Google Tools

Google tools are ever expanding and continue to make life easier for those that are always online. Google has created many tools that make creating, collaborating, sharing and reading information easier than ever before. Some of the more popular tools are Google Docs, Sites, Reader, Forms, and Blogger. Each of these tools can be used for personal needs or for the needs of your profession.

Google Docs is exactly what it sounds like. It is a one stop way to create text documents, presentations, and spreadsheets all through “cloud” computing. This means that these documents can be taken anywhere and can be accessed at any point as long as you have access to a computer and internet (there is no requirement to purchase expensive software like Microsoft Office). Like any product there are advantages and disadvantages. One advantage has already been mentioned; your docs can be accessed anywhere you can find internet access and with many of the newer smartphones you can even view, create and edit docs without a computer. Another huge advantage is the collaboration aspect. After creating a doc, you can share it with multiple users who can all edit and resave in real time without having to email back and forth. This means that colleagues in different parts of an office or different parts of the world can work together on a project and instantly have the newest version of the document. One of the problems, as you may expect, is that if there is no internet access, there is no document to edit or print. Google Docs is quickly becoming a great resource for group projects because students can work on their own time and put the information together when they are available.

Another nice Google tool is Sites. Sites allows individuals to create free websites that can actually be customized quite a bit to make them their own. The user begins with a template and builds the site with all the information they need to share. Students can work collaboratively on sites and share them with friends, teachers or the entire world when finished. Like Google Docs, Sites allows users to specify who can edit the website and allows multiple students to work together to create a final piece of work.

Google Reader is a nice feature that allows users to compile all of their favorite news feeds and blogs into one spot so they can always have the most up to date information. Fitting into this category is Google Blogger which actually allows users to create their own blog. For school, this could be used as a weekly or daily blog about what they are learning, or could be used as an online journal for personal use. Users can invite others to post on the blog site and can also follow other blogs through Reader.

The final tool that Google has developed that can be quite useful in the education world is Forms. Forms is part of Docs but allows users to create forms which can be used for surveys. Google will automatically compile the results from the form and create a report that shows the responses.

With the ever increasing want and need for collaboration and integration of technology, Google has developed some very nice tools that make it extremely easy to work together without having to be together. The best part of all of these services is that they are a free included feature of having a Google account.