Blog Post #7--Two Google Tools

With the list of available Google Tools always growing, I wasn't really surprised to see how many there were to choose from.  I was surprised to learn how many of them were useful for teachers.  I explored two Google Tools closely to determine just how useful they would be in the classroom.

The first Google Tool I explored was Google Groups.  Google Groups is a tool designed to help people create, manage, and communicate among various internet groups.  From the homepage, users with a Google account can easily search new groups, click into their existing groups, and see updates on groups they are in.  Groups are searchable based on common interests of group members.  Virtually everything you can think of has a group, so whether you are into model airplanes, backpacking, or cooking, there is a Google Group (or many!) full of people who are also interested.  To find a group, you can search by subject.  Once you find one you like, you can ask permission to join by group managers.  If you don't find one you like, you can create your own.  Once in a group, you can post to an existing discussion forum, send emails both publicly and privately, or create your own new topic of discussion.  It's a great way to connect with other people who share common interests.  In the classroom, Google Groups can be used as a discussion board where the teacher can post questions and invite students to answer.  Likewise, different groups could be set up in a class to connect students with common interests.  There can be a science group, a graphic novel group, even a reading club group.  The good thing about Google Groups is that you can make groups private for only invited members.  This takes the risk out of creating a public forum that can connect children to those we'd rather not connect them to.  Though I think that there are some much better LMS programs in existence that can do all that Google Groups does and more, I think that a class that already operates through Google accounts could definitely find use for Google Groups.

The second Google Tool I took a look at was Picnik.  Picnik is a photo editing program that allows users to add creative effects, crop and resize, and organize their personal photographs in one easy-to-use program.  I've never used Picnik before and, being that it is one of the newest members of the Google Tools family, I thought I would dive right in and create my own account.  Like all of the Google Tools, Picnik is free to use, though it does have a premium upgrade that you must pay for.  Using the free application, I quickly set up a free account (no gmail address necessary) and within 2 minutes uploaded my first photos from my own computer.  You can also grab photos from various web locations, including Facebook, Picasa, and   I was able to upload only 5 photos at a time (premium membership allows up to 100) and it took about a minute for them to be fully uploaded.  Once there, I clicked "manage uploads" and was able to see my five pictures to edit.  I chose one and it opened in a new frame.  This allowed me the basic editing functions--crop, red eye, level adjustments, etc.  After this, I went to the "Create" tab.  This is where the fun stuff is.  Here you can add stickers, themes, textures, backgrounds, and even perform airbrush touch-ups.  Many of the best functions are only available on the premium--a rather annoying fact that I encountered quite often--but in the end of my playing I was able to create this lovely sepia-toned, framed image of my boyfriend and I on our latest outdoor hike:

All in all, Picnik is easy to use and fun.  In the classroom, I could see it being used for creating class photo albums, for students to edit photos for homemade books or for presentations, or even for organizing a collection of images after a class field trip to be posted on a class blog or website.  Photo editing is something that children are inherently interested in and many of them are able to pick it up relatively quickly.  Picnik, though full of reminders to upgrade to a better version, is a program that many kids would find fun and simple. If you're interested, you should check out this video tutorial from YouTube: