Online Productivity Things 16, 17 and 18

The idea of using 'clouds' to store data and having online tools available for most any project is really exciting to me. Always the one to think of the conspiracy theory behind everything I wonder what would happen if the 'cloud' burst and the data of the world starting raining down on all of us. (Yikes! Maybe someone will write a book or make a movie about that one.)

I love Google Docs, I have used it in the past for storing documents so that I can access them from everywhere. I can see how great it will be for sharing and collaborating on projects. Maybe I can get a group working on the 'Cloud Burst' book and we could write the great American novel online.

My favorite productivity tools were 'Remember the Milk' and Library Thing. I have been thinking of upgrading to a smart phone and Remember the Milk would be a great tool for use with a mobile device. I am a list maker and having all my lists in one place would really make life a bit easier. Library Thing is like going to the library in the comfort of your own home. You can search for books, get an idea of what they are about, find out what folks think about it and then decide if you want to read it or not.

Slideshare is like YouTube but with slide shows instead of movies. You can choose to get lost in time looking at slide shows that are just about anything, or you can search for ideas to help with any project you are working on.

I choose to find a slide show that will help all of you who are new to Office 07. Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Microsoft® Office Keyboard Shortcuts

View more presentations from lfish.

Social Bookmarking Things 13, 14 and 15

I love Delicious! What a great way to keep all of my favorite sites bookmarked in one place. Currently I keep all of my favorites backed up to a flash drive so that I can access the different sites I use no matter where I am at. Since I travel to several different buildings during the day this has been the best way for me to handle my bookmarks. Now that I have a Delicious account I can use that space on my flash drive for something else! The other bonus it that I can share informative sites with other Delicious users. It is like using ORCA to access all the district sites for Discovery, Kalpa, Aoesop,and etc, only this is my place for both personal and work related stuff. What a great idea!!!

Building Community Thing 11 and 12

Sharing information online is a great way for others to learn about you and also to get information to an audience.  When someone comments on your thoughts it really validates what you are doing.

Students in Mrs. Kortlandt's publishing class at Crary share their creative works on a classroom blog called, The Graffitti Wall'.  (http://blog.oakland.k12.mi.us/graffitiwall/) Once the class has published their work they are able to read and comment (positive comments only) on each others work.  You can hear a pin drop on the carpet when these 8th graders are in the computer lab, they are so engaged reading the blogs.  Students comment on stories and poems written by other students that they normally would not speak to at school.  The experiance encourages students to keep writing not to mention that they pay really close attention to spelling and grammer when they know that their peers are reading their work.


I chose the Google Widget for my blog, you can use it to access many of the Google options for Internet Research

Hint for those of you who are having trouble embedding objects.  Click on the drop down arrow that says Post Options while you are composing your blog post.  Make sure the 'Use tags' radio button is checked.  This will allow the code for your widget to work when you publish your blog.