Google seems to be poised to take over the world, and this is not limited to the Internet. Google applications and functions are now coming to schools and universities. Google’s Apps for Education is streamlining education around the world, making it easier for teachers and administrators to connect with each other, their students and their peers; and, it is all offered all for free.
What Google Apps for Education Offers
When designing Google Apps for Education, the team at Google looked at the increasing productivity and satisfaction that personal users had with the technological innovations at their disposal, and compared that to the technology being implemented in schools. What they found was that, while individual consumers were increasingly happy with the technology at their fingertips, schools were not reporting the same level of satisfaction. With Apps for Education, Google is changing all of that.
Google’s Apps for Education offers schools free use of collaborative programming, such as Google Docs, a personalized start page and Google Sites, as well as communication tools, like Google Talk, Google Mail and Google Calendar. This combination of programs provides numerous benefits to educators.
Benefits of Google Apps for Education:
Real Time Collaboration through the Cloud
What Google Apps for Education provides that few other services have is a way for students and faculty to interact in real-time. Real time collaboration makes working as a group more efficient. This is seen particularly well in online classes, where teachers and students do not meet face to face.
In this scenario, a professor can assign a project to a group of students and place the file within the system for all to access. Students, regardless of their geographic location, make changes to the file in real-time, and when the group is finished, they submit the final draft to the professor via the Google App. The professor can oversee and make suggestions throughout the process, if necessary, because he or she will maintain real-time access to the file.
Greater Accessibility
Schools and universities that have implemented Google Apps for Education give their educators greater accessibility to stored data. With the program, which is entirely secure, educators can access their data and documents with any Internet-ready device. If a teacher wants to check on a project or have a conversation with a student while on a laptop at the local coffee shop, no problem. The Google Apps for Education platform can be accessed anywhere, at any time, as long as the individual has an Internet connection.
Better Communication with Students and Colleagues
One of the foundational features of all Google Apps is communication. The Apps for Education program fosters faster, more efficient communication between teachers and their colleagues and students. A teacher can instantly message the entire class to alert them to a change in an assignment, and colleagues can make plans for school events through instant messaging and email technology.
Google estimates that 14 million students and teachers around the globe are currently using Apps for Education. By providing greater collaboration opportunities through the cloud, better communication and improved accessibility, Google is becoming an integral part of the modern education system, and today’s teachers are thankful for the changes it has brought to their classrooms. How many of you feel that modern education system should be out of School and should happen in real world. Here is an interesting video by a student against schooling. You can find full text here:
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