Google Tools

by Daniel Runnels

 

Google Tools Historical Background  Relevance to education Glossary of Terms Start-up Costs Google Tools key-players, gurus, experts Sample Lesson Plans Please click on link to go to Tutorials Sources

 

Historical Background 

 

Many think of Google as a search engine which helps us find a wealth of resources in just one click.  In reality, Google is much more than that.  It provides a vast amount of tools that both educators, students, and really anyone can utilize. 

 

What Google Does: Google is one of the five most popular websites in the world.  Google is a web search engine that lets you find other sites on the web based on keyword searches.  Google also provides specialized searches through blogs, catalogs, videos, news items and more.  Google provides Internet services that let you create blogs, send email, and publish web pages.  Google has social networking tools, organization tools, and chat tools, services for mobile devices, and even Google branded merchandise.

 

How Google Began: According to Karch  (2007), Larry Page and Sergey Brin collaborated at Stanford University on a search engine called "Backrub." The name came from the search engine's use of back-links to determine page relevance. This is a patented algorithm known as PageRank.  Brin and Page left Stanford and founded Google, Inc in September of 1998.  Google was an instant hit, and by the year 2000, Google was the world's largest search engine.  By 2001 it did something that eluded most of the dot.com business startups of the time.  Google soon became profitable.

 

PageRank is what Google uses to determine the importance of a web page.  It's one of many factors used to determine which pages appear in search results.   PageRank measure's a web page's importance.  Page and Brin's theory is that the most important pages on the Internet are the pages with the most links leading to them.  PageRank thinks of links as votes, where a page linking to another page is casting a vote.

This makes sense, because people do tend to link to relevant content, and pages with more links to them are usually better resources than pages that nobody links.  This alll makes a certain amount of sense.  Pages that are important are probably better authorities in leading web surfers to better sources, and pages that have more links are likely to be less discriminating on where they're linking.  The use of PageRank and made Google on of the leading search engines. 

 

How Google Makes Money: Most services Google provides are free, meaning that the user does not have to pay money to use them.  The way they achieve this while still making money is through unobtrusive, targeted text advertisement links.  Although most of Google's profit comes from Internet advertising revenue, the company also sells some subscription services, such as Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro.  Google also sells enterprise searching tools, servers, and search technologies for corporations.

 

Almost all toolbars have very specific requirements for operating system and Web browser.  The technical requirements limit the potential audience, although the limitation is to the most common browser and operating systems.  Yet in some organizations with very restrictive IT environments or where network security is extremely tight, even users running Windows with the IE browser may not be able (or allowed) to load such programs.

 

Using a toolbar certainly makes some search tasks much simpler.  Instead of entering the search engine's URL or clicking on a favorite or bookmark, you just enter the query in the search box. 

 

As with so much in life, the advantages of installing a toolbar come at a price, but not in money. First of all, these browser toolbars take up space. The more you add, the less room there is for the browser to display the Web pages you find with the toolbars.  Bottom line is that the toolbars are an extremely effective form of advertising (Bradley, 2007).

 

 

Relevance to education

 

Given the vast need for information and the vast amount of information on the web.  There is a need for a way to search the internet for specific information pertaining to a specific subject.  Google provides Internet services that let you create blogs, send email, and publish web pages.  Google has social networking tools, organization tools, and chat tools, services for mobile devices, and even Google branded merchandise.  Communication is an important part of educations.  Increasingly teachers at many grade levels must be able to communicate with students via email and chat rooms. 

 

Google Earth is a map of the world on steroids.  You can zoom and glide over stitched together satellite photos of the world (Karch, 2007).  Using Google Earth teachers are able to view of the world from space.  By clicking and dragging on the planet teachers and students are able to gently spin the globe.

 

Google Earth has provided a free way for teachers to take students on fantastic journeys around the earth. Students are able to virtually zoom around he world and visit sites they are studying. They can stand at the foot of a mountain range or look from on high. They can enter the mouth of a volcano or travel down the slopes of the volcano’s side to see the effects of eruption on the ecology. Through all of this travel, students are able to enjoy “satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at ... [their] fingertips.” (Google, 2007)

 

Google has a wealth of software that for a simple user can make needing an operating system obsolete.  Need a word processor, spreadsheet, photo program, or really most anything useful? Old-fashioned desktop applications aren’t necessary anymore, for the most part. You can fire up your browser on any computer, and given a decent internet connection, you’ve got your entire OS and hard drive right there, from anywhere you log in.  Talk about saving money could you imagine not having to spend countless dollars on software. 

 

Glossary of Terms

 

PageRank is what Google uses to determine the importance of a web page.  It's one of many factors used to determine which pages appear in search results.

 

Blog is a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

 

Google Book Search allows you to search the full text of our large and growing index of books, from popular titles to old, out-of-print and public domain volumes, to find pages that include your search terms.

 

Google Earth, Google's satellite imagery-based mapping product, represents, in essence, the whole world on a student's computer.

 

Google Maps is an easy-to-use service for navigating maps information.

 

Google News brings together news from all around the world. With Google News, you can browse headlines from your favorite newspapers and magazines, all on a single page, or you can delve more deeply into the topics that interest you most, by searching thousands of news sources at once.

