Today, I will write about and rate eight Tech Tools that I've used in recent years and recent days. I'd like to thank the good doctor for this assignment as it's never a dull moment in ED609.
Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source web browser operated and managed by Mozilla Corporation. It is often just referred to as Firefox. Personally, I prefer to use Firefox (Fx) as my browser because it is faster than others that I have used and I never have to worry about ActiveX control pop-ups when I'm using it on my personal computer (PC) or on my MAC mini. I can save my tabs in Firefox, but not in Internet Explorer which is another tool that I'll be discussing in this blog entry. I'd recommend this browser over others because in addition to what I've written, several tech articles I've read also indicate that Firefox has better security than other browsers.
SCORE: 5/5
Internet Explorer (IE) is the most commonly-used, free, web browser. As a part of Microsoft, it fully supports Microsoft Window's operating system, so I find that it is very useful for me to use it on my office computer as it is a personal computer (PC) that was designed for Windows XP. I don't like that the ActiveX control pop-ups appear and I haven't determined what sites generate it. I know that IE is the largest web browser used and since so many schools and offices use the Microsoft Window's operating system, I would be remiss to dismiss its use to my students. I do have to say that the upgrades to new versions have caused to functionality issues with my older PC, but I do not have many glitches now that my work PC is desigend for XP.
One last note, as I was opening up another tab on IE to look for something else, it malfunctioned and eliminated all but two tabs.SCORE: 3.5/5
Safari is another free, web browser. It used to be an Apple exclusive, but now may be used on PCs. Like Firefox, it allows me to save tabs and blocks pop-ups on my PC and MAC. The downside is that it doesn't offer a smart toolbar nor does it allow me to customize like Firefox or IE. I would recommend this to my students that are MAC users as Safari seems more MAC friendly than PC intuitive.
SCORE: 3.5/5
is a suite of free, online applications packaged to help you personally or professionally. The three Google products that I use the most fall under the categories: search, communicate, show & share and go mobile. As an educator and student, I would highly recommend the use of Google Apps and its products that allow individuals to create interactive documents, spreadsheets, presentations and websites under its Google docs feature. These facets are great ways for students to work with each other and for their teacher to monitor progress. All a student needs to start is computer and internet access and a Gmail account. 
SCORE: 5/5
Zoho is a package of free, online applications provide by its owning company ZOHO Corporation. It touts itself as user-friendly for individuals as well as medium-sized businesses. I like it because it has its own version of office tools (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.) but is still compatible with Microsoft Office products. Like Google apps, it has an interactive feature to its office products. The downside that I've experienced is that despite the ability to set up Zoho in my time zone, the planner reminders came from EST time zone which renders the planner useless for me as EST is a day behind Guam. I would recommend it to my students who have access to computers and the internet because the Zoho office tools are free-of-charge and the suite of informa
tion is very user friendly and it supports a myriad of browsers (IE, Fx, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome).SCORE: 4/5
SlideRocket is a completely web-based, online presentation application. It is easy to use and is compatible with Google docs, Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote. As an educational tool, I would recommend this program for individual presentations vs. group presentations. The application does not allow for real-time collaboration online. Only the creator can edit the piece, so unless this person is willing to share his/her e-mail password, the web-based application needs the group to be together physically. The only other downside is that it is only provides a 30-day free trial use.SCORE: 3/5
Moodle is a free, online Course-Management system (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a free web application that educators or institutions like the University of Guam (UOG) can use to create effective online learning sites. To date, I am merely a user as UOG's graduate school uses it. I do enjoy the ability to communicate with my classmates and instructors via blogs, e-mail messages and forums/discussion. It's very useful in that I can access virtually any content information that I want from my instructors and can upload my assignments 24/7. I appreciate the blended learning of face-to-face and online instruction. Since I have not fully used it to create a course, I cannot speak knowledgeabley of this.
SCORE: 3/5
Delicious (formerly known as del.icio.us) is a free, social bookmarking web service that allows its users to view, store, share and discover web bookmarks. It's a great feature in that it is online and if your computer ever crashed like my family's did last week, it would be inconsequential with this site because it's accessible anywhere there is both computer and internet access. This website is now owned by Yahoo! and a simple Yahoo! ID will give you access to creating your own account. If, however, you're just looking for information, you may browse thousands of Delicious.com bookmarks just by going on to a browser. I'd recommend this to my students because of the accessibility, its bundling feature and its networking feature that allows you to connect with other people directly. Users also have the ability to make their site private or public, so access to your site is up to you. 
SCORE: 5/5
Blogger is a free, online blog publishing tool by Google. It's accessible, it's easy-to-use and it has a series of templates that one can use to personalize the background for newbies like me. It can be made private or public and if you're savvy enough, you can use Picasa or Hello services to upload pictures. Sadly, I have to use the interal "add image" feature above and for some reason, the image always appeared at the top of the page instead of near the data that I was working on at any given moment. I would still recommend this tool to my students though as with time I expect to become more proficient and there really are a lot of ways to customize one's blog given the time and propensity.
SCORE: 3.5/5
Hi:
ReplyDeleteBlogger is a part of Google Apps, so you need one more tool to assess.
This is so well done. I want to give you all of the points; so you need to add one more tool.
-j-