Thing #13--triumphant return to blogging

I have to admit that I interpret how excited I got over Zoho.com (extremely excited) as a sign of my rapid transformation into an old, uncool person. That being said...SO cool! During these past few weeks as I've been up to my ears in PowerPoints, papers, final exam review notes, and group projects (ohhhh so many group projects) I have been silently cataloging a list of complaints in my mind about the ridiculous logistical maneuverings involved in keeping all of the technology I use for school organized and under control. I do almost 100% of my work on my laptop but it's not always feasible to lug my laptop around and haul it out whenever I might need to edit something or jot someting down or add to an ongoing project. Some of my classes (like this one) already have computers so it seems pretty redundant to bring in my computer. As a result I do a combination of saving things to a jump drive and emailing documents to myelf so that I can check them easily wherever I am, or print something out, or whatever. This method has worked for me for years but it's pretty clunky. The past few weeks I have been longing for something....easier....but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Zoho.com is it. I've looked at other web-based writing applicatons but Zoho had the coolest features so far. I loved the sheer array of things you can do on Zoho and then tuck away with multiple tags so that one paper or presentation can be grouped with other things it relates to, and in education that could be lots of things. As I wrap up my first semester of grad school I'm trying to get my document and resource organization skills together because I know that in subsequent classes I'm going to need a lot of the things I've already worked on. When it comes time to put together my portfolio for Milestones 2, 3, and 4 I'm going to be really happy that all of my work is in a logical place. Zoho.com, with its tagging system, allows you to easily organize files without having to manually drag docments from their application to a folder. So neat. I really liked the features on the Zohowriter that allow you to make in-text comments, post your work to a blog, or share the work with selected users. Finding ways to get group work done can be difficult when students are busy with work and family. This application could simplify the collaborative process and result in less stress when working on group projects. I also really liked the Zoho notebook, an online notetaker, that I am going to start using in class ASAP. Clearly it's not that different from creating a word document to take notes in , but I like the format and the ease with which you can insert images, video and links. The biggest factor, again, is the organizational aspect of the entire Zoho site. I'm excited to start exploring the rest of the site more thoroughly.