BP14_Google Docs: Presentations_ Sharing and Presenting

I just completed the next chapter of tutorials about Sharing, Collaborating, and Presenting within Lynda.com. With ease in not having to deal with compatibility issues among users, Presentations have a strong sharing, collaborating and presenting platform.

Sharing: Presentations has a feature where you can invite viewers and collaborators to the presentation. Collaborators can edit and make changes and invite other collaborators and viewers to the presentation at the same level as the owner. The owner can limit the access to the collaborators to not be able to invite third parties, as well as, the owner is the only person that can delete a presentation. Viewers can be added to see the presentation in a presenting form. Viewers can not make changes to the presentation.

Collaborating: Group collaboration is powerful in presentations because multiple people can work on a presentation. The platform will email collaborators and you can give instructions on what you need the collaborators to do. At the top of the screen, there is a update area to let you know when the last edits were made and who performed them. This feature takes away the barrier of wasting valuable time to send presentations to people to make an edit, then you have multiple versions of a document. This feature ensures that there is only one version that is always current and updated.

Presenting: Presentations allow users to display the presentations in many forms. Presentations can be printed from the web or as a PDF with or without speaker notes, can be sent out as a live presentation where people are invited to watch the presentation as a collaborator controls the slide show (great feature because there is a chat box where viewers can ask questions during the presentation), or published to the web where presentations can be embedded to blogs and other places on the web.

I think that Google Docs: Presentations feature will help me with my AR project because I must work with a team on PBIS to produce information to present and train the teachers. This platform will help us to collaborate ideas and be more efficient. I can even see its use with future professional development presentations.

BP13_Google Docs: Presentations

After going through a thorough tutorial of the Presentation feature of Google Docs, I learned that there are many power packed features. After viewing the basics, I learned that slide formatting is a seamless process. Presentation works like the common PowerPoint application because it has the ability to add and edit slides, change themes and backgrounds. Presentations can be created from scratch entirely from the web, uploaded from a hard drive in the form of a .ppt file, or imported from a web URL, where a presentation has an address online. There is even a template gallery to choose different themes and background set-ups.

When viewing the chapter on working with media, Presentations can work with different types of media. You can insert and edit images that are either stored on a computer’s hard drive or you can drag images from other websites. I found the dragging feature very valuable in that it saves time from having to browse for images. The only thing the user should remember when dragging images is to make sure that they are not using copyrighted material and or attaining the proper permissions. Presentations include a new “Drawings” feature by which you can insert and edit shapes and enter in free hand drawings. That way users can add visuals such as charts, and graphs or use the scribble feature to circle or draw any item of choice. Presentations have an interface with YouTube so you can embed videos strait into a slide. The only drawback to Presentations is that it is limited on the animations and if you upload an animation that is not covered in Presentations, the animations will be removed.

BP12_Google Docs

I would like to explore the capabilities in entire suite of Google Docs to implement in my learning, professional development, and work environments. I am knowledgeable that it is a free online word processing suite that is powerful for collaboration, but I want to see how I can effectively use its capabilities as I work on projects for my personal studies, guiding students, and communicating with my peers.

Through my initial research of the tool via several Internet search engines, I learned that

Google Docs is a free word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application tool. These tools allow teachers and students to erase compatibility barriers and work collaboratively on documents. Documents can be created or edited online by multiple users and it offers instant feedback during collaboration.

I have used the word processing feature as a student at Full Sail University as our group worked on several collaborative projects, and gained first hand experience on how the tool is valuable for working in groups. I also viewed the forms capability to make surveys during a presentation our instructor made during a Wimba session. However, I would like to delve into the other features such as presentations and drawing. If I learn how to incorporate these features, I can save time and paper when I assign work and my students will be able to instantly critique each other. I will take some time to view tutorials on Lynda.com so I can sharpen my skills on the use of Google Docs.

BP11_MeeGenius Infomercial

BP10_Comments to Tonneche

Please follow this link to Tonneche's blog on the Quizinator Web 2.0 tool

BP9_Comments to Kiylise

Please click on the link to follow my comments on Kiylise's blog on Edublogs

BP8_Intel Teaching Tools

My Web 2.o tool of choice this week is a suite of tools from the Intel Education website. This set of tools is free for teachers to use and is great for collaborative projects or individual activities for students. The tools on this site promote critical thinking and analytical skills and can seamlessly trigger higher order thinking skills. There is a Visual Ranking Tool that enable students to rank a list and discuss the outcomes. This will teach students to have civil discussions and to respect differences. The Seeing Reason Tool will let students create concept maps and show cause and effect relationships. The Showing Evidence Tool will allow students to create reasoned arguments supported by evidence.

This is a great suite of tools that I have been able to gain experience in. I have created a wiki that has a lesson plan that I created using the tool. Check it out and feel free to use it in your classrooms. The link to the wiki is http://cherylwalker2006.wikispaces.com/