After playing with many applications in Office Suites, I must say that I am very partial to Google Docs. I have previously used Google Docs and even did my Screencast assignment on using Google Docs, but I still really think it is one of the most useful applications in the Office Suites program. My school district uses Gmail as our email provider, and Google Docs is part of that program package, so it is widely used in our district. Maybe I am more partial to this program because I am more familiar with it and am pretty good at using it, but I truly do see its great benefits and can say that it is very user friendly. I use Google Docs at school AND for personal use, too. I think there are some great features that are used within Google Docs. If you are not familiar with Google Docs and you are interested in finding out more, I encourage you to watch this shirt tutorial video, “Google Docs in Plain English,” which is posted on the Internet. I also inserted this in my screencast as part of my video. If you are interested please watch the video at: http://vodpod.com/watch/240934-google-docs-in-plain-english. By using Google Docs, it simplifies and organizes all the emails and documents you want to send and receive into one document, rather than sending multiple copies all over the place. It also organizes it into one email, with all the responses being sent back and forth throughout the same individual email. HIGHLY recommend using Google Docs in both work and/or home settings. After learning about it through my school district and playing with all the wonderful features, I even became a Gmail user mainly for being able to use Google Docs. It makes it easier to send documents to and from work after finding and creating things on my own personal computer. It is a great program that really does simplify things!
I also played with all of the image editing tools, and very much liked them all. I did however seem to gravitate more toward Picnik. I now have it saved as a favorite on my home computer….and will most do the same thing at school, too! There are so many editing tools that you can use with your pictures in this program. They are super fun to play with and create “new” pictures out of existing ones. For example, I had a couple pictures of my cat saved on my computer. I simply uploaded a couple and while playing around with the tools in the Picnik program I have created some pretty funny pictures of my cat that I am going to use on a Christmas Card this year. I know, he is a cat, but I have no children, so he is like my “fur-child.” My favorite picture is displayed below…I was able to add a hat, Rudolph red nose, and crop the picture to the size I wanted. There are so many other features to use, too. I actually put a white beard on Cozmo while playing and it was HILARIOUS, but I didn’t save it on the photo for my card. I am actually going to try using this with my third graders in the future. We are not quite to that point yet, but we will be shortly after returning from Christmas break. We need to get through the last couple lessons of Word and PowerPoint before moving on to this. I am going to have the kids find a picture from the Internet (Google images most likely) of some sort of animal, etc., then we are going to learn how to upload and “play with” adding funny features to our pictures. We will end by printing them and displaying on one of the tack strips in the hallway by the computer lab. I am excited to see what the kids come up with. I highly recommend using Picnik for any use, whether it may be school or home!
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