(Ashland, Ore) Southern Oregon University will deploy Google Apps for Education, Google’s set of hosted and customizable communications for higher education, as part of the university’s Information Technology offerings for students, faculty and staff.
In addition to adding new technology solutions for students and eventually staff and faculty, the move promises to save the university approximately $2,500 a year in energy costs, and, over three years, another $18,000 in hardware expenses. When the transition is complete, another $35,000 in software licensing will be recaptured for repurposing to support technology needs.
There is a “green” component to the switch; by taking advantages of Google’s highly efficient off-site data (aka “cloud”) storage, the e-waste generated every time the university cycles outdated hardware will be avoided.
The initial rollout will be Google Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sites and Google Talk for students on Monday, December 13, 2010. A faculty/staff deployment in spring of 2011 will see the addition of a new “Google Infrastructure” that will give students, faculty, and staff access to the core Google Apps for Education and approximately 150 other Google offerings, including technologies such as Blogger and Google Voice.
Google Apps for Education allows schools and universities to give Google’s communication and collaboration abilities to a campus community for free. All services are hosted by Google and can be accessed via any Internet-connected computer and many mobile devices.
This is such a great idea! As an alumni, it is great to hear that the university is constantly trying to improve the learning environment for the students.
It makes me proud to be part of the SOU family! Keep up the good work!
http://deployment.googleapps.com/Home/resources-user-adoption/google-apps-tips-and-tricks
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/organized-semester-google-calendar/
a great step-by-step to creating an effective google calendar, specifically focused upon the needs of college students…
Ok, so… several weeks after the technical switch over to google services, I find that I am still operating without the benefits google apps can offer in an educational setting.
I am an adult student, have held management position and administered significant budgets. I am not unfamiliar with many of the services offered by google, nor are the many advantages of leveraging such technology unknown to me. I’ve even worked on technical rollouts involving complex networks and unmapped patchworks of hard/software systems.
My point is that I feel that compared with many, if not all of my fellow students, I am well prepared to succeed in taking advantage of the truly fantastic opportunities offered through google apps, for the entire SOU community.
Talk about professionalism?!
Google=Google, right? And in contemporary business, if another, equivalent applicant is a proven magician with google services and approaches, especially in many service and professional fields, well, I’m sure that most of us can do that math…
So… I’d like to ask if SOU has planned to conduct trainings, or to otherwise ensure that students do actually gain the amazing tools, resources, and leverage that google apps can potentially provide.
If strong programming along these lines is not already ‘in the pipeline’ for rapid delivery, I’d like to encourage the development of a coherent and ongoing program to enable students – as well as faculty – to open doors upon the many, many opportunities that creative use of these resources will allow.
Right now, its like having a Space Shuttle at your disposal but only knowing how to use the radio…
I found this, looks legit…
https://sites.google.com/a/googleapps.com/edu-training-center/
Speaking of ‘Professionalism,’ and as a working example, I think I should point out that I would have been well advised in deciding to review my post more thoroughly before I published it.
a.) I probably would have realized that I was reacting in part to my frustration with my failure to assemble the set of tools given through google apps into the toolbox of educationally enhancing awesomeness I’d like to be utilizing tomorrow, or ideally, quite a while ago. So, upon review, I likely would have removed at least the exclamation mark! The question deserves a deeper articulation.
b.) I would also have caught my error (spell check w/ care!) in:
“have held management position”
c.) After having done all that, I might have even come up with a further contribution to actively addressing the situation.
I agree with you and feel your frustration. For what it’s worth, you have been heard… and both IT and Marketing will endeavor to provide some additional task-based help information.
Hi I was wondering if Google Sync is enabled, so I can get to my mail through my iPod. I cant seem to figure out how to? thanks