Thing #12 Using Google Applications

I looked at all of the Google applications. The two that I think I would be most likely to use in the classroom are Google Translate and Google Alerts.
The Google Translate is almost self-explanatory. It translates one language into another. I typed "Hello, It's very nice to meet you" into the text box and had it translated from English into Spanish. I then pressed the listen button and heard the phrase spoken out loud. This would be very helpful with students or parents where language was a barrier to communication. This site also has the ability to translate web pages, documents, and communications in e-mail. These functions would be very helpful if the class were researching a subject and ran into a language barrier. It would also be helpful if a class were communicating with students from around the world on a project. In addition, there is another translation application which can be uploaded to a mobile phone. This might come in really handy on a field trip or contacting non-English speaking parents during an emergency.
The other Google application that I liked was Google Alerts. It is an RSS feed, but instead of just giving a feed from one site it monitors the different venues you select and sends developing news from all of them. You can select how often you want to be notified, the length of the emails, and if you want to be notified in your email account or via a feed. I opted to have a feed sent via my Google Reader and it was very easy. I just typed in the search terms, selected the different options via the drop boxes, and clicked on the create alert button. It was that simple. I see a use for this in the classroom when researching science subjects. It could also be used to monitor threatening weather. Living in a military community, where many of my future students' parents will be serving in foreign countries, I would likely use it to monitor developing news regarding our troops. It would give me a heads up on situations that would impact the lives of my students.