Could Google Apps Help Me?? (Week 3 Blog 1)

While watching the assigned videos on Google Apps for this week, I couldn't help but think..."I wish I would have had access to something like this when I was in school!"



While working toward my bachelors degree in marketing at a small campus in North Dakota; many of my assignments required collaborating with fellow students and presenting or turning in a single document that each person in the group contributed to. While I love working with other people and getting feedback from my peers, most often this became a daunting task. Anytime we were given a group assignment, it never failed...there was always that one person who didn't update their portion of the document correctly (or at all!) or someone in the group had some sort of technical issue when sending it to the group leader to update. No one ever knew which version was the latest version and there were always issues when it came time to finalizing the document. If my fellow students and I would have had access to a program like Google Apps, our group projects would have been much less stressful and much more enjoyable. Everyone could have worked collaboratively on the document in real time and we would have been able to see all of the changes and updates that were made and who they were made by.



The email and calendar features of Google Apps are also very appealing to me. I thrive on organization and having my schedule easily accessable so that I know exactly what I am doing and when. When I worked at Boscov's my Outlook email and Outlook calendar were my lifeline. I was maticulous about organizing my email correspondence and always had my calendar updated and easily accessable. I think the email/calendar option that Google Apps offers would be extremely helpful to me in my personal, acedemic, and professional life.



The many different features of Google Apps are such great tools for almost anyone who uses technology. Personally, I know it would be very helpful when I am a teacher and managing my classroom. I think having the students work together to set up a "Classroom webpage" or create a wordprocessing document (like a book report or recapping what they leared during the day's science lesson) would not only be a great way for students to learn the subject matter at hand; but it also gives them the tools to learn how to work together in teams and achieve a working knowlege of technology in the classroom and how to incorporate it into their everyday lives.