Thing #7: Google Tools

Google Advanced Search: I wish I had known about this tool a long time ago. There have been times I've looked for existing powerpoints on the web and wasn't very successful because searching for "math powerpoints" or something of that nature would ultimately bring up Microsoft's help page with tutorials on how to make a powerpoint, not even close to what I was hoping for. I did an experiment to compare Google Advanced Search and Google Scholar. I search for articles and documents on teen issues. With Google Advanced Search, I was able to limit it to pdf files. Surprisingly, Google Scholar doesn't have that option, or if it does, it's hidden and not easy to find. As Dr. Bishop said last night, July 24, 2009, "convenience over quality first." While Google Scholar offers quality it doesn't offer as much convenience for research as Google Advanced Search.
Google Docs: I may have heard of Google Docs before, but until I tried it I didn't really know exactly what it was. I just thought it was a way to take documents you had already made on your computer and upload them to the web. I didn't know you could actually make documents online. While it's very basic and runs a bit slow, I think it could have some application in a classroom environment. Any groups with three or more members required to produce a digital product such as an powerpoint or other document for a project typically resorts to emailing the document back and forth. They might also hand off the creation of the document to one person as it's just not practical to expect large groups to contribute equally to a project in any matter that can be called efficient. This would allow teachers to assign projects where groups contain 3 or 4 students and expect contributions from each member on the digital project in a slightly more efficient manner than passing a file back and forth between the group members.