google for educators service

Along with the youTube/google news comes the Google for Educators service from Google this week. I’ve filed this in the new learning environments category, but that seems to be an exaggeration on closer examination.

Google for Educators seems more like a promotional package of existing services, and appears to lack any real new resources tailored for educators. Google has undoubted strength in the Web 2.0 world, yet you won’t find any newly developed tools or services that teachers and students could really use. However what you will find are useful suggestions and links to ways these services can be used in teaching and learning. As well as the tools in the also newly announced Google Literacy service, there are docs and spreadsheets, sketchup, calendar and the personalised home page.

I can understand the concept of a “Google educator” some time in the future working from her personalised home page, using Google’s web based office applications, and this suite of services. Captured. However the educators I know like to move around, mix and match, compare applications and services, and rarely settle for one brand or company suite.

TAGS: google productivity