Thing 12

In Thing 12, we are asked to check out some of the great tools that Google has to offer.  In the past, I have gotten some experience using some of the useful tools Google has to offer.   The two tools I have used in the past were the Picasa Web Albums and Google Alerts.  The web album is great for easy sharing with family and friends that might not live that close and to be able to give people a copy of pictures you have taken, instead of having to send them in an email or taking them to be printed off.  Google Alerts, when I first tried it out, I ended up not liking it one bit.  The reason for me not caring too much for it was because I had set it up horribly and was constantly getting emails about up-dates that were not relevant to what I had asked to be alerted on.  Since then, I have learned exactly how I am suppose to use it to were for know on I will not receive emails about things that are not relevant to what I had asked for it to.   With this all in mind, the two tools I decided I wanted to use was going to be Google Calendar and the Language Tools.  Google Calendar is truly a neat calendar.  You are able to put in everything you might want on your calendar and be able to share your calendar with friends.  You can link other calendars to your own, which allows you to add the information on to your calendar without having to re-add all the entrees was on the other calendar, which would take up too much time.  When people invite you to different events, you can set your calendar to automatically decline it if you already have plans during the time.  You are able to organize your events with icons.  This is a simple way to add a little fun element into your calendar.  If you are trying to set up an event with a group of friends, then Google Calendar can even help you with that.   Google calendar can be set up to be able to search your friends’ calendar to see when they are all open to be able to have a lunch.  If it gets late and you want to go out with your friends but you do not know who is free, well Google Calendar even has you covered there by allowing you to be able to easily see who is free or not.  If you are trying to plan out that big Easter egg hunt for next year, then Google Calendar has a great and simple way to be able to look at the whole year in a glance.  If you want to know when you next class or meeting is, then you can also set your calendar to tell you this.  As you can see, Google Calendar has a lot of great features and then some.  This is only a few that really popped out at me. Google's Language tools is one of my favorites that Google offers.  I find it most useful when I have come across a website that is not in English.  All you have to do to see it in English is to get the webpage's url and copy/past it on the section for translating webpage on the language Tools area for Google and it will translate the whole site for you so that you may view and read what is on the page.  You can also do smaller translations by just typing in the translate box and pick the language you want to translate from and to.  It is very simple to use and can be a very helpful tool for educators is they have a parent that cannot speak English, which would mean that you would never have to use the student to be the mediator for you which is best.   Finally, they have added a new part to the Language tools since the last time I used it, which is putting in a search term, and Google will look in different languages and give you a list of websites in different languages that have been translated for you to read.  I find that this is an amazing tool for the pure fact that some countries have more information of certain topics in the original language that has not always been translated into English.  This new part of the Google language area, allows you to be able to get German, French, or etc. information from websites written in the home language giving you more websites that you can use for a reference.  There are also a few other features that have been added since the last time I used this but I will leave them for you to check out!  {I did have some awesome screen shots to share with everyone, but blogger was having problems with me adding this post with any Pictures in it.}