For this exercise, I chose to examine the capabilities of Zoho Writer - an on-line word processor. The difference between Microsoft Word and Zoho Writer is that on Zoho, I can save any document that I create and then view it at any time from any computer. When I create, for example, a spelling worksheet on my home computer, I have to send it to myself via e-mail in order to view it at St. John's. This is a regular step in the process of being able to access and use it. Au contraire, with Zoho, I can create the same document in its word processor, save it, and then view it from any computer. So, there's no need to send it to myself. The document sits in cypberspace waiting for me to retrieve it. Now, when my personal computer gets a virus and refuses to let me view my saved documents, it's not a problem IF I've used Zoho to create them. Very cool!
To test this tool, I thought that I would create a word document and then move it to my blog on Blogster. This is my second attempt to do it, and I'm not 100% sure what I did wrong; however, instead of typing
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy river.
a zillion times as a test sentence, I'm going to try to share with myself a childhood song that my sister and I found on the good ole internet. My sister and I shared a double bed as children, and we'd often sing once we were actually in bed. When Kathy, my sister, was in second or third grade, she brought home an April Fool's Day song that we both loved. Our elementary school music teacher had taught it to Kathy's class, and it became a favorite of ours to belt out at night. In a recent phone conversation with Kathy, we somehow began talking about that song, and since we were both on the computer, we began an internet search for it. I'd looked for it before on multiple occasions because I wanted to teach it to my second-graders, but had no luck. So, during that phone conversation, we both began to Google strings of text from the song - she in California, and I in Maryland. I was the first to get a hit, and we were ecstatic to find all of the words to the song, as well as an audio recording and the piano sheet music. It is interesting to note that the piano music referred to this song as a "folk song." When a song is a folk song, it usually means that its origins are unknown. Translate that: It's OLD. Boy, did we feel good about that little tidbit of information. Anyway, here's the song link that will allow you to experience one of my all time favorite kids' songs. I will share it with my students in March so that they will know it by heart by April 1, 2011.
It's a catchy little tune that makes me think of clean sheets, baby-doll pajamas, and many happy nights of singing with Kathy.
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