First Glimpse: Google+

I was fortunate enough to be granted an early invitation to the new Google social media experiment called Google+ today. I would recommend that you take a quick look at the Google Blog for a quick overview

I approached Google+ with great skepticism. And for good reason:

• Orkut: Fail (in the US anyway). 
• Google Knol: Fail
• Google Wiki Search: Fail
• Google Wave: Fail
• Google Buzz: meeeh...
• Google "+1": meeh...

While Google does a lot of things well, connect people through social networking is NOT one of them. Yet they continue to make an effort. 

The launch of Google+ is clearly another attempt to capture at least a portion of the lucrative social media market that Twitter and Facebook are dominating. Part of me even wonders why Google would try to compete. 

All of these thoughts were going through my head as I opened up and began playing with Google+ for the first time. Remarkably, I was somewhat impressed by the smoothness, simplicity, and innovative structure of this new social networking platform. 

Here is what my home screen looks like:

Google+ Home Screen

The updates that you see in the center of the screen are reminiscent of Facebook status updates or Tweet. Not much to get excited about. It is worth noting that my profile information is actually my Google Profile. It appears that Google+ will be the link between various "social" products such as the Google Talk, +1, Buzz, Picassa Web, and YouTube. 

The organization of your network is where it starts to get interesting:

Google+ "Circles"

I created multiple "circles" into which I placed my various contacts. Similar to Google's tagging systems, a contact can be added to as many "circles" as you like. Mousing over a circle allows you to see all of the members of that circle and allows you to view the "stream" from the members of the circle.

Google+ "Spark"

The next innovative thing that I discovered are "sparks". A spark is an interest or passion around which conversations can begin. I quickly added a few: education, educational technology, online learning, and Google Apps for Education. A stream of content was created based on each of these topics. My next task is to figure out how these streams are generated. Much of the content seems to be pulled from large, popular blogs and websites.

The third and final piece of Google+ are "hangouts."  This is where things really start to get interesting. Creating a "hangout" allows up to 10 people to simultaneously video chat with one another. The service integrates with Google Talk. I had to install a significant update to the Google Talk client in order to enable this service. In addition to video-conferencing, it appears that there are some new sharing features baked into "hangout." including the ability to watch a YouTube video together or participate in a text-chat. The services are built using Google "shared spaces" lab. 

Google+ "Hangout"

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to test the video-conferencing feature as none of my contacts have received invitations to Google+.

After playing around with Google+ for a little while I went over to the Google blog to read their post about the new feature. I was struck by a sense of humility. I noted very little fan-fare or hype related to this major product launch. It appears that Google is also tempering their expectations for their latest social network. 

Google Docs and the iPad: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

So, you gave in and bought an iPad. You're excited about your new life of mobile computing. To help you get things done you decided to start (or continue) using Google Docs as your office productivity suite. If this is you, than I'm glad you're reading this post.

The integration of Google Docs on the iPad is less than perfect. There are some things that work really well, some things that work sometimes, and some things that don't work at all. Here's a quick summary:



This spreadsheet is open for public editing. If you would like to add to this feature list (or save a copy for future reference), click here.

It's important to note that when you navigate to docs.google.com on your iPad you will be automatically directed to the mobile version of the site. Here's what it looks like:

Mobile Google Docs on iPad

It is possible to switch to the familiar desktop view. To do so, scroll all the way to the bottom of the screen and look for the following link:

After selecting "Desktop" you will be re-directed to this page:

When using the desktop version, you will randomly be confronted with an error message and be forced to re-load the page. This is the disadvantage of using the desktop version.

One thing that you can do to extend the usability of Google Docs on your iPad is download a third party app such as Quick Office HD.  This $15 app greatly extends your ability to move files in and out of Google Docs. Here are a few of the features that you will gain by using Quick Office HD:

• Offline Document Editing
• Easily transfer files from multiple Google accounts, Dropbox, Mobile Me, Box, SugarSync, or Huddle. 
• Presentation Creation and Editing (very slick interface, worth the price by itself.)
• "Rich Text Editing": bold, italic, underline, paragraph indentation, font, type color, and type size.
• Print: requires an AirPrint enabled Printer. 
• Document Sharing: supports Slideshare, Scribd, and DocStoc
• Folder creation and organization

To view an annotated screenshot of the Quick Office HD home screen, click here.
To view an annotated screenshot of the Quick Office HD document editing screen, click here.

That's the good, the bad, and the ugly on Google Docs on the iPad.

There have been rumors about a significant update to the mobile editing version of Google Docs coming soon. I hope they are true.

WebQuest 2.0 Using Google Sites

When I was a pre-service teacher at Spring Arbor University, one of the projects I had to complete in my educational technology class was a webquest. At the time it was pretty complicated and challenging to create this type of a project. Many of my classmates opted to use PowerPoint to create their Webquest, a program ill-suited for the task.

