Google Products (Email, Website Design, Documents, and more!)
Google created products that are free to home users, schools, and non-profits. For businesses, they use the same products; except businesses have to pay a monthly fee since your site may help you making a profit. You can use the product on any device (computer, laptop, tablet, phone, or gaming device (Wii, Xbox, etc.)) if it has internet access.
- Gmail (Google Email)
- Google Sites (Make a website without being a programmer)
- Google Documents (Google's version of Microsoft Office (Documents = Word, Spreadsheet=Excel, Presentation=PowerPoint, etc.))
- Google Drive (A place to save files of almost any type "on the cloud" which means on Google's computer (server) instead of your computer.)
- Google Calendar (A calendar that customize for your events and can share with others. You can also have multiple calendars at once.)
- Google Analytics (It analyzes what is happening behind the scenes with your website being used by others.)
- Google Plus (Google's version of social media (like Facebook))
- Google Hangouts (Google's verison of chat software (like Skype, AIM, etc.)
- *There are many more Google products as well! This site will just discuss the ones mentioned above.
Microsoft Office
Microsoft makes the same kind of products as Google; except they usually cost money depending on the product. Their email is free like Gmail. Microsoft Office is software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) that is discounted in price for teachers and students. The software is on your local computer; not the cloud. Therefore, you need to purchase additional copies for each device you want to use it on.
- Word (Used to write letters, make posters, flyers, printable calendars, etc.)
- Excel (Used to make spreadsheets that can calculate numbers in columns and rows.)
- PowerPoint (Used to create digital presentations of information, images, videos, etc.)
- *There are more parts to Microsoft Office, but this site will only discuss the most commonly used in homes and schools.
Other Products
Other Products Made By Different Companies:- CastleLearning.com - This is an online, common core resource for students, parents, and teachers to use for english, math, science, and social study lessons, practice, definitions, examples.
- TypingWeb.com - This website teaches keyboarding skills with courses and games.
- Schoology.com - This is an educational version of Facebook with the same built-in blog features.
- Pandora.com - This is a website for free, online music. This is great for playing music in the classroom or for students to listen to various types of music for music education OR while doing other academic activities.
- Windows 8 - If you use a PC, when you turn on a computer, what you see is the operating system . The most recent Microsoft operating system is Windows 8 that has some similar parts as its older versions plus the ability to use Apps (mini-applications usually used on SmartPhones/iPhones).