GoogleDocs vs Penzu - Assignment Example

Running Head: GOOGLE DOCS VS.PENZU Googledocs vs.penzu Name: Date: Google docs are the spreadsheets, or a presentation forms which has been developed by the Google Company. These documents are used to share information with parties who are working together or even companies that share information in different departments. In most cases, parties who are sharing such documents are able to create and edit information on those documents. These are normally done online because there are save in the internet. Google Docs contain various elements of Writely and Spreadsheets that are primarily involved with technological issues which was designed by Tonic Systems. Penzu on the other hand can be defined as a web tool that is commonly used to develop private journal in the internet. Some people budget their expenses and keep such records in the internet so that they can be accessing any time they want to review their plans. Furthermore, students can write journal in the internet so that they can be accessing such information through “Share option” and can allow any other person to access and make their own amendment. These materials can be access by anybody who has sign up to Penzu and can add images on the pages available so as to share with others. Penzu works like face book, any body can open an account so has to be keeping his pictures, posting comments and commenting on their friends’ pictures. In summary, penzu is used as a socializing agent by the youths whereby people of the same age group or even people with the same interest can form a folder. This folder can be shared by many people, and can also use this folder to share and exchange ideas and information. Features of Penzu Some of the features of penzu are the privacy; it was design in a way that your information cannot be access by any other person without your permission. However, there is a window which has been created for common messages and this is the place where friend can edit the information of their colleagues, this means that personal entries are private by default. The site can accommodate as much information as possible depending on the interest of the owner of those photos. These photos can be uploaded into the site by the use of flickr. The third features of the penzu is that members can share information or personal entries, that is, if he or she wishes to share and this can be done through the use of email or can design a link which can be viewed by the public and even the world. Features of Google docs Google drawings-google docs has various features which support drawings of organizational charts, flow charts of various kinds and also the possibility of designing diagrams which suit the interest of the drawer. New version of Google documents- Google Company has improved the version of google docs so that it can be edited easily. The google docs can further support the importation and exportation of other features from different destinations. Faster Google spreadsheets- the spreadsheet of the Google docs is simpler and faster in using them. This Google doc has been design in a manner that can support the dragging and dropping of the columns and has the flexible bars which can be easily edited. Furthermore, these google spreadsheets are possible to be link with sheets. Drawbacks of Google docs Google docs are very frustrating especially if the documents to be uploaded are large i.e. documents of 100mb in size. In addition, excel sheet of google docs do not contained some features in it as compared with the one of Microsoft office. This means that the people using google docs might have some problems when using them. Apart from this, google docs will only work well with computers which have faster CPU. Computers which have small memory may fail to support the google docs software because they are heavy. Many people have argued that google docs do not work effectively especially if the user is using modem. Finally, google docs will only work successfully if the files to be safe contained undemanding data storage. Google docs Google docs have contributed positively to educational affairs. It has enable students from different places to share information concerning class work. Students, through the use of spreadsheet of google docs, are able to compare their class work and commend on them. This is very important as it will help the student to exchange ideas and learn more from their colleagues who might be using different books. Google docs have also benefited students because they can share and compare the exams they are taking in the school. It is also important to note that teachers have different techniques of teaching students and thus the understanding rate of students differs. It is therefore important that these students create discussion group through the use google docs so that they can help each other. Google docs have made learning easier in the part of the students. This is because the students are able to use google docs as a tool of collaborating on group projects. Since the information in the google docs is editable, the students get a chance of correcting a mistake which a student had done accidentally. Many students have used google docs as a communicating tool especially when sharing class work. Students can developed a spreadsheet in google docs so that they can be posting question for others to see and incase anyone on the team knows the answer, then he or she will be free to post that answer. Besides, teachers can use google docs to share tactics and skills of creating effective lesson plan and can get a chance to discuss strategies of allocating non-class work activities to the lesson plan. Penzu Penzu is a powerful tool which the students can used to access other students work. Most of the students developed online materials which relates to education. Students can share these educational materials with their colleague using Penzu. This act has aided education because students can share what they have discovered. Some of the teachers have also collaborated with their student through Penzu so that they can be posting assignment for students to work on while they are at home. Penzu is an important tool whereby the student can used as there own professional development journal. This is useful because student will used the journals they have developed to reflect their skills and knowledge they have gain in school. Most teachers used penzu to summarize what they have learned in class and send to students. This summary will act as a reminder of what have learned in class. Reminding the student on what they learned in class is a very important thing to be done so that the students will attend the next class when they have fully understood what they did in the last class. Teachers can further use this as a learning journal whereby they will encourage student to use penzu