google apps in higher education

Google Applications …

Academic Uses and More

Presented by Dru Ryan

Coordinator, Center for Teaching and Learning

dru.ryan@montgomerycollege.edu

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/ctl

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Word Cloud – www.wordle.net

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Agenda

1.  Overview 2.  Technology in the Learning Space

Initiative 3.  Google Apps for the Classroom ... Pros

and Cons 4.  Top Google Apps for Learning 5.  Questions/Discussion

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See the academic connections to this initiative: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/

ctl/blended/andy/engage.html or http://tinyurl.com/mc-tilsi

TILSI Goals

•  Increase the use of technology in the classroom to enhance instruction

•  Assist faculty in utilizing technology for collaborative, project based assignments

• Nurture a culture of peer training, user-generated content, and universally shared technology resources for faculty

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About Google

• Comes from the word “Googol’ .. Math term for 1 followed by 100 zeroes. – Company goal is “to organize the world’s

information and make it universally accepted and useful

• Google Apps are web based (cloud computing) and self-contained within a browser (with some offline usage available) 6

Google In the Classroom •  Pros

–  Provides a collaborative space

–  Freedom from desktop apps ($$$)

–  Provides all in 1 solution – video, pictures, portfolios . . .

–  Easier to share documents

• Cons •  Technology may be

new to students

•  Internet connection is needed

•  Limited support

•  Security/privacy concerns

•  Applications may be discontinued

Classroom use assumes students sign up on their own . . . Class specific 7

Google for Faculty

• Centralized work space promotes social learning . . . peer networks (blogs/portfolios)

•  Requires a shift in behavior (network effect)

• Departmental networks would make it easier for remote collaboration and promote collective intelligence

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Top 10 Google Applications for Learning

• Google Alerts: www.google.com/alerts

– Email updates on searches

– Alerts are sent when new new search results are found

– Retrospective vs prospective searching

• Google Scholar: www.scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/about

– Provides a broad way to search scholarly literature

– Assists with relevancy – Provides peer-reviewed

papers, theses, books, abstracts

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Top 10 Google Applications for Learning

•  Searches – Book Search

– Custom Search • google.com/coop/cse

– Blog Search – Google Search

• Define: pedagogy

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Better Seen than Described . . • Google Docs – online productivity suite • Google Reader – subscribe to blogs

• Google Groups – create online discussions

• Google Maps – virtual field trips/spatial representations of world

•  Knol: Unit of knowledge . . . Resembles a wiki but without anonymous comments –  tinyurl.com/q7hdrm

• Google Sites: Template Based web pages –  http://sites.helenbarrett.net/portfolio

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Honorable Mention • Google Translate

– Tranlates into 34 languages

• Google Chat/Talk – Free video chat or just text based

• Google Video (YouTube is owned by Google . . . Video sharing)

•  Picasa

• Google Sketch-Up 12

Other Promising Factoids • Google Code: Enterprise application tie-in with

Google code

• Google Mobile -- www.google.com/mobile – Allows access via mobile devices – Works with search, maps, YouTube and others

• Google provides a considerable amount of free storage . . . Accessible from anywhere

• Collaboration is becoming an essential workplace skill… Google embodies collaboration

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Recommendations • Need to create an action team (end-user

architects) to map out high impact functionalities of Google apps for both staff and faculty – Do not rely on end users to learn best practices, we

must identify them

•  Align roll out of new technology with training . . . This worked well with MS Office 2007

• Create an opportunity for administrators to learn (at a high . . . Very high) new technologies, they must be conversable in new(er) technologies

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Google Applications …

Academic Uses and More

Presented by Dru Ryan

Coordinator, Center for Teaching and Learning

dru.ryan@montgomerycollege.edu

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/ctl

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