Online Applications

I tried a few of the applications listed. I really liked Google Documents. My husband has been talking about this for a while and I just hadn't tried it, but I will definitely use it in the future. He created a table to track his gas mileage and likes that he can access it anywhere. I like Microsoft Office, but you have to save whatever you've created to some sort of hardware and take it with you. However, I like that with Google Documents you can access the document that you created anywhere there is an internet connection. This is just as helpful as the delicious bookmarking site in the sense that it is saved online and not on a specific computer.

I also tried the photo-editing sites Picnik and Fotoflexer. Both were very easy to use, but Fotoflexer had a lot more options to adjust your photo. I thought the scrunching and pulling different areas on the photo were hilarious!

I would definiteley recommend using Google Documents as a viable alternative to Microsoft Office. I plan to use it myself so I don't have to keep saving things to my USB Drive and then bringing it to school to access those same files. Obviously, if you don't have an internet connection, this site won't have your documents handy like a USB Drive would.

I'm not sure I would have students use a photo-editing site. I could imagine students getting carried away with editing photos way beyond what was necessary. However, if I taught an art class that used Photoshop, I would probably recommend using Fotoflexer to do some of the same applications. I would recommend using this site for personal use anyday!

Also, for those of you who are interested, I was just introduced to another photo-editing site called yearbookyourself.com. It doesn't have much in the way of editing photos, but you can upload photos and the site automatically gives you the hair and outfit of different years, starting in the 50s. It is quite entertaining.