Introduction to Google

Google reigns as a premiere search engine on the Internet today scrutinizing billions of web pages in order to return relevant query results to users in less than half a second. The word 'googol' is credited to Milton Sirotta and derives from a mathematical term for '1 followed by 100 zeros' popularized in the book, 'Mathematics and the Imagination' written by his uncle, Edward Kasner, and James Newtown.

The term google is closely aligned with Google's mission 'to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.' Google would prove a successful business venture following the meeting of its two company founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They met as graduate students studying computer science at Stanford University in 1995. Page and Brin shared common interests in fixing a momentous challenge facing computing at the time. They sought ways of retrieving only what was relevant information from large amounts of data available. What would become Google (as the world knows it today) was born based on this premise.

Today Google customizes searches to accommodate users in a variety of languages. It retrieves multiple file types including text, images, and video and gives users Internet access via email. Google is transcending how education occurs in the United States and around the world. Its various emerging technologies are allowing educators to successfully integrate technology into curriculum thus contributing to preparing students for the technology-rich workplace of tomorrow.

Video: Take A Google Factory Tour (05:39:41)
(Blocked within LAUSD Network)


Activity:

Read the information in the following links to gain an improved understanding of Google and its various emerging technologies that are making greater inroads into the field of education.

Google History and Milestones:
http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html

Read More About Google:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

Optional Reading :

Read Google's Business Philosophy:
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

Creating a Google Account

Google certainly provides more than just a search engine. But access to other tools requires the creation of a Google account. This is a simple process that requires just a visit to the Google Home Page.

Activity:

Create a Google account associated to your LAUSD employee e-mail address. This can be done by clicking on the Sign In link on the upper right hand area of the Google Home Page.


Locate the Create an account now link at the lower right hand part of the Sign In page.

Alternatively, go directly to the Google Account Creation page at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount.

Once you have filled out and submitted the requested information on the Google Account Creation page (making sure you use your LAUSD e-mail address), you must log into your LAUSD e-mail account to verify your Google account.



There's More, Even More

Google has expanded its functionality since its early days in 1998 as a search tool. The creation of a Google account was your first step into accessing the wealth of resources Google provides. If you look at the upper left hand corner of the Google Home Page, you will notice the links to several of the Google applications available: Image Search, Maps, News, Shopping, and Gmail (which is, like other free e-mail accounts, blocked from use within the LAUSD network). And the last link simply called more is actually a drop-down menu to even more tools. Of course, the list provided gives you access to another page highlighting even more.

We definitely will not cover each and every tool owned and operated by Google. There simply isn't enough time. But I want to highlight those tools I find most useful as well as those essential for our week together.

Essential Google Tools for This Week:
Google Book Search
Google Custom Search
Google Docs
Google Earth
Google Maps
Google Reader
Google Scholar
Picasa

Other Google Tools I Use (*Or Admire Others Who Do Use Them):
Blogger
Google Calendar
Google GOOG-411
Google Groups
Google Notebook*
Google Page Creator
Google Sites
Google Video (blocked within LAUSD Network)
iGoogle
Sketchup
YouTube (blocked within LAUSD Network)

by Brooke Nichols and Jonathan Gallison (blocked within LAUSD Network)


In addition, there are resources on how many of these tools are being used in the classroom. Google itself provides its own Google for Educators page with feedback from educators on how they are using several of the tools mentioned above: http://www.google.com/educators/tools.html

Activity:

Choose at least one tool you have not used before and find out more about it. Answer the following question in the Discussion Forum associated to today's work: How can the use of the tool you explored be applied as a learning object in the course you are developing?

Jump to Discussion Forum now.

Optional Reading :

57 Useful Google Tools You've Never Heard Of by Christina Laun, College@Home
http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/06/18/57-useful-google-tools-youve-never-heard-of

Google Earth Projects

Now that you realize the enormity of Google tools available to us, it is time to focus our work on creating a meaningful learning object using Google Earth or Google Maps.
Video: FedEx Commercial, Finding China (0:31)
(Blocked within LAUSD Network)

Questions arise regarding how to adapt various curricular areas around the use of mapping tools. Therefore, we will look at some examples of current projects already developed. The hope is that these exemplars will jump start your idea for incorporating Google Earth or Google Maps into your particular course in development.

