Tool # 4

I have been a fan of Google Tools since the beginning. I used it in my Master's Program to work with my classmates to work on our papers. It allows multiple users to view and collaborate at the same time. I think this would be a great tool to use in my class when students want to work on a project together and can do it anywhere with internet access-home, library, or their apartment computer center. The students can chat while working on it, they can edit and view the ongoing project. I've used Google Docs for wedding planning, editing papers, preparing for a presentation and the tools have improved and gotten better! Anything that can be accessible at all times through the internet is very powerful for students! I also encourage my UHD students to use Google Docs. Emailing back and forth projects/papers are cumbersome and hard to keep up with the most updated. Google Docs is just easier to get updated and revised work. Google Docs remembers all the steps, editing, and revising that occured and documents who does the work. Teachers can definitely keep track of what is going on in each group work.

As for the reader, I've personally subscribed to lots of Recipe sites/blogs. I constantly get updated information without even having to search on my own. I just have to log in my Google Reader and it's all there! I think this would be great for students who are doing research on a specific topic. They can get on and subscribe to sites that will lend them good sources. I think that with the information of each site/blog showing how many users allow students to make good choices on which seems reliable. Independent study is becoming an ideal way to use for differentiation and Google Reader can make this happen! And not only do they find good information, they can share it with their classmates with a click of a button!