Thing 13: Web-based Applications

Sorry to have been gone for so long! But I'm back with a vengeance and ready to get the second half of this project done! Thing 13 is an introduction to web-based applications. Apparently there are some who think that web-based applications will eventually replace actual computer software. Now I'm of the opinion that this may eventually happen, but for now I don't see people just getting rid of Microsoft Office in place of free (sometimes) online software. 

This learning activity focuses on Zoho, which is a site containing MANY different tools you can utilize for various projects. Zoho writer is the one I'll be investigating today, and I will then compare it side by side with Google Docs. So buckle up, kick back and relax and enjoy the ride!!

Right off the bat I'm pleased with Zoho because I can log in with my Google account. Holy cow I have been seriously impressed with the amount of applications you can access simply by having a (FREE) Google account. Ok so back to Zoho. The layout of the document writer is very similar to that of Word or other such software. See...

I found it super easy to make a short document in Zoho. You have all your basic tools (font type, size, page formatting. spell check, etc.) as well as a mail merge option and the capability to share it with others. I do like this website, so you should take a moment to check it out!

Now to GoogleDocs. I am already familiar with the word processor offered on this site, but for those who aren't here's what it looks like:

Looks super familiar, huh? I do like that so many word processor software is so similar in format. I won't bother creating a document in the writer portion of Google Docs (actually now called Google Drive) since I have experience there. My assignment says I can create a presentation (like a power point), spreadsheet or word document, so let's play with a spreadsheet! I made just a small sample gradebook, here's how it looks:

Now something that is cool (if you're familiar with Microsoft Excel, you've probably used this), I didn't manually find each student's average. If you look just above the list of numbers on the left, you see fx. This is where you can perform various functions. I clicked in box G2 to insert J. Albertson's average. I typed =average(B2, C2, D2, E2, F2) and his enter. I'm not familiar with all of the functions you can do, but the averaging function is super useful! The best part is rather than doing each student's average individually, after you've found the first average, you click the bottom corner of the box and drag it down. The program will automatically do the remaining averages! And here is the best part! Once you are done with your project, go under the file menu>download as>and you can save it as a compatible file with Microsoft Excel! And yes, the same is true for a presentation being downloaded for Microsoft Powerpoint and a Word document for Microsoft Word. This is EXTREMELY awesome since Microsoft Office is NOT cheap software and is generally the preferred format for documents submitted to college professors. 

So as for use in the classroom, group projects are super popular...for some reason...so let's say that you're working on a group power point. Each student can make their own part on their own time in their own home! No more having to arrange meeting places and having only one person with the presentation on their computer. And since you can share your documents and make them viewable to the public if you so desire, it is useful for a teacher who wants to put up an education power point that students can view on their own time. 

So then here's the big question-do I like Zoho or Google Docs better? Well there is no contest. I ♥LOVE♥ Google Docs and highly recommend it. It is user friendly and has many different download options for documents. 

Question of the Day: Do you see web-based applications completely replacing computer software?