Google Bus Tour--Student Gmail Video

A few weeks ago, I posted the Horizon Report which predicted that Cloud Computing was one of the two big technologies to watch--Google Apps is one of those--it means that the services stay up on the web, rather than being dependent on our single desktops or laptops.

Campus Technology ran a story yesterday about the fall Google Bus Tour to ten campuses. They wanted to see what students knew about Google Apps and how they were using them. Their findings: Two camps of students--those who were way into Google Apps and those who didn't know much about them (not surprising). They said usage increased after they showed students how they could be used rather than just talked about them (learning news?). They also learned that people may use them in ways we don't expect: '"We use that to track where the free food is on campus."' :).

CMC uses Google mail for students on campus. How do students get Gmail here? After a student registers, he or she is entered into Web-Advisor. The person can then go to http://www.coloradomnt.edu/webadvisor site and logon as a first-time user to see his or her user name.

Next, on to http://my.colorado.mtn to set up the Gmail account. To do so, the user logs on with his or her web-advisor name and the last six digits of the SS#. After logging in the student clicks onf the "Gmail" in the Student Toolbox, types the characters in the captcha prompt, accepts the terms, and clicks "Create My Account." (Thank you, Bill Sommers, for these details.)

Here are some videos of how student users explained their uses of Gmail during the Google Apps Tour. You can view additional video about student use of other apps here. Additional tools include word, presentation, and spreadsheet apps to name a few.