Thing #21 Google's Not Just for Searching Anymore

I played around with the Google applications listed on the 21st things.  Even though I had used some of them before apparently I didn't dig deep enough to discover new things.  Google Book Search has some full texts online you can read.  I did a search for Math and found The Grapes of Math by Greg Tang.  Instead of having to have the book to share with students, my Math teachers can pull this up on Google Book Search and have students work in groups to solve the situations in the book.  They could also use Voicethread to have students post answers to the situations and share thoughts, strategies, and processes with each other.  Teachers could play these voicethreads back in class to assess the understanding of the class.  Our students can use the Google Book Search as anchor activities to read after they complete their work.  This way they won't need to leave the classroom.  They can simply jump online.

Google Earth is fun to play around in.  My son used this site when he went to Philmont Scout Ranch to hike.  He was able to know a great deal about the terrain as he looked around Google Earth to identify hills, mountains, and difficult areas to hike through.  Although they used topographical maps to hike from station to station, the Google Earth application was helpful in getting an overall picture of their hiking area.  My grandchildren use this to discover different places they want to visit all over the world.

I set up 3 alerts in Google Alerts.  I want to know when Mesquite ISD makes the news.  I also want to know when TEA updates anything.  My 3rd alert was about musician Rod Stewart.  If he publishes new music or is in the news, I want to know.  This is a great tool to keep updated on anything.

I'm playing around with Google Calendar.  The jury is still out on this one but I will continue to post appointments there and share it with various family members and colleagues.  It seems simple so I may stick to this calendar instead of the one in my phone.

I've used IGoogle for a while.  I enjoy having a personal homepage that shows me the temp and current time as I am searching for other information.  I'm wondering if I can get my calendar on the front page.  Hmmmm.   Students should be introduced to this site so they can learn all about what it offers.  Perhaps they could type in their homework assignments and projects.

I did post some photos to my Picasa Web Albums but I think I prefer Flickr.  By using the TAGS in this site, you can find a photo of most anything.