Thursday, January 26, 2012

Googland

Googland

[G] Bringing Chromebooks to every classroom

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 06:43 PM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Bringing Chromebooks to every classroom

Posted by Rajen Sheth, group product manager for Chromebooks
Cross-posted to the Chrome blog

Editor's note: We're posting from sunny Orlando, where we're chatting with schools at the annual FETC ed-tech conference. We wanted to share highlights from our keynote this morning, which featured a panel moderated by Tom Vander Ark, author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World. You can watch a replay of the keynote on YouTube. If you're in town, come visit us at our booth #1101 - we'd love to say hi!

When we first conceived of Chromebooks, we were focused on providing a device that brought you to the web in the fastest, simplest and securest way possible. What we didn't realize at the time was that this device would be so welcome and popular in classrooms! Many schools are eager to improve access to the web and technology for students and are planning to provide each student with their own device – a concept known as "1-to-1" computing. We've heard from our customers that they choose Chromebooks for 1-to-1 because the simplicity of the web takes away the hassle for teachers, students and administrators.

During our keynote at FETC this morning, we had the opportunity to share some exciting news: hundreds of schools in 41 states across the U.S. are using one or more classroom sets of Chromebooks today. As a highlight, three new school districts in Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina are going 1-to-1 – that is, one Chromebook each for nearly 27,000 students.
  • Council Bluffs Community School District in Iowa is planning a Chromebook 1:1 Initiative for all 2,800 students in their two high schools and will use an additional 1500 Chomebooks in their two middle schools
  • Leyden Community High School District in Illinois will roll out devices to 3,500 students in their two high schools
  • Richland School District Two in South Carolina is going 1-to-1 with a total of 19,000 students

It's great to see this positive momentum for Chromebooks in classrooms. It's similar to where we were about five years ago when Google Apps was just getting off the ground. At that time, educational institutions were the most interested and it was inspiring to hear the different ways schools and districts had begun using Gmail, Calendar and Docs. At FETC we've been similarly excited to see how teachers have formed communities around professional development for Chromebooks, districts all across the US are piloting Chromebooks in their classrooms, and more and more reach out to us to learn about Chromebooks for Education every day. We believe Chromebooks and the web have the ability to facilitate learning in a powerful way, and we're committed to helping schools recognize their goals to go 1-to-1.

But enough words from us. We'd like to close with thoughts from representatives of each of these school districts.

"From my perspective, Chromebooks couldn't get any simpler; setting up this many laptops would have typically taken our team at least 3 months. And from the instructional side, we are teaching content not technology, and Chromebooks simply support teachers in what they do best while giving students the resources they need to be productive citizens. As just one example the quality of work that students turn in has improved literally overnight - from incomplete sentences to full paragraphs, in some cases - because they are much more engaged and participating readily in class."
David Fringer, executive director, information systems at Council Bluffs Community school district, Iowa

"When we started on our digital evolution path we were looking for just the right tool - one that is invisible and gets out of the way to allow students and teachers to focus on instruction. With Chromebooks our students are publishing, producing and sharing with each other, and best of all, we don't have to assign students a particular device number. Any student can use any device because all their work is saved online - for that matter they could access their work from home while logged in from the Chrome browser."
Bryan Weinert, director of technology at Leyden school district, Illinois

Student at East Leyden high school selects a Chromebook from the charging cart. With Chromebooks, students can work on any device in any class period and access their work from anywhere - including from the Chrome browser installed on a home computer.

"Chromebooks make our 1-to-1 computing dream a reality. Teachers don't need to add 'help desk' to their job description, and they save valuable class time knowing they can instruct students to close the Chromebooks to stay on task and they won't have to wait when it's time to open them again. Furthermore, we've seen that any behavior issues become an absolute non-issue because the technology is so compelling."
Tom Cranmer, executive director of information technology, Richland School District Two, South Carolina

Fifth grade student teaches a younger student how to use a Chromebook in the Chrome Buddy project in Tim Swick's classroom at Pontiac Elementary School in Richland School District Two.

Learn more about Chromebooks for Education on our website, and join us for the Chromebook Classroom webinar series, Wednesdays at 9AM PT/12PM ET.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/01/bringing-chromebooks-to-every-classroom.html

[G] Update to Search Engine Optimization reports

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 06:43 PM PST

Google Analytics Blog: Update to Search Engine Optimization reports

In October, we made Google Webmaster Tools available to all users in Google Analytics, allowing everyone to surface Google search data in new Search Engine Optimization reports. Starting today, Webmaster Tools will update how they calculate data to make it better match expectations about what a search engine ranking really means.



