Google Using Certified Teachers to Reach K-12 Students
Google for Educators is a new Google outreach program which offers K-12 teachers the chance to become Google Certified via the Google Teacher Academy.
The Google Teacher Academy is a pilot program designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. The Academy is a one-day experience at Google’s Mountain View Headquarters where participants get hands-on experience with Google products and other technologies, receive instructional resources to share with colleagues, and share innovative instructional strategies with other local educators. Upon completion, Academy participants will become Google Certified Teachers.
Sure, Google is an information and research centered company, but the Google Certified Teachers program conjures up memories of In-School Marketing such as Coke Machines in the cafeterias, Book Covers sponsored by Nestle or Dominos Pizza, and the Apple (Computer) for a Teacher programs.
Marketing to school children is a fairly old tactic and can be done tastefully, remember those Scholastic Magazines, but we must remember that search engines are also a multi-billion dollar business and by harnessing the influence of teachers, Google is essentially cutting out the middle man and going directly to the talking heads who teach our children.
More on Google For Educators from the Google Press Release:
K-12 Educators Put New Google Resource Center to the Test
We’ve been hearing stories from classrooms across the US where teachers at all grade levels are using Google products to bring assignments to life, shine light on new sources of information, and encourage sharing and collaboration. What we also heard loud and clear was teachers’ desire for more information about our products and more connections to other educators who are using the web creatively. That’s why we’ve launched a set of resources for K-12 educators today at www.google.com/educators.
A teacher in Virginia uses Picasa with his students to create picture collages of famous Americans. At a school in California, teachers use Google Calendar to schedule events and reserve resources such as the computer lab and projectors. One teacher in Chicago has her students practice graphing data using Google Earth, the spreadsheets in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and earthquake data from the U.S. Geological Survey. And students across the country completing their English homework on the word processor in Google Docs & Spreadsheets will always be able to find that assignment, no matter what computer they’re working on.
Note : Google is not the first search engine to use educators in an attempt to influence the search behavior of the future, Ask.com also heavily promotes their information retrieval services to school librarians and media center staff members.
Now this is what I call a really ‘adaptive organization’.They have targeted the K-12 educators which can seed the company’s positive image in the minds of students from early of their childhood. And in these times of web 2.0, educators also need the knowledge of resources available so that they can provide better education.
Yahoo! held a similar teacher seminar for 100 bay area teachers this past summer.
I do not think this harms the children in any way. They will simply learn how to use tools to help them accomplish tasks and stay organized. However, google may have intended to target the students with this campaign.
This is not new. Are you suggesting it is inappropriate or should be prohibited to have Google invite teachers to learn about their products?
Teachers give assignments requiring research all the time. Are you suggesting students should use other methods of research? If so who chooses which ones and who funds the education?
I may hav3 missed your point, What are you suggesting should be done?
DON’T BE A FOOL!!!! MOST TEACHERS ARE THE MOST TECHNOLOGY ILLITERATE FOOLS YOU WILL EVER MEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is a FACT that teachers have lower IQ scores, reading, writing, and math skills than the population as a whole. When it comes to technology – THEY ARE MORONS!!!!
For Christ’s sake – in many school districts they are still arguing MAC vrs PC or WordPerfect vrs WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The rest of the world went forward with reasonably good, functional technology more than a DECADE ago – Google is dragging these idiots into the 21st Century (usually kicking and screaming) and you want to make it out to be a “conspiracy”.
Don’t know who is more ignorant – you or the typical teacher – oh wait, another option just occured to me – maybe you are one of these dipsh@ts yourself!
On the contrary, I find that most teachers are very intelligent, but incredibly overworked, without the time or funding to get tech savvy.
How many other jobs can you think of where you are managing and training 30 people, expected to pay for your own continuing job training, and take work home with you (even on weekends), and after 10 years on the job are still paid less than 40k/year?
As far as the choices about hardware and software, those choices are not made by teachers, but by the all-knowing school executives.
As far as ranting against teachers, I suspect you would not be able to read or write without the intervention of a teacher.
“The rest of the world went forward with reasonably good, functional technology”
What tech would that be? AFAIK Macs vs PCs is a worldwide thing, and by far most of the world is not computer literate, that is most of China, India, Africa, Indonesia…
@Michael
first off the above poster is right.. Education majors (and subsequently teachers) on average have lower scores across the board, they really are dumber than the rest of ut.
Secondly, I used to do technology support for school districts, and yes it’s the administrators who make the decisions, but the old saying applies: those who can, do. those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t even teach, administrate!
… and those of us who can’t do any of that like to litter posts on intellectual capabilities with typos! ut? how in the h*** did i type “ut” ??
It sounds like Johnny-boy is the real MORON. Your argument is about school districts and the poor hardware and software teachers are using. How does this make the teacher less intellegent?What a small world you live in Johnny-boy. I suggest you find a better topic to RANT about. You are exposing your stupidity. Go back to school and you will find better things to discuss.
I would like to thank all commenters for your participation in this thread and those who found this posting via Digg.com yesterday.
My sticking point behind this post is not that teachers are being `brainwashed` by corporate America, it is that when teaching search and the use of web applications to students, some diversity thrown into the puzzle would be appreciated and I hope Boards of Education take this into heart.
Sure Google, Yahoo, Live.com and Ask.com offerings are all amazing in their own way, but having students only use offerings from one company in the classroom will not enhance their user experiences.
In this case, it`s not Coke or Pepsi, Nestle or Mars… it`s information; and I hope to never see the day when search engines or Internet services are signing contracts with schools to be their `official` service.
I went to the training. They talked about other services available and really just offered tips on how to use the free tools more effectively. I’ve always had a good impression of them, so it didn’t change much after the training.