Activity 8 iGoogle

This was the first time I have actually taken the time to have a good look at iGoogle. It has some interesting widgets to put onto your homepage - a lot of time could be wasted I think just searching through everything. I also found some widgets interesting tho such as having the weather radar and news updating regularly. Could be useful for a quick look during the day. The games could also be fun. iGoogle is very simple to use and I do like the fact you can customise it to whatever you want and update it with ease.

Activity 7 Google Books

An interesting Google tool that I guess over time will continue to be developed. Allows you to view many books online and gives you a summary of different books. Some I believe you have to purchase while others are free and can be viewed on line. I think this is a tool that will become increaingly important as its developed and as e books are used more and more.

Activity 6 Goolge Maps

This is an application I have used in the past on both a personal and professional level. I have used it to organise holidays and to find directions to certain destinations and also as a teaching tool when looking at certain aspects in SOSE lessons. I have always found the students have enjoyed using this application and can get carried away looking for many different places. Thae part I find most interesting is how you can add places to the maps of interest to you to help with finding directions. This is an application that I would like to use more in my teaching however sometimes fail to do so due to time restrictions. A better effort will be made again after loooking at it and being reminded of just how powerful it is.

Activity 5 Google Docs

Wow! I sat down with a group of colleagues and had a look at Goolge Docs. We played around with different templates and editing each others work. I was surprised with how easy this was and how you could see what each other had changed. I can really see the practical uses for this in Education. I could see it being used for planning documents when ocllaboratively planning with colleagues as it would ensure everyone always has an up to date version as well as a collaboration tool for students to use during group work. It definitely beats emailing new versions backwards and forwards. Thumbs up for this application!