Review of Google Docs and Sumo paint

For this weeks assignment I explored Ajax and Google docs. Ajax is an online desktop. Unfortunately, I cannot access my account. I keep getting an error message saying the path is invalid. I was able to get another account, but I had to use a different e-mail account. It is too bad. I think it had possibilities. I reviewed all of the image editing freeware. I’m still not sure if I liked them any more than I like Picasa 3. For this reason, I will review one of the image editing freeware sites and recommend anyone reading this to investigate Picasa 3 beta..
Google docs was definitely an online application that I liked. Google docs is basically an online windows office. Any person can create a free account. With an account, a person can create and share a document, presentation, spreadsheet, or form. It also has folders to organize and store files. I concentrated mostly on the documents. I found this application the most useful. I used it upload some of my teaching materials at home, and then I was able to retrieve them at work. It was very convenient. My laptop has been giving me a little trouble lately when I try to burn a disk to get information from it to my school computer. With Google docs, I was able to upload my documents and edit, store in my desktop, and print the materials I needed for work. It was wonderful. I used this feature again when I was online in the school library. I found the information I needed, but the school printer was low on toner. I uploaded the document strait from the web and was able to retrieve it from my classroom computer. It was wonderful. I know any teacher in my building would appreciate this application. It is a time saver to say the least.
Another really great thing about Google docs is the ability to share. An owner of an account can choose to share his or her documents with others. The accounts owner only need the email addresses of those whom s/he would like to share. This is a wonderful for people who are on the same school wide committees or teachers who may be working collaboratively on a project from two or more different locations. One idea I had for this application was hit me when I was sitting in a writing conference in Grand Rapids, MI. The instructor/speaker was from Nebraska. She kept putting up documents on her overhead and saying, “This one is not in your book. I can get it to you, if you want it.” Of course, we wanted it. The speaker could have used Google docs to send all of us the missing documents in seconds. They already had our email addresses from registration.
Google docs also has a really impressive list of templates a person can use. They have one for finding out haw fast a person can pay off a credit card. I uploaded my monthly budget spreadsheet to share with my sister. All of the interactive budget codes I used worked after I uploaded it. I was impressed. Now my sister can show me her numbers and I can work on them with her so that she can pay off her debts faster. It was almost as if we were working on the same computer. The spreadsheet works like regular word spreadsheet, except with all of the advantages of storing them, being able to retrieve them from any computer with internet access, and sharing them with others. I would recommend this product to my school. I have already recommended it to my students. Often they work on a paper at home, copy it to a disk—their printer doesn’t work or is out of ink—and they can’t recover the document on my schools outdated computers. If they used Google docs, they would not have that problem. This product is a winner.
If I had to choose an image editing site I liked the best, it would be Sumopaint. I liked this one the best because it wasn’t the same old cookie cutter image editing freeware. I must admit, I have not even begun to understand all of the things one can do with sumo, but I will equate them with Adobe photoshop. In both programs, the user can create layers to enhance or create an image without altering the original until the layers are compressed. I think there are more options on Sumo than Adobe. I am still trying to understand them all; it may take a few weeks of exploration and practice. I would use this in school to make posters or brochures. Items that need to look professional or need several layer of work to complete. I am also thinking of using this program to put together a children’s book. I will use the artwork as the first layer, add some effects to the artwork like boarders or feathered edges, and finally add a layer of text. If this works, I may try to use this freeware for a project my students do when they must write about a famous painter. It would be spectacular if it worked.