Thing #18- Online Productivity Tools

Hmmm. How is it that anyone would offer something like OpenOffice for free? I don't see advertising or anything. I did see that they have contributors like Novell, IBM, and Google, and some others that I do not recognize.

Anyway, I didn't download OpenOffice, since I am not really sure how much room I can spare right now on my computer. I never said that I really knew what I was doing with this machine...food for thought and for self-improvement. I did look at the things that OpenOffice has to offer. It seems that it is a free version similar to Microsoft Office, and that you can even make your documents compatible to Office. What makes it different is that you "participate" by joining the community and suggesting things to make this product more tailored to suit what the users might want. Interesting that they call it both a "product" and a "project." Witness again this global pooling and contributing. I can see that it would be great for someone who did not want to spend the money for Microsoft Office, or for the student whose parents can only afford the bare bones, not the expensive software. A good way for more students to have access to Office type software and applications.

The more I think about and explore Google Documents, the more I like it. It occurs to me that not only can I create documents either to share or to make public, but I can store things that I am working on right there online, where they will be accessible from anywhere, at anytime, from any computer, without my little USB storage thing. Heck, I wouldn't even have to have my own computer with me. Ever since I have been able to make one of my documents link properly for access from a hot link on my blog, I have been sort of excited. Banner day at Blog a la Lundquist.

Thing #7 Revisited- Victory is mine!!

Finally, I have gotten my google document and google notebook links to go where I want. Before, it took you to the sign in, and you had to have a password. Now I am public, and the information can be viewed, not edited. Yes! Strangely satisfying.

Thing #7- Google Cool Tools

Google Notebook was interesting, and I can see how it might be useful. You can create different notebooks for different purposes. The one that I have started would allow my students to go to the notebook and search for information on particular composers from sites that I have chosen. In my music class, I could have different notebooks featuring composers, instruments, orchestra, or any other elements that we are studying, with links in each notebook, and comments about what types of information they can find at each link.


It took a while to figure out some of this, but here it is:

Composer Notebook

Now for the Google Documents...this is useful if I do a choir blog at school. I have posted the sign-up form for those who lose the first paper (not that that ever happens!). The next thing that I will need to figure out is how to do a sort of sidebar thing where I can post the Composer Notebook, any other useful notebooks, links, documents that might be needed, etc. This is really a lot to figure out, and it seems to take a lot of trial and error. For what it's worth, here is my Google Document:

Sawdust Singers Sign-Up Form


One problem...I can get it to link, but I can't seem to get these things to share, so when a person clicks on the link, what they get is my sign-in. Can't seem to figure this one out. Help!! I'll move on, and inspiration, or information, may strike!