 

You and your students can collect useful content from across the web and see it all in one place on iGoogle.

Blogger makes it easy for teachers and students to share work, class notes, and pictures online.

 

Google Calendar is an easy way for teachers, administrators and students to share time-related info like team schedules, assignment deadlines and school holidays.

 

Google Docs & Spreadsheets is an easy-to-use online word processor and spreadsheet editor that enables you and your students to create, store and share documents and spreadsheets instantly and securely and collaborate online in real time.

 

With Google Groups, you can set up your very own place to communicate and collaborate, safely and securely, with others online.

 

With Google Page Creator, you can create functional, attractive web pages in just minutes—without having to learn code.

 

Picasa is a free software download that enables you and your students to find, edit and share all the pictures on your PCs.

 

Google SketchUp, whose award-winning toolset was developed for architects to help them design buildings, is modeling software that empowers designers – alone or in teams – to explore complex design ideas in 3D.

 

Google Apps Education Edition is a broad IT solution that schools can use to bring communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free.

 

Start-up Costs

 

Most services Google provides are free, meaning that the user does not have to pay money to use them.  Google Earth is free also but the company also sells some subscription services, such as Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro.  Most educational environments will select the free version of Google Earth.

 

The only real costs will be man power used during installation.  Most educational entities have a Technology Department with technicians who maintain the software and hardware.  

 

Google Tools key-players, gurus, experts

 

Phil Bradley at http://www.philb.com/

Phil Bradley is a leading consultant on internet search, web design/optimization that has articles for librarians, information staff, information professionals and web designers.  The articles provide information on search engines, searching the internet, keeping up to date on internet events, web page and web site design.

 

Marziah Karch at http://google.about.com/

Marziah Karch is a self described Internet research junkie and technophile. She uses Google tools to blog, email, socialize, shop, and research. She's given several professional presentations on the use of Google tools for educators and for personal use.

 

While not a single human expert, The Official Google Blog offers links to many experts in the use of Google. These experts are the everyday users like you and I. The Official Google Blog offers “insights from Googlers into our products, technologies, and the Google culture.” This site has an RSS site feed that you can download to your computer for regular updates. It has a searchable database, archives, and other use friendly features. There are also many links to other blogs about Google.

 

Sample Lesson Plans

 

http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth_discovery.html

Google and Discovery Education have teamed up to make it easier for K-12 educators to use technology in the classroom. We've created a series of lesson plans that use Discovery Education unitedstreaming and a couple of Google products, Earth and SketchUp, to teach social studies, language arts, math and geography. Available for elementary, middle and high school classrooms, these lessons are available for download right here on the Google for Educators site (Google, 2007).

 

http://www.google.com/educators/p_sketchup_discovery.html

 

Google and Discovery Education have teamed up to make it easier for K-12 educators to use technology in the classroom. We've created a series of lesson plans that use Discovery Education unitedstreaming and a couple of Google products, Earth and SketchUp, to teach social studies, language arts, math and geography. Available for elementary, middle and high school classrooms, these lessons are available for download right here on the Google for Educators site (Google, 2007). 

 

Please click on link to go to Tutorials

 

Click here to go to Tutorial for Downloading Google Earth

 

Click here to view Tutorials on Google Earth Controls and Placemarks, Finding Places in Google Earth, Google Earth Tours, Google Earth Presentations, Google Earth Activities, Google Earth Extension Activities

 

Sources

 

Karch, Marziah (n.d.). What is Google. Retrieved July 17, 2007, from http://google.about.com/od/googlebasics/p/whatisgoogle.htm

 

This site explains what Google is and provides a brief Historical overview of how google caim into existence.  It also provides information on system requirements for downloading Google.

 

Notess, Greg (n.d.). Toolbars: Trash of Treasures?  Retrieved July 24, 2007, from http://www.infotoday.com/online/jan04/OnTheNet.shtml

 

This site gives historical insight to Google and provides some toolbar basics and information on toolbar options.

 

Bradley, Phil (n.d.). A comparison of the Google and A9 toolbars. Retrieved July 24, 2007 from  http://www.philb.com/toolbars.htm

 

This site compares Google to some other search engines.

 

Bradley, Phil (n.d.). The Google Toolbar. Retrieved July 24, 2007 from  http://www.philb.com/gtoolbar.htm

 

This site provides installation requirements and information about the toolbar options and features.

 

Jelling, Jacop (n.d.). Tops in Toolbars.  Retrieved July 24, 2007 from http://www.chassell.net/index.php/web_internet/tops_in_toolbars

 

Google, (2007). Explore, Search and Discover. Retrieved July 24, 2007, from Google Earth Web site: http://earth.google.com/

 

Google, (2007). Google Earth and Discovery Education unitedstreaming.  http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth_discovery.html

 

This site has lesson plans integrating Google Earth and Discovery Education.

 

Google, (2007). Google SketchUp and Discovery Education unitedstreaming. http://www.google.com/educators/p_sketchup_discovery.html

 

Google, Inc., (2007). Official Google Blog. Retrieved August 3, 2007, from The Official Google Blog Web site: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/