Probably the most fun I've had since I started - exploring all the Google goodies! I had no idea how easy it is to use iGoogle. I've always used Yahoo! as my home page and for all my favorites, etc. It often required jumping through a lot of hoops to get where I wanted to be and do what I wanted to do.
I now have a new home page! I love the fact that in addition to choosing a template for the page, I can move things around any place I want and they will stay there. On my previous home page, only certain modules would fit in one column or another. I wasn't ever happy with where my modules had to be because some of them were set! Google is totally at my whim.
Everything was so easy to use - Notebook [WOW! what a great tool when I'm researching!]
Alerts - again, great tool if I'm trying to follow a particular topic
Calendar - much more flexible than my previous one, I can fully customize it
Picasa - I already was familiar with Picasa since I took the district staff development on it last year. However, I probably won't use it for most of my pictures since I have them organized in my Paint Shop Pro program. I'm satisfied with that, so I don't see any reason to change.
Now that I finally switched over to iGoogle for my home page, I have a lot of work to do to transfer all my information; but from what I've seen, it won't be that difficult, just time-consuming.
I can definitely see the benefit of using Google Notebook with my students. What an easy way for them to take notes! That was the most difficult job for them when they did research. Now just click and they have whatever they need right at their fingertips. The best part is that they can access it from home. I plan to make good use of that tool.
What I'd like to try, if I can manage the time, is to have my students create an iGoogle home page for our class. It would have to remain private due to condfidentiality, but they could give access to their parents, our principal, and other teachers by sharing the link. On here they could post their work - both written and artwork. We have access to a scanner, so it would be no problem for them to put it on the page. They could have a page for different topics and/or classes.
Dang! I'm getting so excited, I have to make that happen!!
Now, I'll see if I can get this link to work...the one to my iGoogle home page.
www.google.com/ig
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I wasn't aware that you could share an iGoogle page. You'll have to let us know how that goes.
Another option would be to have each student create his/her own "information space" (iGoogle page) to help them stay organized when working on a research assignment or just in general.
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