Google Sweet!

Google is slowly but surely taking over the world, bursting the seams of zip codes in California and digitally constructing their own mammoth edifices in the East, so big we can view them from space (in fact because of Google we now view everything from space). To accurately describe the magnanimous position Google has taken as the purveyors of indiscriminate access to web based software we have to look at the variety of services they provide at no cost to their users.

First of all Gmail has become a giant of the digital communication world. Since its in inception in 2004 Gmail has steadily climbed up the latter of web mail success and is among the three giants of email, including yahoo and hotmail. Gmail has a chat feature and allows sharing of files of a relatively large size. It also provides a multitude of organizational features which help to catalog your communications with others as they occur. Of course it is free and you receive a large amount of storage space (7421.864606 megabytes+) for free before you are charged to rent more space. 

Next there is YouTube, google's video posting website acquired in 2006 and used by billions around the world. Anyone can put their best, or worst, foot forward at becoming an internationally famous video star. New videos go viral everyday and millions enjoy watching video, often repeatedly, and having a good laugh about the contents. YouTube provides more than just entertainment though. It can be a great teaching tool providing short videos on how to do just about anything. It can give academic advice as well as DIY advice. It can help you cook a meal or show you how to fix your toilet. YouTube is a treasure chest of information that is useful and appropriate for all ages. 

Now lets talk about some of the less famous services Google has to offer. Google Wave was released for testing Google Wave is an online software application product of Google, described as a personal communication and collaboration tool. It was first announced on May 27, 2009. It is designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. It has spelling/grammar checking, automated translation among 40 languages, and numerous other extensions. Initially released only to developers, a preview release of Google Wave was extended to 100,000 users in September 2009, each allowed to invite additional users. I haven't used this yet in the classroom, but it is doubtful that any less than hundreds of applications exist for such a robust communication

Another less known product from Google that is essentially free is Voice. Google Voice gives the user a phone number and a voice mailbox, for FREE! The user can SMS for free from their Voice account and they can make calls for a small fee and no monthly fee. Voice allows you to organize your contacts and filter different callers. For example one caller may go directly to voice mail while another might ring multiple numbers. I use Voice to maintain an open line between me and my students or their parents/guardians. My students can SMS or call me. If they call they are directed immediately to voice mail. Voice's voicemail will convert a spoken message into an SMS and send it to my mobile device. I can then judge the seriousness of the message and respond accordingly.
Finally, Blogger is the service that has made this presentation possible. Blogging has provided a voice and forum for anyone to express their self about anything. This can range from the mundane or the lewd to innovative and deeply philosophical. Google doesn't discriminate, which is why they appeal to everyone. Because of this openness one might assume that such a forum would be inappropriate for high school students. However, Google is no stranger to the spectrum of appropriateness that is the Internet. As a result Blogger comes with multiple levels of privacy settings so that as a teacher you can determine the scope of access and the level of control the students have over what is being published.