Based on their research, the answer to the question "What is your rank in search results?" is the first position of a link to your site. Previously we reported the average position of all links to your site. Now your Google Analytics reports will be updated to reflect the first position.



An example calculation















We anticipate that this new method of calculation will more accurately match your expectations about how a link's position in Google Search results should be reported.



How will this affect my Google Analytics data?

This change will affect your Search Engine Optimization reports, when your data in Google Analytics Search Engine Optimization reports will be calculated using the new method. Historical data will not change. Note that the change in calculation means that the Average Position metric will usually stay the same or decrease, corresponding to the same or improved search ranking.



We look forward to providing you a more representative picture of your Google Search data. Please let us know any feedback you have.



Posted by Chris Anderson, Google Analytics team


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tRaA/~3/9GemYTFd4sw/update-to-search-engine-optimization.html

[G] New and improved sidebar help widget

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 12:21 PM PST

Google Affiliate Network: New and improved sidebar help widget

Last week, we made some updates to give users quick access to comprehensive and interactive help within the Google Affiliate Network interface.

In the lower left of each page in your account, you'll see a new and improved help widget that displays relevant help information based on the page you're on.



Benefits include:
  • Advertisers can quickly access the Getting Started Guide and learn about creating links, supplying merchandising information and advertiser-specific terms, and more
  • Publishers can get quick access to the Publisher Beginner's Guide, learn about setting up product feed subscriptions, and watch a step-by-step video on setting up link subscriptions
Need an answer fast? Use the search box to get information from Help Center articles, forum posts, and even this blog -- right within the widget. You can click the search results to find more detailed information in a new browser window without interrupting the work you were doing in the interface.

Take a minute to check out the new sidebar help widget. You may discover features you're not yet taking advantage of, and learn some affiliate marketing best practices, too.

If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you in our forum.

Posted by:
Josh Pyle, Affiliate Network Strategist
Jessie Chavez, Software Engineer
Sabrina Gana, Publisher Support Specialist
URL: http://googleaffiliatenetwork-blog.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-and-improved-sidebar-help-widget.html

[G] Bringing Chromebooks to every classroom

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 10:11 AM PST

Google Chrome Blog: Bringing Chromebooks to every classroom

Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog.

Editor's note: We're posting this electronic communication from sunny Orlando, where we're chatting with schools at the annual FETC ed-tech conference. We wanted to share highlights from our keynote this morning, which featured a panel moderated by Tom Vander Ark, author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World. You can watch a replay of the keynote on YouTube in a few hours. If you're in town, come visit us at our booth #1101 - we'd love to say hi!

When we first conceived of Chromebooks, we were focused on providing a device that brought you to the web in the fastest, simplest and securest way possible. What we didn't realize at the time was that this device would be so welcome and popular in classrooms! Many schools are eager to improve access to the web and technology for students and are planning to provide each student with their own device – a concept known as "1-to-1" computing. We've heard from our customers that they choose Chromebooks for 1-to-1 because the simplicity of the web takes away the hassle for teachers, students and administrators.

During our keynote at FETC this morning, we had the opportunity to share some exciting news: hundreds of schools in 41 states across the U.S. are using one or more classroom sets of Chromebooks today. As a highlight, three new school districts in Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina are going 1-to-1 – that is, one Chromebook each for nearly 27,000 students.
  • Council Bluffs Community School District in Iowa is planning a Chromebook 1:1 Initiative for all 2,800 students in their two high schools and will use an additional 1500 Chomebooks in their two middle schools

  • Leyden Community High School District in Illinois will roll out devices to 3,500 students in their two high schools

  • Richland School District Two in South Carolina is going 1-to-1 with a total of 19,000 students




It's great to see this positive momentum for Chromebooks in classrooms. It's similar to where we were about five years ago when Google Apps was just getting off the ground. At that time, educational institutions were the most interested and it was inspiring to hear the different ways schools and districts had begun using Gmail, Calendar and Docs. At FETC we've been similarly excited to see how teachers have formed communities around professional development for Chromebooks, districts all across the US are piloting Chromebooks in their classrooms, and more and more reach out to us to learn about Chromebooks for Education every day. We believe Chromebooks and the web have the ability to facilitate learning in a powerful way, and we're committed to helping schools recognize their goals to go 1-to-1.

But enough words from us. We'd like to close with thoughts from representatives of each of these school districts.

"From my perspective, Chromebooks couldn't get any simpler; setting up this many laptops would have typically taken our team at least 3 months. And from the instructional side, we are teaching content not technology, and Chromebooks simply support teachers in what they do best while giving students the resources they need to be productive citizens. As just one example the quality of work that students turn in has improved literally overnight - from incomplete sentences to full paragraphs, in some cases - because they are much more engaged and participating readily in class."

