Have you ever been frustrated because a file you need at work is saved on your home computer? I have been and so have my students. I used to email myself with docs attached or upload them to my school's server so that I could access them at home or work. This worked okay for me but seemed like an extra step that my students didn't want to take.
My solution to this problem has been to work with online tools such as Google Docs. With a lot of my documents saved there, I can access them from anywhere, make my changes and, voila! No uploading, no attaching. Even better, my students can do the same. An added advantage is that the document can be published as a web page and viewable by all. This has worked beautifully for my weekly lesson plans. I update the Google Doc plans, and my web page is automatically updated.
Google Docs also offers spreadsheet and presentation tools. So now, my students can edit a Powerpoint presentation at home or school. They can also collaborate within one presentation, as they do to prepare a script for their daily morning tv show. The best feature of the presentation tool is that these presentations are embeddable. Just copy the code provided, paste on your web page!
Lastly, another favorite online tool is Zoho Invoice. Like Google, Zoho offers document, presentation, spreadsheet, wiki and various other tools. The invoice feature is awesome. I use it to prepare invoices for my husband's small business. The invoices are easy to track, edit, and attribute payments to. From these invoices, reports can be made, saved, emailed. Zoho works with Paypal so payments can be accepted from customers and these payments are automatically credited to the proper invoice and customer. Best of all, the invoices are available from anywhere there is an Internet connection.
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1 comment:
You know, you're right about that - there are so many times I've had to email a document to myself. Thanks to your blog, I can skip that step!
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