Announcements

ASU and Google: A Match Made in Heaven

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

If you have used your ASU email account this semester, you are likely well aware of the full conversion from the old EMMA system to the new Google-hosted email accounts for all students, faculty, and staff. This partnership goes well beyond just an email account. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting articles and tips about the various Google applications that are available for free to each and every one of you.These tools can help you become more productive, as well as make collaboration between classmates and coworkers easier. (You know - those dreaded Group Projects that professors are so fond of?)

I’ll be following this schedule, and if anything changes I’ll post an update:

1. 11/7/2007 - Documents 101
2. 11/14/2007 - Spreadsheets 101
3. 11/21/2007 - Presentations 101

Without going into too much detail, I’ll share a few observations I have made since using the services. One of the major benefits I have discovered by regularly using these Google tools is that I never have to worry about where my documents and files are saved. Because the services are web-based, everything is saved automatically on Google’s secure servers. I don’t have to worry about loosing my thumb drive or saving stuff to CDs. (does anyone do that anymore?)

I also can’t remember the last time I lost any information. I’m sure there are plenty of you out there that have lost pages of typing because you forgot to save before the computer froze up. I’ve been there before and it’s incredibly frustrating. With Google’s applications, that isn’t the case. It saves your documents automatically as you work. Not only that, they keep a record of past saved versions. So if you ever want to revert back to an old paragraph that you’ve already deleted, it’s still there for you to see.

Hopefully you’ve experimented already with these tools. If not, stay tuned for tips on how to incorporate them into your life here at ASU.