I am going to try something new! That is, taking a screen shot and seeing if I can paste it into a blog entry. Amazingly, I also discovered that WORD may also be able to connect with my blog. I am going to try it out now.

Well, the screenshot experiment did not work. In fact, it will not let me copy any image and paste it in here.I have to use the INSERT IMAGE button.

Now I am gonna try the  hookup from WORD. Hope it works better than the screenshot thing did.

Today, MAY 1, 2012, is Quizi's 12th birthday!

I am thrilled to say we have two Independent Study students who will be taking the CLOUD class this summer! Google Docs has changed a lot this year, and so has the BLOGGER tool, I see. I added SUMO graphics and ZOHO, which has an online database, so we changed the name of the course to CLOUD COMPUTING APPLICATIONS (dropped the Google Docs part of the name, since we are adding other software to the class.) Very exciting!

Spring term over; Summer Term begins!

Whoa. What a semester. Had a really good term, except when my appendix ruptured on the very day I was supposed to fly to Greece to see my daughter on Spring break. Teaching SUMO right before PowerPoint was a complete success! Students loved it. I modified a SUMO handout I had for the CLOUD class and posted it for the online INTRO students; we will try that for the first time this summer term.

Spring 2011 Cloud Class begins!

Spring classes begin this week. Exciting! I finally finished getting my classes together the day before classes began. The most exciting thing was that I decided to add SUMO to the cloud class, so I was busy creating two new SUMO assignments.

The first SUMO assignment uses the painting and shapes tools to create backgrounds for presentations and advertising signs.

The second assignment uses SUMO to enhance photographs. I think the students will really enjoy this wonderful, free graphics software. Plus, it will introduce them to graphics so they can pursue it further if they find they enjoy it. They may then become interested in taking our Intro to Computer Graphics class, which will be great. SUMO is amazing!

Cloud Computing Introduction

This is my first CLOUD COMPUTING blog post. I am learning so much about using many of the Google Apps. I find it fascinating and frustrating.

First the fascinating part: I am amazed at the powerful things you can do with the cloud applications supplied free by Google. I love the Blogger and iGoogle tools and am amazed at the word processing, spreadsheet, and slideshow presentation software. Amazing that it is all available with no download. Here is a screenshot of my iGoogle:

Frustration: Mainly that the Internet can be slow and cranky! Our Internet has been down all day, which means I can do nothing online. Thank goodness a lot of the work can be done offline (Notepad is the BOMB), but in order for the cloud to work right, you have to have access to the cloud! Grrrr.

All-in-all, I must say I am learning a LOT!