Course Textbooks
EDUC 439/639: Google Apps in Education
You will be happy to discover that you do not necessarily need to purchase any textbooks for use in this course, because your course instructor has selected resources that are available freely online.
Google Apps Overview
The best place to start is the Google Apps Overview. After completing it, you will be able to understand the Google Apps Comparison page that compares the options of getting Google Apps for Free, Google Apps for Business, or Google Apps for Education, which provides schools with many of the business options for free. After following the link to "Learn More" about these options, pull down the Solutions menu to explore the Google Apps packages, and use the Products menu to see the products that Google Apps comprises. Study the synopsis of Google Apps services. There is also a version of Google Apps for Nonprofits.
Google Apps Tutorials
To learn more about the Google Apps services, complete the following tutorials:
Google Apps Learning Center
At the Google Apps Learning Center is Google's official mechanism for learning how to use Google Apps.
Google's Training Center
In addition, Google provides free tutorials covering a wide range of topics at the Google Apps Education Training Center.
Google Apps YouTube Channel
As you might expect, given that Google owns YouTube, Google has created a YouTube channel for learning how to use Google Apps. The videos include 32 ways to use Google Apps in classrooms, Google Apps LMSs, and Google Apps Grading and Gradebooks. To peruse Google's video tutorials, follow this link to the Google Apps YouTube Channel.
Google Apps Marketplace
Explore the Google Apps Marketplace for third-party applications that can extend your deployment of Google Apps.
Google Apps Help Center
The gateway to Google's online assistance for end users is this End User Help Center. Particularly applicable to this course is the Google Apps Administrator Help Center.
Google Apps Update Feed
Google is constantly working on new features across the entire suite of Google Apps. To keep updated on Google Apps features, subscribe to the Google Apps Update Feed.
Google Apps Blog
Another feed to monitor is the Google Apps Blog. Especially useful are the videos Google embeds in this blog illustrating how to use the many features of Google Apps. You can subscribe to these feeds using Google Reader.
Google Apps Deployment Videos
Google has made eLearning videos to help Google Apps administrators learn how to configure the many settings available on the Google Apps Dashboard. You may be interested in persuing these features if you are planning to become a Google Apps administrator, or if you would like to know more about the features you could ask your Google Apps administrator to provide. If you want to learn what is involved in administering Google Apps, follow this link to the Google Apps eLearning videos.
Google Code
To peruse Google's application programming interfaces (APIs) for developing your own apps, follow this link to the Google Apps APIs Library. If you are a programmer interested in developing your own Google apps, check out the Google Apps Marketplace Tutorial, or follow this link to a tutorial teaching you how to develop a Google APPs guestbook in Java.
Computers
To complete the hands-on computer assignments, each student will need access to a multimedia computer (Windows PC or Macintosh) that is connected to the Internet via the latest version of either Netscape, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Computer Accounts
Every University of Delaware student automatically receives an e-mail account. You should visit www.udel.edu/network to manage your password, username, and quotas.
Computer Sites
All students registered in this class have the option of using the multimedia PCs and Macs in the campus computing sites. Because these are public, anything you save on the hard drive will probably not be there when you visit the lab again. You should therefore bring a USB drive, CD-R, or diskette to save your work between sessions. Please note that the use of the campus computing sites is totally optional in this course. If you have your own multimedia PC and Internet connection, you may never need to use the campus computing sites. For information on all the campus computing sites, use www.it.udel.edu/computingsites to link to the general access site schedule.
E-mail Addresses
Every student in this class must have an e-mail address on the Internet and read e-mail regularly. If you're enrolled in a University of Delaware course, and you do not have an e-mail account yet, go to the help center and follow the e-mail link for detailed instructions on how to activate your e-mail account. If you do not read your UD mail regularly, you should go to www.udel.edu/network and follow the instructions to forward your e-mail to your preferred e-mail address.
