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.
