Thing 11: Online Productivity Applications

• I have had a Google account for the past couple of years. Over time, I have increased how I am using the tool for different tasks with colleagues. We have heavily relied on the Google docs as a way to create, store and share information and materials between the different Curriculum Crafter groups (administrators, consultants, manger, helpdesk, administrative assistant, programmer and sales people). Using Google docs allows your shared documents to be available at your fingertips, but more importantly we can collaborate on the materials within the documents and updates are automatically completed. These tools are great time savers. If you’re not using Google docs, make sure to start today.
• I signed up and reviewed the Zoho Writer. At this point many of its features are similar to Google documents, so I will continue to explore additional ways to promote these tools as options for both within Kent ISD as well as with teacher leaders throughout the county.
• Overall the beauty of the online Google Docs is that it doesn’t matter from which computer you work you can access and add/edit the information housed here. This helps ensure that you have the right “copy” at all times and will cut down on the “revision #34” documents taking up space on the computer. This is also a huge benefit for students who don’t have a computer at home. Google documents allow all your content to remain in one spot and you can work on it from any computer and at any time. Google Docs Rock!!