Technology Tools to Make Life Easier

Moodles is a website planner. It’s made for Instructors to keep track of each student’s assignments and grades. Students can access the site anytime and anywhere to check their grades and due dates of assignments. Students’ who can’t attend class don’t have to contact the instructor for assignments. It can be accessed from any computer as long as the Internet is available.

Delicious is a website to bookmark websites that you use on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. You can bookmark websites for references or resources. It can also be accessed anytime and anywhere there is a computer and Internet. You don’t have to be at home to access your favorites’ website file. Delicious can be your favorites’ website. Another thing great about this site is you can bundle your bookmarks, so you’re not going through each page looking for a particular website. For example, you can put all websites for education in one bundle and websites for resources in another bundle.

Media Fire is a technology tool for saving your files online and it’s free. I love it, because if I forget or lose my thumb drive, I just need to look for a computer with Internet access. For those of you who are worried about your hard drive being infected with a virus or being fried, no problem you have backup files online. Those who need more space can be a monthly fee.

Skype is another technology tool for email, voice messages, mobile calls, video calls. I absolutely love it. I used it a couple of times to make a video call and plan to keep on using it. The video and audio were clear. This is a great technology tool, especially for those who have a loved one that lives in another country and can’t visit for years.

Google Apps is a technology tool for those who are traveling and don’t have a notebook. You can create a Word document, spreadsheet, and PowerPoint and all you need is a computer and Internet access. You can also save the file online and access it again at a later time, so you don’t need a thumb drive. This is also great for students working in groups, because the files are saved online. Any group member with access can go online and edit the document. There is no need for sending an email of the file. It will also stop the confusion of which file is the current version. It was perfect for sending word documents to your group members. I tried to upload a PowerPoint file, but I couldn’t edit some of the information. So if you’re creating a PowerPoint for your group work, just create it in Google Apps.

Firefox has many features to use. I do like the following features bookmark on the browser, controls for music on the browser, saving tabs before you quit, and customizing your browser to name a few. What I like about Firefox is that you can place bookmarks on the browser. So rather than opening tabs or opening your favorite files. Another feature I like is when you close the browser it asks if you want to save and quit or just quit. So the next time you open up your web browser, it’ll open up the tabs you saved. Then you can bookmark when you have more time. You can listen to music while you surf the net and control it from your browser. It’s also supports many media players. You can also check if a website is legitimate, before you make purchases.

TokBox is a tool for sending email, video calls, video messages, greeting cards, conference calls, blogs, and IM Chat. It still needs to be tweaked as far as the video call. I tried to make a video call, but the connection was slow. I had to end the call and restart. It’s great for sending a video message. It keeps track the length of the video message and you can review your video message before sending it.

Slide Share does exactly what the name says. You can post your PowerPoint presentation online to share with everyone. Anyone can view your presentation online. My group posted two group presentations with Slide Share. The problem we encountered with Slide Share was the PowerPoint with a video clip did not upload.