Technology Update: Google Documents

This is probably a little late, but Google has begun to offer Word Processing on the web. They have offered spreadsheets for a while, but just recently, they combined the spreadsheets with their documents.

Main Advantages:
1. Access anywhere
This is great if you are like me and use many different computers.
2. Collaborate
I haven’t had much chance to try this, but multiple people can edit the same document at the same time.

Disadvantages
It does not have most of the features that most Word Processing programs have (mail merge, image editing, …). But, you can export to and import from other formats. So, you can use each for its advantages.

Check it out:
http://docs.google.com/

Baby Update: Holding Head Up

Kent’s growing stronger by the day. The books were saying that he should be pushing him self up on his arms, and well, sure enough he is!

Computer Text Book: Topics

I have talked about creating a text book for our Christian School’s Computer Class. This may be one of those projects that just gets talked about, but maybe this conversation will help someone else looking to do the same thing.

Right now, I am just brainstorming on what topics the book should include.

Audience: 9th-12th Grade
General Topic: Computer Applications

My thought is to cover in detail the necessary topics that anyone would need in using computers. Then, I would introduce specialty areas without going into detail.

Necessary Topics
Internet — web browsing, email
Operating Systems
Office Applications — Word Processing, Spreadsheets

Specialty Areas
Internet — web publishing, networking
Computer Administrator — security, installing
Hardware
Programming
Graphics
CAD/CAM
Robotics

The approach for the specialty areas would be to try to introduce the student to the area, and point them in the right direction to pursue it further. The students have a better chance of learning if they enjoy it; they have a better chance of enjoying if they can explore what interests them.

Please comment on areas that I missed or opinions on the approach. Thanks.