Handy Google

This week our focus has been on Google Calendar and other miscellaneous Google tools.  I knew that Google had many other tools, but I had no idea that there were that many out there.

I have always used iCal, but the major downfall I found with it was that it could only be used on Apple products.  I think I will begin using Google Calendar from here on out for the simple fact that it can be used across multiple platforms: Apple, Windows, and mobile devices.  It could be rather tedious to get to your calendar on a mobile device since there is no Google Calendar app.  There are many 3^rd party apps out there that you can download to your mobile device that allow you to sync your Google calendar across your mobile device.  The one that I am going to try is called CalenMob.  Here is a link to the developer Appxy.  Does anyone else use a different app?

The Internet has made it so much easier for people to get information, but there is also a downfall to this.  It has also made it easier for not completely reliable information to be found.  Google Scholar allows the user to find peer reviewed information, as a science teacher this is a big help.  I really liked that you are able to sort your results by relevancy or by date.  One of the things I did not like was that many of the article titles contained many Tier 3 level vocabulary, Science type jargon.  All in all I found this to be a very useful search tool.  This would be a tremendously useful tool for students to determine the timeliness and credibility of a source.  So many of my students want to go to Wikipedia and call it good, but this would allow them to find credible resources.  Here is a video tutorial on how to use Google Scholar:

 

I think I'm really going to start to re-evaluate my tech program choices.  As I said earlier I had no idea that Google had quite so many things to offer, and how seamlessly they work together.  Which of Google's tools are your favorite?