Google Geo Education Home includes a http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth.html. Read through each example to gain an understanding of how your final learning object project will relate to your current content development. More resources are provided below.

Video: Google Lit Trips introduced by John Lawrence (8:29)

A look at Google Lit Trips by Jerome Burg and Google Earth Community.

Activity:

Download Google Earth to your computer. Access to the download can be found at http://earth.google.com. We will explore how to navigate through the program later this week.

Optional Reading :

"Storybook Settings by Satellite: Google Earth for Language Arts & Reading Class,": http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_978.php

Tech Divas - Google Earth Guide: http://techdivas.wikispaces.com/Google+Earth

Geogreetings: http://geogreeting.com - Send someone a greeting made up of 'building letters' found on Google Earth.

Cindy Lane's Google Earth Goods: http://www.googleearthgoods.pbwiki.com - The MOTHERLODE of wiki sites to use in conjunction with Google Earth!

Jerome Burg's GoogleLitTrips: http://www.googlelittrips.org - Teaching literature with Google Earth

David S. Jakes' 21st Century Cartography: http://newtools.pbwiki.com/cartography

Eric Fermann's Google Earth for Earth Science http://www.eastchester.k12.ny.us/schools/hs/teachers/fermann/GE.htm

Google Docs

As explored earlier, Google offers an online collaborative version of tools similar to those found in the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). For those of you with Microsoft Office on your computers, it is not readily apparent why you would use Google Docs.

Video: Common Craft's Google Docs in Plain English (2:51)


The video explains how Google Docs differs and complements your current use of Microsoft Office.

Video: LION's Getting Started with Google Docs (4:08)
(Library Information literacy Online Network)


In addition, you can take the Google Docs Tour provided by Google to further gain understanding of the application of Google Docs as a learning object: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour1.html. As an educator, Google provides specific resources that further explain how to make Google Docs relevant in learning through the Google for Educators page: http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html.

Activity:

Download this Word version of a Project Planning Sheet for Your Google Earth or Google Maps project to your desktop.

Project Planning Sheet Microsoft Word Document

Upload the document to Google Docs. Share the document with me as a collaborator. You can send the invitation to my LAUSD e-mail address: [email protected]. You may also share it with anyone else you feel may benefit from viewing your Planning Sheet. Lastly, publish the Planning Sheet as a web page and submit the link as "part" of the completion of this session Assignment.

Jump to Assignment now.

Optional Reading :

5 Things You Probably Didn't Know You Could Do in Google Docs & Spreadsheets by Josh Lowensohn:
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9732473-2.html


Project Planning

So now your planning sheet is uploaded to Google Docs, but it is still blank. Therefore, it is now necessary for you to put your ideas on paper (well, maybe virtual paper). Your Plan should include links to the locations of specific resources as well as focus your learning object on the content that you want students utilizing your course to learn.

As a review, these are the components of your planning sheet.
  1. The big idea we are working toward understanding is...
  2. Students who complete this tour will be able to...
  3. The following resources (images, overlays, links) will be included:
    1. Type of Resource (Image, Overlay, Link)
    2. Description of Resource
    3. Location of Resource (personal, on the web, hosted at my school, etc.)
  4. How much time should it take to complete this GE Tour / Google My Map?
  5. How will I know if the students have met the objectives?
  6. Instructions/Notes for students: (this can be included in a placemark)

Activity:

Return to your Project Planning Sheet uploaded to Google Docs.

Since you have already shared the document with me as a collaborator (as per the instructions in the last chapter), I will leave comments for you on the document that will help in the construction of your lesson object. Completing all components of the Planning Sheet will fulfill completion of this session Assignment.

Jump to Assignment now.

Tomorrow you will use the plan to construct your Google Earth Tour or Google My Map.

Optional Reading :

Google Earth User Guide: http://earth.google.com/userguide