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As more Oregon schools roll out Google's free suite of productivity software this fall, they're also trying to educate parents and ease concerns about privacy. Oregon was the first state to sign up for Google Apps for Education in 2010 and make it available to K-12 school districts. The free software allows students to access their class work from home, the library, or anywhere they have internet access. But the very thing that makes Google Apps so accessible and appealing worries some parents: They don't want Google or anyone outside the district to have access to their children's private information.

We've heard many ingenious ways that teachers have used Google Docs in the classroom. Here are just a few: * Promote group collaboration and creativity by having your students record their group projects together in a single doc. * Keep track of grades, attendance, or any other data you can think of using an easily accessible, always available spreadsheet. * Facilitate writing as a process by encouraging students to write in a document shared with you. You can check up on their work at any time, provide insight and help using the comments feature, and understand better each students strengths. * Create quizzes and tests using spreadsheets forms, your students' timestamped answers will arrive neatly ordered in a spreadsheet. * Encourage collaborative presentation skills by asking your students to work together on a shared presentation, then present it to the class. * Collaborate on a document with fellow teachers to help you all track the status and success of students you share. * Maintain, update and share lesson plans over time in a single document. * Track and organize cumulative project data in a single spreadsheet, accessible to any collaborator at any time.

"With regard to education, our goal is to leverage Google's strengths and infrastructure to increase access to high-quality open educational content and technology and build communities of support that encourage grassroots proliferation of innovation in education. We now face a new and deep Digital Divide, where students know how to consume technology while others are creating the technologies that will shape our future. It is time to bridge this divide by supporting access to curriculum and educational technology for all students..."

What most people don't know, however, is just how many useful tools Google has out there than can make everything from tracking a package to creating and publishing webpages a breeze.

Opening the iPhone would make educational apps much easier to publish. Apple's monopoly means e-text-book readers and classroom use of hand held computers (which is what the iPhone and iPod reall are) have to pay a toll to Apple. Right now, Apple's approval system is cloaked in mystery. Developers have no way to market their products without 'official' approval. Opening up the iPhone and by extension opening up wireless networks around the country will drive down high prices and bring connectivity to more inexpensive computing devices. I hope this FCC investigation is the domino that kicks open the door to the clouds of connectivity that are already out there!

In addition to providing easy access to billions of web pages, Google has many special features to help you to find exactly what you're looking for. Some of our most popular features are listed below.

"Google Drive for Educators Join this course to get an in-depth overview of all the features available in Google Drive. Topics include Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings, and Keep. The course will explore sharing and collaboration features, anywhere/anytime access across devices, editing documents, and much more. Register to learn more examples of how to bring your classrooms to the cloud."

"This program is designed for companies and individuals who provide professional training and support to schools using Google Apps Education Edition. The Google Apps for Education Certification is an official "stamp of approval" from Google, and gives you access to additional marketing support, training opportunities, and business visibility in the Google Apps marketplace. Meanwhile, your customers can be assured that your expertise and learning materials meet high quality standards set by the Google Apps team."

To use the GoogleLookup function, enter the following formula in the desired spreadsheet cell:=GoogleLookup("entity" ; "attribute") where "entity" represents the name of the entity you want to access and "attribute" is the type of information that you want to retrieve.

Google Docs is an easy-to-use online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables you and your students to create, store and share instantly and securely, and collaborate online in real time. You can create new documents from scratch or upload existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. There's no software to download, and all your work is stored safely online and can be accessed from any computer

Google Inc. is releasing its own Web browser in a long-anticipated move aimed at countering the dominance of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and ensuring easy access to its market-leading search engine. The Mountain View-based company took the unusual step of announcing its latest product on the Labor Day holiday after it prematurely sent out a comic book drawn up to herald the new browser's arrival. The free browser, called "Chrome," is supposed to be available for downloading Tuesday in more than 100 countries for computers running on Microsoft's Windows operating system. Google said it's still working on versions compatible with Apple Inc.'s Mac computer and the Linux operating system.

Google Earth Hacks provides links to interesting content found or created by users like you and gives you quick access to check things out in Google Earth.

At Google, we're constantly working to innovate and improve our products so people can easily find and manage information. At times though, we have to decide where to focus our efforts and which technologies we expect will yield the most benefit to users in the long run. Starting next week, we plan to stop active development on Google Notebook. This means we'll no longer be adding features or offer Notebook for new users. But don't fret, we'll continue to maintain service for those of you who've already signed up. As part of this plan, however, we will no longer support the Notebook Extension, but as always users who have already signed up will continue to have access to their data via the web interface at http://www.google.com/notebook.

Step 1: Assuming that your already have a Gmail account, go to your Google Contacts and create a new Group (let's say "Media"). Add all the contacts to this group who you want to send a personalized email. Step 2: Create a copy of this spreadsheet into your own Google Docs account. Step 3: You'll see a new "Mail Merge" menu in Google Docs near "Help." Click "Import Gmail Contacts" and authorize Google Docs to access your Google Contacts. Step 4: Click Mail Merge -> Import Gmail Contacts again and type the name of the Gmail group ("Media") that you created in Step 1. Google Docs will now automatically import the relevant Gmail contacts into the spreadsheet.

"...focuses on some of the lesser-used Google tools options like publishing an online quiz using Google Docs. In all there are 33 pages containing 21 ideas and how to instructions for creating Google Maps placemarks, directions creating and publishing a quiz with Google Docs forms, directions for embedding books into your blog, and visual aids for accessing other Google tools."

Google has launched an education category in the Google Apps Marketplace designed to help schools and universities discover and deploy new web applications that integrate with their existing Google Apps accounts. The new education category includes over 20 applications from 19 vendors ranging from learning management systems (LMS) to student tools and teaching aids - all of which integrate with Google Apps for Education. Each app can be accessed through single sign-on and the Google universal navigation bar and many offer deeper integrations that synchronize with Google Calendar and Documents. To learn more about the education category of the Apps Marketplace - and hear directly from the developers of these applications - register to attend live Google webinars and Q&A on Wednesday, February 2nd. Visit googleenterprise.blogspot.com for details Posted by Tech Learning Intern at 01/25/2011 05:32:24 PM