as a diary so that they can be recording on daily basis what they have learned in class. Keeping diary is very important because it help a student to develop a strong memory of what they have done in the past. From this the teacher can also encourage the student to be sending feedback in form of anonymous messages regarding the performance of the teacher in school. It is very important for the teacher to know what the students are thinking about his or her behavior in terms of class work. How to use Penzu as a journal tool Students can use Penzu as journals by summarizing the articles they have read and emphasizing on the parts of journals which they were interested in. Also students can analyze what is happening in the real life and reflect with what they have learned in the school. They should compare the two and post their response so that teachers can get to know or identify areas which need to be improved. It is important for teachers to stop doing things which are not helpful to the students and concentrate on those which are helpful. This tool is very important as it will help the student to send unbiased comments to their teachers anonymously. The student can also decide to start a program of peer to peer development so that they can compare their performance with other students, they can also request their teachers to joint such programs so that they guide them on the whole process. Students can also used this tool as a simple record of what has been happening in class and select those practices they consider to have developed them positively. The most important thing about these programs is that the students will refer to what they wrote sometimes back and judge it again. The reason for this is that immediate response to what has happened either in class room or anywhere else can be subjective and emotional which distort the reality at that time. It is therefore important to record and keep them so that they can be referred to it later. This will enable the student to be objective and not subjective and can be able to get greater insights of the real matter which had took place earlier. This reflects the important of having a journal not only as a student but also as an individual. Importance of a Penzu Penzu is free and very simple to use because it contain few features which are self explanatory. Any person no matter of his or her educational and professional background can use it. Secondly, Penzu has many features whereby it enables someone to keep his or her information privately or share with others. Such features have attracted many especially students to prefer Penzu than other socializing sites. Furthermore, Penzu has got features which can support images. Students are therefore encouraged to upload or add images so that it can make these entries to be more memorable for the students to recall in them future. Finally, a student or any other person can retrieve this information anywhere he goes provided that there is internet. How students and teachers use google docs Google docs contained features which can be set depending on the people who will be using it. A teacher and students can select who are authorized to access the information and edit them whenever the need arises. The google docs have help in attaining the stated goal of “The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)”. This goal of NCTE was to encourage students to participate in writing competition and to consider writing as a process so as to encourage peer editing and numerous revision to be done. This will also encourage student participation in writing competition and the group work thus building skills of the students. Most teachers used these google docs to give assignment to the students and also to monitor the process so as to guide the students incase of a difficulty. The software also enabled teachers to identify the student who did the assignment and to identify those who have not done theirs. Students will find it simple to work on the assignment which has been posted by their teachers. Google document are very important to students because the work done cannot be lost. Even students who forget to save their work can retrieve them later because google docs save anything done on it automatically. This means that the google docs help in organizing the work done and submitted by the students. Students can also get help from teachers, parents and friend despite the distances they are from each other. In short, google docs help student to collaborate with each other no matter the distance. Importance of google docs There are real life examples which show the advantages of google docs. For example in the year 2007 there was a "Global Warming Student Speakout" which was conducted by Google Company. This forum was focusing on encouraging teachers to joint the project. The project was developed for various reasons such as supporting the student in all over the world to jointly brainstorm strategies for fighting global warming. The students were also aiming that their wishes be published in the major newspaper. More information about this can be access in this website The other advantages of using google docs is that it help the students to easily access the assignment sent by their teachers and can also collaborate when handling assignment. It also requires a student to use less computing resources which make it possible for any student to afford use google docs. Google docs are a program similar to Microsoft office thus making it simple for student to work on it. Furthermore, Google docs have some features which support technological learning to be carried out using technology. Another advantage is that the google docs is compatible with diverse operating systems and it provision is free of charge. Lastly, the google docs can be access by any machines provided that a machine is connected to the internet. Conclusion In conclusion, the two softwares are very important because they are technological based softwares which make it possible to be accessed to it regardless of the place of a member. These softwares have also reduced the need of installing Microsoft office in the computer because it serves the purpose. Apart from these, google docs and penzu support educational programs because these are socializing sites whereby most students meet to discuss and exchange their class work issues. Summary (opinion, recommendation for use) In summary, the two softwares are very important because it serve various uses apart from being socializing sites for most youths. In my own opinion, I consider google docs to be more superior to the penzu because of it simplicity and availability. Furthermore, google docs can be used for international matters such as global warming and this has made the site not only to be known but also to be trusted. Reference Holzner, S. (2009). Google Docs 4 Everyone. FT Press Read More