The basic premise of a webquest is to create a scenario to capture the imagination of students while they embark on a "quest" that involves research and discovery:

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium. [source]

The web 2.0 world is much more friendly to the creation of Webquests than it was when I was in college. My new favorite tool for the creation of web quests and other web-site projects is Google Sites, part of the Google Apps for Education suite.

Google Sites is flexible enough to allow someone like me, with above average knowledge and skill in web-design, to create attractive, dynamic sites, while having a simple user interface that won't overwhelm even the most novice user.

This past year I piloted a web-quest-like project with my 9th grade biology students. They were asked to form groups of four and select an biome to study. Each person within the group took on a different role: botanist, zoologist, ecologist, or environmentalist. Each person was required to research specific things related to their ecosystem.

The culmination of the project was the creation of a Google Site highlighting the various aspects of their ecosystems. I allowed students to take full advantage of Google Apps for education by including custom Google maps, documents, drawings, and presentations into the sites.

A lot of students wanted to include video into their sights. My school blocks YouTube, so we had to get creative. Through the use of a site gadget, some groups iFramed in video from National Geographic, ARKive, and other video sharing sites.

Here is what some of my students had to say about the Biome Webquest:

And here are some of the sites that they created:

• Temperate Grasslands
• Coral Reefs
• Arctic Tundra

A lot of planning, preparation, and research was completed before each group began building their site. To facilitate this, I created several Google Documents which I shared with each group. These documents included research questions which each person was responsible to answer before they could begin building their site. By using the collaborative power of Google Docs, each group was able to simultaneously edit one document. Because their roles were interrelated, students were better able to collaborate because of our ability to work together on the same document. 

Here are links to the planning documents that we used: 

• Project Proposal Template (Includes grading rubric)
• Research Template

Once each group had completed their research, I gave them access to the Google Site template that I created. The template contained all of the required pages and standard site structure for the project. After creating a copy of the site, one person shared it with the rest of the group members and they began copying and pasting their research into the appropriate sections. 

The students had a great time customizing the look and feel of the site to match their chosen biome. Some of them got a little crazy with the colors! 

Google Sites is an excellent platform for a WebQuest. It is easy to use, provides solid structure, but allows for endless customization. My students began using Google Sites with very little formal instruction on how to use the tool. 

Please feel free to re-use any of the templates that I have shared here. Most of them can be easily modified for other topics and disciplines. I would love to hear how you have used Google Sites in your classroom. 

Google on the iPad

This past week I had the privilege of training the middle and high school staff at Southfield Christian School on how to integrate Apple's iPad with Google Apps. As part of my training I put together a Google site containing instructions, handouts, and resources. You are welcome to browse and borrow as well!

Is Apple's iCloud a Google Apps Killer?

Image: Flickr Via Dakiny

 In a word, no. Here's why.

1. Collaboration
While it is nice to be able to edit iWork projects from any of iOS/OS X device, there is no collaborative editing feature. Six people on an assortment of iDevices can't work together.

2. Browser vs. Desktop
Apple continues to develop software that is dependent upon the hardware on which it runs. iLife and iWork will become increasingly more complex and require increasingly more powerful Apple hardware (desktops, laptops, and mobile devices) to run them. This in turn, will requires a significant financial investment.

Google has taken a different approach by placing its focus on the web browser. Web browsers are free and have much less demanding hardware requirements.

Both tactics have their benefits and drawbacks. One isn't superior over the other. Only time will tell which one, if any, will become dominant.

3. User base
Apple's iLife/iWork suite is awesome. I use them all the time. My house has become primarily Mac-centric, however I do also use a Dell Laptop. Most of my extended family is entirely PC as is my school. Microsoft decided that it would launch a Mac version of MS Office which has a considerable user base. I don't foresee Apple doing this....ever.

As a result, Apple will continue to have a relatively small share of the computing market. A very profitable share, but small nonetheless. In today's keynote Steve Jobs happily pointed out the tremendous market penetration of Apple Computers. While it is indeed impressive, Apple can still only claim somewhere between 5-10% of the total personal computer market. The remaining 90-95% is owned by Microsoft.

Getting back to Google...because the market continues to be dominated by Microsoft, it's easier for the majority of consumers to jump on board with Google (which doesn't cost a dime and doesn't require any hardware or software changes) than switch to Mac, as cool as iCloud, iWork, and iLife might be.

I continue to be amazed at the quality of the products that Apple produces. I am eager to give iCloud a try. I'm sure I'll love it. I don't believe, however, that this will have a significant impact on Google nor will I be replacing Google Apps with iCloud.