Friday Inspiration - Google For Educators

Happy Friday!  For the weekend, I leave you this...
 

Google for Educators

This is a post from the Educational Technology Guy blog. The thing is, this information will help you regardless of what line of work you are in.  Even fundraising representatives, PTA and PTO parents and principals will get something out of it.  The reason this is so productive for educators and non-educators alike is that many of the google resources available are time-saving, productivity or convenience based software.

To make a long story short, the tools here are cloud-based meaning that you can work on google apps from anywhere and sharing becomes easier.  For instance, Google Docs includes a word processing program but what makes it remarkable is being able to access it from anywhere and the fact that you can share it with others for collaborative writing.

So, that's enough of a setup. Go ahead and take a bit of time to explore the world of Google.

Thanks!

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twitter.com/believekids
elementary school fundraising

 

 

5 Teacher tools - Presentations and Documents for the Classroom

A couple valuable teaching tools for ya!  These are all online websites so, we're talking classroom 2.0 stuff here.

Of course, these can be used for personal 'fun' projects as well as business applications so enjoy!

1) Slideshare - www.SlideShare.com

Online document or pdf viewing tool.  Easily upload entire documents for viewing and downloading.  Free.  Here is the Believe Kids page so you can see what we've created with it:  http://www.slideshare.com/believekids

2) Prezi - www.Prezi.com

Incredibly powerful animation drives this presentation software.  You can create and use online of offline.  Free with premium options.  Although I haven't used it personally, I have seen it in action and it's very cool.

3) Google Docs - docs.google.com 

It's pretty common these days but if for some reason, you're not using google docs, you probably should be and then you can say goodbye to lugging your home laptop in or using a thumb drive every day.  You can collaborate on documents and access them from anywhere you have an internet connection.

4) .docstoc - docstoc.com

 An online storage site for documents.  Not only can you find a lease or other 'real' documents you can download, but you can upload your own!  Free with a way to earn money off documents as well.  Not sure how.

5) Scribd - www.scribd.com

Scribd ties into facebook which appears to make uploading and sharing files pretty easy.  I haven't tried it.  They have tens of millions of readers every month as well as tens of millions of documents online.  Free.