By Diane Zoellmer, Instructional Technology Coordinator, Muskegon Area ISD/REMC 4 and Ricki Chowning, Executive Director, REMC Association of Michigan.

Can you hyperlink each of the following in the list to their respective paragraph?

1. Collaboration Tools: Google Docs 
2. Photos –Online Web Albums: Picasa and Piknik 
3. Social Bookmarking: delicious
4. Meetings and Surveys: Doodle
5. Search Engines: Ask.com

Collaboration Tools - Google Docs  http//www.docs.google.com
Free tools from Google offer the basics in the areas of word processing, spreadsheets and presentation tools but add the important element of easy, online collaboration. Users can upload an existing doc or start with a blank doc. Once the work is online, the author can invite others to view it or edit and/or add to it. Just having your work online so that you can access it from any computer with an internet connection makes these tools very attractive to many users - no flash drives, no need to email a document to yourself, and no need to worry about which version of the document you have! Each tool in the Google Docs suite offers some unique features. Google Spreadsheets allow the user to create a form and send it out to collect data, which is then sorted and stored in one document. In Google Presentations, the presenter can open up a live chat so that the audience can comment in a window next to the slide during a presentation. All of the components allow the author to view a revision history and to go back to any version in that history. The author also has the option to export any of the docs for use in other applications. The Google site requires a very easy login process as well as great tutorials.

Photos –Online Web Albums
Picasa  http://picasa.google.com/ and
Picnik  http://www.picnik.com
One of the challenges we face with the increased ease of picture taking is storage (organization) and sharing. The more pictures we take, the greater the need for an organization tool to help us find those photos later. Picasa is a free tool from Google that has two components, one that you download to your computer and one that is online. After the software is loaded on your computer, you can download your pictures into it from your camera and sort by a few different systems, including tagging. At this point you could also take advantage of some basic editing and enhancing tools in Picasa but there are other free tools that you could use that offer a great deal more. Picnik happens to be a favorite. For sharing your photos, you then upload them from your computer into Picasa Web Albums. You'll have to create a free Google account if you don't already have one. Once your pictures are online, you can choose to make them public or private. You can invite others to see them by sending out an email or you can publish the web link.

Social Bookmarking – delicious http://delicious.com/
Online bookmarking in itself is a great tool for personal and professional productivity but social bookmarking can be a tremendous tool for anyone spending any time online. If "favorites" or "bookmarks" are saved on one computer, then you can only access those favorites on that computer. By using an online bookmarking tool, favorites are saved online and the account can be accessed on any computer with an Internet connection. When favorites are saved using a social bookmarking tool, sites are "tagged" with key words. When you access your delicious account, you cannot only see the favorites that you have saved but also see how many other users have tagged these sites. This can be especially powerful because you can find view the favorites of others this way. For example, after tagging a website in Delicious, you discover that 3,187 others have tagged this same site. By clicking on the number 3,187 all of those other user accounts are viewable. You can find sites that you might not have found yet that you can use in your work.

Meetings and Surveys - Doodle http://www.doodle.com/
Think of all the time that is spent in staff meetings trying to agree on dates for meetings or functions. Doodle is a great tool that can be set up very easily. The “administrator” (the person who sets up the poll) enters a title, a description, his/her email address and name. The next step asks for dates and times; you may have up to 20 options for dates and up to four timeslots per date. When you click finish, you are emailed a participation link and an administration link.  Your next step is to email the participation link to all the participants—the administrative council, department members or friends. The administration link is used to check on who has responded or to edit the poll. You will receive an email when a new participant has responded or when all participants have responded. An often frustrating task is made very easy. This tool is great to arrange dinner parties and family gatherings. A very small adjustment makes this a survey tool to select a name, a location, choice for a meal, theme, presenter, etc.

Search Engines –Ask.com http://www.ask.com/
If a user is less than skilled in surfing the web for specific information (and that includes most of us!), the search engine Ask.com is a good first place to go.  You may enter complete questions, e.g. “What is the current Canadian exchange rate?”.  You will then receive a list of choices that will more easily help you identify the exact information you’re looking for. This search engine filters out dated and ambiguous sites.  Using the same example in google, you will have to search carefully through many sites—perhaps finding a site where the “current” exchange rate is on a site dated in 2007!   Essentially, this site is a filter that directs you to the most informative and useful sites on your topic. Ask Jeeves  (http://www.askkids.com/) is also a very useful site for kids; one that is often promoted for use in elementary and middle schools.

Please fell free to contact either one of us if you have questions (www.remc.org). We hope you enjoy these sites.