Emerging IT: Google Docs & Mobile Tech
Day One of our class Emerging Instructional Technology with Dr. Leigh Zeitz. We were honored to have Rob Galloway as our guest instructor. Today served as an introduction to what promises to be a whirlwind tour of Web 2.0. I am going to try and catch as many of the tools mentioned in class this week in a delicious feed and then serve it up on my blog.
Our topics today centered on Mobile Tech and Google Docs.
Google Docs & Mobile Services
Google is amassing an impressive assortment of Web 2.0 tools. Here's a brief overview:
- Google for Educators--a portal for educators wanting to use Google tools in the classroom. Includes suggested learning activities, a educators' community, promotional pieces, and information about the Google Academy.
- Google Docs--an office suite built on Web 2.0. Includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool. While the tools are not as developed as other online office suites (Zoho, for example), Google Docs are simple and built for easy collaboration.
- Google Pages--a tool for simple web pages.
- Google Mobile--a portal for all things Google for the mobile device.
- The Google Android Project--an open source operating system for mobile devices that will challenge Windows Mobile, Palm, etc.
- Goog-411--part of the Google Mobile Suite, Google 411 is a simple way to get information back from Google using voice prompts.
- Google SMS--like Goog-411, Google SMS provides on-the-go information via text messaging.
- Blogger--Google's powerful blogging tool.
- Gmail--Google's mail, calendar, tasks, contact apps.
We also reviewed Twitter today. I've started using Twitter on semi-regular basis, but I'm still not in the habit. It appears the value of Twitter is to follow others throughout their day as thoughts cross their mind. Twitter limits each "tweet" to 146 characters, so there's no need to spend a lot of time crafting your entries. Twitter is for quick bursts of words that will keep your followers up-to-speed on what's happening. You can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/celler.