Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Sanitize Baseball Helmet



Sui Generis Journal
Column: Nothing to do ...?
By: Raziel Tovar

There are now many online resources to facilitate communication distance, either simply to continue keeping in touch with a friend, even to facilitate the organization of a business project. Moreover, most of these tools are Free and very simple to use.

An example of these tools is Google Docs . This is a web-based application for creating documents in line with the possibility of working in groups. It's like the Office Word , only with very basic text editing, but with the advantage that it is not a program that will need to install on your PC. This is an online application that runs on any computer with internet connection, in addition to this all that is needed is a gmail account , which is also available for free and fast.

Another advantage offered by Google Docs is the ability to share a document you created with any other person or even an entire workgroup. Because of this, other people can view the documents you've created and then they add more information later on you can also view and edit. Google Docs also gives us the ability to create spreadsheets, presentations and forms. The latter we can use it similarly as we do with the Surveys , either to create Likert scale, or applying structured or open interviews.

Below I discuss a hypothetical situation to show more specifically the benefits of using Google Docs .

"At the end of the semester our clinical psychology teacher assignment we conduct a trial as the final job in this trial had to be drafted into teams of four people. At other times it is quite complicated to us, because my colleagues and I do not agree on schedules. As someone started writing the text into a Word file, and sent by mail the rest of the peers. Then they added their ideas and sent to other peers. So on until we had an amount of mails in your inbox, not be clear which of these is the newer file, or who edit or add information. Sometimes, they also were using the USB, but equally is quite complicated to find the document from many viruses that pass from the computers of faculty, to our homes and even the cyber.
already tired of this we decided to use Google Docs . Now I just had to start a new document online, and send invitations to my mails partners to share this document. This allowed us all will edit a document online and in real time without the need to copy one and the same file again, or charge any USB. Even all the team members could edit the document at the same time, everyone from your PC. "

Pos course my example is heard like a typical infomercial, where a product is better than the other, and it seems that my intention is to make propaganda to Google applications, but the truth is that ... yes, that's my intention.

believe that Microsoft is lagging far behind compared to Google (although my personal opinion). I am surprised as to date, we wasting how are you useful tools and more in university environments where quick and effective communication must be a high priority. And not just for homework together, but also to plan projects or make discussion forums, etc..

In fact, colleagues have mentioned that I use Google Docs Cognition Laboratory to facilitate the publication of a book they are writing.

Also there are other tools that work similarly to Google Docs, Google Calendar as , used to share calendars and agendas, so you can share event information with other people you want. It is also developing application Wave Google, which is now operating in beta release, and intends to allow sharing of text, files, maps, calendars and other things but in a single application.

recommend a final note to our dear readers to take a few minutes to review the comments above, they just cost fun to lose a few minutes on Facebook, Twitter or MSN. I assure you that as a university, finding many advantages in these tools.

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Monterrey, NL, February 17, 2010