Google and Education

So I thought a good place to start out any tour or informational class using the web would be Wikipedia.  

Not much to see here as far as educational pursuits go, but great background information.  What is Wikipedia good for if not a place to start?

Favorite Link on the Page: Easter Eggs and April Fool's Day Jokes.

This is an awesome site for exploring all the potential uses Google web applications that they have targeted for education.  Some highlights from their list.  (Links to my blog reviews of these products if you are interested or just continue on the trail.)

• Google Earth - For exploring the earth, especially with it's new layers ability.
  
• Google Book Search (blog)
• Google Docs and Spreadsheets (blog)
• Blogger (blog about blogs)
• Google Apps for Education - Includes Gmail (the best e-mail client on the planet), GoogleTalk, Google Calendar.
  
• SketchUp - 3D Modeling
• Picasa - Picture Management

But there are other things not mentioned here that are very useful.  Keep following this trail to see more!

Google Reader is an absolute must for every academic student that needs to keep up with current events.  Not only current events, but pretty much everything.  (Social applications as well. :-) )

Google Has now started mapping locations inside of a book for reference to the readers.  Wow!  Check out the rest of this page for other awesome abilities or see my blog entry about it.

It's all about collaboration.  Google Docs is accessible everywhere which means people everywhere can work together and collaborate. 

Granted they are still a ways behind competitors like Zoho, but there is something to be said for integration with G-mail. 

Google had a notebook that you can use to take clippings from the web, take notes, multiple notebook support.  I use it occasionally, but it still needs some work. 

(On a sidenote:  I remember when google reader used to be much like this and unrefined.  It has now turned into the premier RSS reader on the web... just wait a little bit with google notebook.)

As the biggest search provider, Google has a ton of information about what people are searching for.  Google Trends allows people to compare search queries for different subjects.  Great for social research.

Anyone with a Google Account (which you can create for free) can create pages and post them on the internet.  Great for student projects about something and anything.  I still prefer blogs, but this might be good for a one time project.  It also shares the information with the world (collaboration!!).

This has to be the year of internet video.  Mulitmedia in education, the possibilities are endless.  Projects, classrooms themselves. 

Using the video already online is also a must.  With Google's merger with YouTube and their new pledge to show video's from both sites in a search query, you are going to find the video's that best augment your class much easier!

Information, information, information.  Much like the Google Reader, these web alerts will notify you (when you what and how much you want) about any subject that is posted on the internet. 

If you have a subject you are writing about and want to be up to date on the latest and the greatest... set up a Google alert and stop looking for the information, wait for it to come to you!  Great for finding new sources of information as well!!

I end my tour here because here you will find the newest and latest developments (including many of the products I have already highlighted).  Google is constantly trying out new things.  Many of the things on this page might be useful to researchers in different fields (music trends, ride finder, suggest). 

Best of luck in Google world.  Please keep me updated on any new things you find! (jeffvand@email.unc.edu) And keep checking back on my blog (edutechie.com) for my insights on how to apply these new technologies to education. 

Another Great Example of a Google product in use... Google Earth and Literature!!