Google Docs

I think Google Docs will save a lot of my nerves in the future. Up till now I saved all my work on a memory stick because I usually do my prep partly at school and partly at home so I use two different computers. In the process I often had to do some extra work such as converting .docx files to .doc and vice versa because of 2 different versions of Microsoft Office. Also I try to make worksheets fun and colorful so I use different fonts only to find out that I don't have the fonts I used on my home computer installed on the school laptop. Docs should change all this for me.

As a language teacher the most obvious way I can use Docs is for writing assignments. I can comment on student's work from the very first draft they make and help them structure their work better. After the assignment is finished we can go back to the mistakes they made and see how did they correct them. This walking trough steps they took can help them memorize the dos and don'ts much better then simply looking at the final version of their work in notebooks.

Working on end of the unit projects sometimes requires my students to go back to what we learned by rereading. Instead of going trough different books it would be much easier for them to create a Google doc and write down information that they find important and when time comes just go trough what they wrote.

One more thing I can use Docs for is collaboration with other language teachers. During team meetings we often take notes so we all come up with different versions of the same texts. This way we can put all of our notes at the same place and make it available to all of us right away.

Gmail vs. Other emails

Before I start sharing my impressions about Gmail I must say that people who use it tend to go around telling other people that it is the greatest and possibly the only true way one can exchange digital messages. A couple of times I felt quite pressured to open a gmail account. Up till now I managed to avoid creating one but with 1:1 Program my time ran out.

Here are a few features that I - now a proud owner of Gmail account like so far. It is pretty plain and therefor easy to use. The chat application works better then the one Yahoo offers. It automatically keeps addresses that you've emailed on your contact list whereas Yahoo asks whether or not you want to add them. It allows dividing contacts into groups. Task reminder application can also come in handy although I don't see me using it very often. (Long live sticky notes!)

I think this is it for now but I am meticulously exploring and hoping for all my friends sake (the ones mentioned in the first paragraph) that it will live up to it's reputation.