Education On Cloud Computing Model With Google Apps
For a long time, experts and solution developers to Cloud Computing left fatherless and Education Sectors linked, not long ago, there were few solutions for this segment. But time has changed and now the landscape is different. Currently the benefits of using Cloud Computing technologies became much more evident. Technology has evolved and is now valid and applicable to both the education sector and to other market segments.
The pursuit of educational institutions that pioneered the adoption of training solutions in the cloud led them to live with the improvement of teaching quality vs. cost reduction. For a time the prospect of economic crisis became superfluous investments in this environment. However, the numerous advantages of using Cloud Computing gravitated the balance in its favor, and now the technology has been considered as a viable alternative in many educational institutions.
There were several solutions for this segment. Some are unreliable and of questionable efficacy, however, Google stands out for having high standards of reliability and affordability. It is the main reference in Internet searches and works continuously innovating, and is a pioneer in cloud computing technology. Because of this, it is at the forefront of this technology and created a version of Google Apps to meet the needs of the education sector, Google Apps for Education.
Google Apps for Education
Google Apps for Education is free. The number of users that can be created is not limited, however, the entity must meet certain prerequisites to acquire this condition. Normally this is allowed for educational institutions that do not seek profits. They must demonstrate this activity with appropriate documents sent to Google. Private institutions who cover for their activities shall procure the Google Apps Business solution.
Components of Google Apps for Education
Google Apps for Education is composed of the same applications available in Google Apps Business version except just Google Video. Included Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites in this package. There is a limitation on the size of the mailbox version of Google Apps for Education that is 10GB per user.
Regardless of the organization, millions of students in schools, colleges and other educational institutions have realized the advantages of the cloud in their academic life, and come with Google Apps to tackle the challenges posed in their day-to-day life.
Benefits of Google Apps for Education
For educational institutions, there is the concern of cost and maintenance with no hardware or apply patches (software patch). Educational institutions that have made the transition to Google Apps have benefited from significant cost savings (TCO). The result is that now they are channeling their forces to innovate in their own systems.
Communication and Collaboration
Of all the benefits of Google Apps in education, collaboration is clearly the most noticeable. The educational community is in its components, especially in Google Talk and Google Docs, many advantages to sharing / collaboration of knowledge, including creating collaborative networks.
Google Sites
A notable component of Google Apps that is not yet widely used is Google Sites. It allows students and teachers to set Intranets specific area of interest, thus facilitating the spread of topics and contents in an easy and uncomplicated way for the community academic.
Cloud Computing technology is the focus of Google Apps, so it offers a dynamic and uncomplicated features like easy to use and intuitive. Currently it has been recognized by various educational institutions around the world as a solution to reduce infrastructure costs and hiring specialized personnel for development, simplifying and democratizing access to information and knowledge dissemination.
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