Week 13 Apps Review

I decided to review Google Documents as an office suite. This was because throughout the course we have been working with other platforms on Google including Blogger. I liked how easy the suite works and that to work in their word and excel was easy. Your files could be easily saved and were available to other platforms. The spell check and editing is as functional as Office. Images were easily imported from Google search which is better than having to look through clips or go off program in office. When I opened documents I had to download Google Drive which is similar to the cloud on Microsoft. I sometimes feel Google is already too much into my life they seem to be collecting way to much information about me such as my calendar, what I write, my blog, my photos and email. Sometimes I feel they are big brother and I wonder who can get into my cloud. One thing I couldn’t figure out was how to make a powerpoint in Google Docs it was only after I had downloaded drive and clicked on create that I found the program.

I tried Google docs on both windows and apple it works well on both and the nice thing is that I can produce documents in one and edit in another the two systems are compatible. Also I can send my documents to other to edit or add they can then send them back.

I really liked the Form function I would use this to schedule meetings and pre assess people's needs via the question poll function. I like its consensus building capability. I love that you can choose if a document is to be shared and you can just send the link to other people.

I would recommend this app to fellow staff members as we can share information easily and as much of Google is centralized around the app it would be very quick. For a free app it is very good. For my I Pad it works great. I wish I had found this before I spent $29 on Quick Office Pro for I Pad.

When I started to look at reviewing the Image Editing apps I first tried on my I Pad but the first two Pic Monkey and FotoFlexer would not work without Flash Player. The last one Sumopaint just wouldn’t work it gave me a blank screen. So I tried PHIXR it is not an app app but a bookmark on my home screen. But it did work. As a photo image editing tool it is adequate for a free app. As I enjoy photography I much prefer to spend money on a program like Photoshop as they are geared to photo editing in a better quality. The PHIXR program or app is more for fun editing. You can change tone, tint, and exposure; however, I feel the adding of shapes cutouts to put faces into and speech bubbles are more for kids and I probably would not use them. This type of app are really a dime a dozen especially on the droid and IOS systems. If my students wanted to have some fun and use this for a project it will do its job. But for a professional editing job I would spend the money on a high end editor. 

Another app I think is worth looking at  for IPAD is educreations this visual lesson building tool that has preformatted lessons, and also allows teachers to create great visual lesson of their own that are recorded. Lessons are then stored in the cloud for later useage.