Google Desktop as learning platform

February 19th, 2007 | general

Our public Unworkshops on the convergence of learning and web 2.0 are morphing into more self-sustaining Uncommunities. I’m in the process of creating job aids to help participants get up to speed. Today I was adding Google Docs & Spreadsheets to our menu when it occurred to me to look at the growing “Google Desktop” of applications. With a single sign-on, I can go to:

	Analytics
	Blogger
	Calendar
	Co-op My Search Engines
	Docs and Spreadsheets
	Gmail Settings
	Groups Manage subscriptions
	Notebook
	Page Creator Settings
	Personalized Homepage Add content
	Picasa
	Reader Settings
	Search History
	Talk
	Webmaster Tools

Not a bad collection of freebies. You don’t have to be a blogger to create pages on the web: Here’s the output of Google Page Creator. I tagged it in Delicious so it doesn’t get lost.

Personally, I use Google’s calendar, docs, gmail, groups, notebook, photo software, reader, and talk. It’s cool that these all reside on the web so that I can reach them from anywhere. (I foresee a future something like William Gibson’s vision in Neuromancer: I jack into Cyberspace with a deck and that becomes my reality.)

Magazine reporters complain that Google apps lack the features of their Microsoft counterparts. Generally, I find this a good thing. Better lightweight than so laden with features you get lost in them. And of course Google apps are free. But what really makes them an advance in learning technology is that they are collaborative. Several people I work with can consult my calendar, and I, their’s. I’m writing several documents collaboratively. I’ve set up group blogs. Google reader gives me a way to set up whatever RSS feeds interest me at the moment. Cool, eh?

All in all, a rather striking platform for self-service learners. How much do you think you’d have to pay Accenture to set something like this up for you?

Tony Karrer praises Google Desktop Search, not even on the list because it resides on your hard drive instead of their servers. Desktop Search indexes everything on your hard drive. This lets you recall documents, emails, whatever, whenever you need them. Good-bye email folders. No more document folders to assign things to. On average, Desktop Search saves me 30 minutes a day. That’s three hours a week — almost a month of work time saved in the course of a year. And the work I’m getting rid of is secretarial, hardly my highest value-add.

One final point about learning with Google. Google owns Blogger. Blogger is a drop-dead simple way to set up a free blog. It’s on the Google Desktop.

I’ve been helping people get up to speed with informal learning in general, and web 2.0 support in specific. Friends I’ve discussed this with agree that if you want to get your head around web-based learning, you simply must write a blog. When I say “write,” I mean at least 20 entries. You can’t appreciate what this is without doing it yourself.

0 comments ↓

#1 Becky Smith on 02.19.07 at 5:32 pm

Jay, Nice post. Many of your readers may not realize that Google’s index of your files is put up into the Googleplex in the sky and is not solely resident on the users desktop. If for any reason you don’t want your stuff to be indexed this way, be sure to look closely at exactly how Google Desktop Search works before you activate it.

I’ve also been told that it slows things down – supposedly addressed but not sure about status of this potential problem.

#2 Marilyn Martin on 02.20.07 at 6:53 am

Thanks,Jay, for the nice review of Google tools. You missed one of my favorites, Google Notebook. NB allows you to clip information for the web, make notes, organize info, and then share with others. I use it often when doing collaborative work with project teams or for clients. Wonderful tool.

#3 Parag Shah on 02.21.07 at 6:32 am

Hello Jay,

Very nice post. I recently gave a talk to some students about the importance of blogging for the “learning professional” (The slides are shared on my website… not posting the link, since this post may then be marked as spam).

Blogging is an excellent way for people to reflect, write, and communicate with a community of practitioners.

I encourage all my students and workshop attendeed to engage in blogging to improve their thought process and learn.

Jay, do you have any anecdotes of how blogging has helped your workshop attendees learn better. I (and many others, I am sure) would like to hear about how different people are using blogging as a tool for learning.

–
Parag

#4 eduFutureBlog» Blog Archive » My Personal Environment on 02.28.07 at 2:56 am

[...] Angesichts der zunehmenden Diskussionen zu Google Desktop als PLE (hier, hier und hier, wie man in der Blogger-Szene gerne zitiert ) erscheinen mir persönlich die Protopage-Möglichkeiten als Personal Environment doch vielfältiger und ansprechender … [...]

#5 zine.betablog.de on 03.07.07 at 6:29 am

Generation Google – überholen ohne einzuholen…

Goggle als Webmailer, als Terminplaner, als Office-Ersatz, als Lernplattform. Keine Frage, Goggle wird immer beliebter. Und einflussreicher. Wird Google am Ende zum Microsoft des Internetzeitalters?…

#6 Google Desktop Konfusion « c/o operative on 03.23.07 at 9:15 am

[...] Als erstes klickte ich auf Jay’s Beitrag. Dort stellte sich schnell heraus, dass der Altmeister Google Desktop als Sammelbegriff für alle möglichen – vorwiegend webbasierten – Google Applikationen gebraucht, angefangen von A wie Analytics bis W wie Webmaster Tools. Aus seiner Liste ist lediglich Google Talk in dem Sinne eine Desktop Anwendung, dass der Client auf einem lokalen Rechner installiert werden muss. [...]

#7 edu.blog » Blog Archiv » Google Desktop as learning platform on 12.31.07 at 8:21 pm