I was already familiar with the iGoogle page, which is my Internet default page at home. But many of the other cool tools were new to me, and I've spent days looking and playing with them. The two I've chosen to work with in depth are Google Earth and Google Docs. In Google Docs I'm working on a document that will form the basis of a collaborative staff development lesson in August, and might become a place of discussion on (sigh) cataloging. Although a wiki might be just what's needed for the discussion and I'll see when I progress to that lesson/thing#.
The Google Earth site is marvelous! I've searched and added 4 sites to the "placemark" feature, in hopes I can show several of them to fifth graders during their landforms unit without taking forever to navigate to them. Although I've spent most of a day swooping down or out and rotating my views, and enjoying it a good deal, I'm sure that I perform miserably compared to the video game kings and queens of fifth grade. Before the presentation, maybe I should ask these kids to help me out, and take the control of the "joysticks". I would guess that most of these students would have the maneuvers down in a few minutes, while it has been laborious for me, and trial and error has yet to smooth out my technique. And I've watched the little instruction video several times. Oh, what does that say about me? I hope it means I need more practice!
Neither of these sites are shared, right now; one problem is how few Google accounts there are in my district, partly because the feature for outside Internet mail such as gmail and yahoo mail has always been disabled. It was just while doing this Library2play class that I learned that you didn't have to have a gmail account to use the "cool tools" but you do need a Google account.
Onward through the fog!
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