A new way of doing things on campus

Josh remembers the old days at college, when working on a group project meant trekking through the snow (uphill both ways, of course) to meet with his team in the library, followed by endless rounds of back-and-forth revisions (in red pen, no doubt). And by old days, he means last year. As Josh—a rising senior at Princeton University—heads back to campus this fall, he and his classmates will be getting a whole new experience with Google Apps for Education.

Princeton is just one of the many colleges and universities now using Google Apps. In fact, seven of the eight Ivy League universities and 72 of this year’s top 100 U.S. Universities (as determined by 2013 U.S. News and World Report’s ranking) have gone Google, too.

We’re also welcoming 14 other new schools to the Google Apps for Education family, just in time for back-to-school:

• Bates College
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Georgetown University
• Princeton University
• Rice University
• Smith College
• Stony Brook University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of Colorado, Boulder
• University of Dayton
• University of Mississippi
• University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences
• Vassar College
• Virginia Tech

By going Google, students and teachers have access to a whole new way of doing things: They can better collaborate in and out of the classroom; office hours can be held via hangouts; e-portfolios can be created and maintained in a Google Site; professors can give real-time feedback in a Google document (no red pen necessary); and group projects can take place across continents instead of side-by-side in a library.

And this is just the beginning. As more schools go Google, we continue to be amazed by the creative ways students and teachers are using technology to work better together, and we’re looking forward to the surprises in store this school year.

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Google Apps for Education

(Cross-posted on the Google Enterprise Blog.)