David Fringer, executive director, information systems at Council Bluffs Community school district, Iowa

"When we started on our digital evolution path we were looking for just the right tool - one that is invisible and gets out of the way to allow students and teachers to focus on instruction. With Chromebooks our students are publishing, producing and sharing with each other, and best of all, we don't have to assign students a particular device number. Any student can use any device because all their work is saved online - for that matter they could access their work from home while logged in from the Chrome browser."

Bryan Weinert, director of technology at Leyden school district, Illinois



Student at East Leyden high school selects a Chromebook from the charging cart. With Chromebooks, students can work on any device in any class period and access their work from anywhere - including from the Chrome browser installed on a home computer.

"Chromebooks make our 1-to-1 computing dream a reality. Teachers don't need to add 'help desk' to their job description, and they save valuable class time knowing they can instruct students to close the Chromebooks to stay on task and they won't have to wait when it's time to open them again. Furthermore, we've seen that any behavior issues become an absolute non-issue because the technology is so compelling."

Tom Cranmer, executive director of information technology, Richland School District Two, South Carolina



Fifth grade student teaches a younger student how to use a Chromebook in the Chrome Buddy project in Tim Swick's classroom at Pontiac Elementary School in Richland School District Two.

Learn more about Chromebooks for Education on our website, and join us for the Chromebook Classroom webinar series, Wednesdays at 9AM PT/12PM ET.

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Group Product Manager for Chromebooks
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2012/01/bringing-chromebooks-to-every-classroom.html

[G] Now offering Docs for Takeout

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 07:58 AM PST

Data Liberation: Now offering Docs for Takeout

It's been easy to liberate your Google Docs in lots of different formats for awhile now -- ODT, PDF, RTF, Text, Word, HTML -- you name it. Starting today, you can export them along with everything else on the Google Takeout menu.

Choose to download all of the Docs that you own through Takeout in any of the formats mentioned above. We're making it more convenient for you to retrieve your information however you want -- you can even Takeout just your docs if you'd like. Lastly, be sure to click on the new "Configure" menu if you'd like to choose different formats for your documents.


Posted by JJ Lueck, The Data Liberation Front
URL: http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/2012/01/now-offering-docs-for-takeout.html

[G] A new initiative connects analysts with non-profits

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 07:58 AM PST

Google Analytics Blog: A new initiative connects analysts with non-profits

The Google Analytics Team has always supported the promotion of analytics education and professional development. We'd like to share this guest post by Wendy Greco & Eric Peterson from Analysis Exchange - an initiative designed to provide hands-on training opportunities for aspiring web analytics professionals while providing free web data analysis to the entire nonprofit community.



In the right hands, technologies like Google Analytics can do great things, but unfortunately not every organization is able to hire resources to dedicate to web analytics. What's more, there are thousands of talented individuals out there who would love to work in this field but don't have the hands-on experience required to get their first web analytics job.



Two years ago Web Analytics Demystified looked at this problem from both angles and decided to create a solution - The Analysis Exchange. The Analysis Exchange pairs a non-profit organization with pair of web analysts --- one a student wanting the experience and the other a mentor with years of direct work in the field.  The trio work together to have the student learn to use Google Analytics to "tell a story" with the data about how the non-profit can better meet their business goals.



Thanks to the generosity of all of our sponsors and participants, Analysis Exchange projects are completely free. Google Analytics is the standard analytics tool for Analysis Exchange for a few key reasons:

  • No cost means it is accessible to all non-profits

  • Nearly 100% of the non-profits we work with already have it installed

  • Our students find Google Analytics incredibly easy to learn

  • Our mentors, even if they don't use Google Analytics day-to-day, pick it up immediately

Most importantly, Google Analytics attention to ease-of-use dramatically improves our non-profits likelihood to continue to use web analytics after Analysis Exchange projects.  Our mentors and students teach them to fish, and Google Analytics becomes the fishing pole.



Most Analysis Exchange projects take less than a few hours for non-profits and mentors.  Students spend more time, but students have the most to gain as they develop the types of "Analyst Ninja" skills that are required to get a great job in this field. We're looking for more partners to sign up to the The Analysis Exchange - who are interested in supporting this initiative.



You can learn more about our effort at www.analysis-exchange.com or write our Executive Director Wendy Greco directly at wendy.greco@analysis-exchange.com.



Posted on behalf of Wendy Greco & Eric Peterson


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tRaA/~3/Lq902mf-9AQ/new-initiative-connects-analysts-with.html
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