Download - Google Apps in Higher Education
Google Applications …
Academic Uses and More
Presented by Dru Ryan
Coordinator, Center for Teaching and Learning
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
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/ctl
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