Reflection (week 13) - Free Online Apps

This time I will talk about the free applications available to us through the internet. There is a wide range of resources that allow us to develop new skills and stay connected with the world around us.

1- Google Docs. 

First we document editors that enable online interaction of users, facilitating access, publishing and sharing of information for the shared document. So Google Docs emerges as an extraordinary tool online where we can create and edit text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, slides, forms and even drawings. Google Docs is known for being a intuitive and easy package of applications, but powerful tools at the same time.

Its use has become popular lately because it has many more advantages than any desktop office package because of its availability from anywhere, through internet connection and especially easy to collaborate and publish among users. This turns Google Docs into a set of appropriate tools for many tasks and of course for approaches that promote the exchange of information.

Among the duties of the office, this tool is very useful because if a team member is outside the workplace, still is a participant of the documents that need his approval, so distance and time are not a limitation to perform the work.

In my experience, I remember in a class all students had to make a group presentation and by the use of Google Docs my classmates and I were able to prepare the material for the assignment, sharing the same document and editing it online simultaneously. For me, the experience of sharing information using tools like this is phenomenal.

2- PicMonkey

Then we have the photo editors. For me personally I love taking pictures and telling the story behind each one of them. So I think it's important to know about the various applications that allow us to modify, retouch and improve our pictures. As an example of these applications is PicMonkey.

I remember being very sad when Google shut down Picnik (another online photo editor, which at that time was free). But now, the developers of this application have created PicMonkey, which is an easy-to-use application through which users can edit their photos online, improving the quality of light and colors, placing texts and sharing the new image. Even, this application is available in Google Store, giving users the ability to save photos in Google applications (like Google Drive) and share images with others through Google+.

PicMonkey is a free online tool for everything that has to do with image editing and photo retouching. It is an alternative to take into account the large number of options it provides. It is also very easy to use and does not require us to be registered to use it. This is without a doubt one of the best online image editors that you can find on the Internet.

A practical use that can be given to this application is the edition of images from around the world to perform photographic exhibitions within our work environment. For example, the counselors of the Department of International Admissions and Services of WMU must travel several times a year to promote WMU academic programs in different countries and strengthening partnerships between public and private institutions. Thereby, the counselors could be asked to provide the photos they liked the most within the trips made during the year, to be retouched to improve the quality of them through PicMonkey. Then, they could write a brief summary about the meaning of each image and therefore prepare the exhibition as year-end activity about the different journeys represented in images.

I love storytelling through images and I think PicMonkey is a tremendous tool that allows the development of this kind of activity.

These apps are only two of many others available online and that's why we have to take advantage and open our mind to acquire new knowledge through the use of this technological resources that, somehow, allow the improvement of our capacities and skills.