Collaboration is the key

Our APT STAIRS project was reported in the Guardian today, mentioning the benefits of online collaboration within the Bloomsbury consortium. To view the article online click here.

APT Project Demonstrator Lunch

On the 11th November the APT STAIRS team held a luncheon to say a big thanks to all the demonstrator leader's contributions, and to hold a brainstorming session on Google Docs API developments.

For more details about the Demonstrator Lunch, just visit our Demonstrator Lunch web page, where you will find information on how we engaged everybody in our brainstorming session, as well as pictures and live footage from the event.

Bloomsbury Survey Results

For all you of you who contributed to the Bloomsbury Survey of Web Use we would like to thank you again for all efforts, as your answers and comments have provided us with some very useful and valuable data.

So for anyone interested in viewing the results of technology use across the Bloomsbury Colleges please go to our Survey Analysis web page. Here you will find a Report on our findings along with a set of graphs to represent the data from academics, students, researchers and support staff.

Back up Google Docs to your hard drive

You can now download all your Google Docs documents to your hard drive with a programme called Syncplicity.

Syncplicity is a file back up and synchronization service, that works with your Google Docs account.

Once that initial sync process between Google Docs and your local Office document folder is done, you can edit any document locally using Microsoft Office Word or OpenOffice and Syncplicity will automatically upload the updated version of the document on to Google Docs.

This is very handy if you need to edit documents offline (like in a plane or a taxi) without requiring a browser with Google Gears.

Also, if you create a new document in your Google Docs account, a copy of that document will get downloaded to the local folder so you always have access to the document even without internet.

At the moment Syncplicity is free during it's beta period, and is very easy to use, with it's colourful user friendly interface.

New Spreadsheet interface

The new Spreadsheet interface has been updated, to look and feel more like the other Google Docs applications - Presenter and the Word Processor. The menu tool bar is neatly compacted at the top left hand side of the screen to access all the spreadsheet features, and shortcuts for all the most commonly used features have been placed in the tool bar.

The Forms have been updated too, being able to use drag and drop options when creating forms, as well as providing a new feature called 'show analysis', which displays your results in a graphical representation.

Google Docs Screencasts

New Google Docs video tutorials are available from our website, just go to the 'Training' page and select Google Docs Screencasts.

There will be many more video tutorials to come on the Word Processor, Spreadsheet and Presentation applications, but if you have any requests on a particular tool or feature with Google Docs, just let me know.

Happy viewing.

Bloomsbury Survey Results

As our Bloomsbury Survey of Web Use officially closed last week, we randomly selected our 5 lucky winners, for the £300, £150 and 3 x £50 Amazon vouchers. The winners from the RVC, BBK, IOE and SOAS will be presented with their Amazon vouchers at the Project Demonstrator Lunch on the 11th November at the London Knowledge Lab.

We are currently working with the survey data, which we will share with you on our website soon. We will create a brand new page on our website devoted to the survey analysis, to represent web use patterns, which we will be using as a guide for our next phase of the project - Google Docs API developments.

Google Mobile launches tomorrow!

The long awaited Google mobile phone will be launched tomorrow in the states, which will no doubt run in competition with Apple's Iphone in the run up to Christmas. It's expected the Smartphone's will be released in the UK in November.

Google have kept quiet about the technology of the phone, so no one knows exactly what to expect, other than the mobile phone will run on 'Android', which is Google's own mobile operating system, and it will be touch screen with a pull out QWERTY keyboard. It will also have a built-in GPS (global positioning system), a tilt sensor for gaming and will be available exclusively on the T-Mobile network. We also expect that the new phone will be able to run Google's range of web applications, such as Google maps, Gmail, Googles new web browser Chrome and of course Google Docs : ) So hopefully we can start editing on Google Docs with Google's handheld device, and not just view!

How students use technology to learn

I grabbed this abstract from the Educause Connect website, which is a website dedicated to transforming education through information technologies.

"Students use technology in natural ways that allow them to do what they want: communicate with anyone they want, in the time and space that suits them best. Easily accessible and user-friendly, collaboration tools allow students to explore, share, engage, and connect with people and content in meaningful ways that help them learn. By relying on the familiar ways students use these tools, faculty can enable new forms of communication and engagement in the classroom, permitting extensions and variations of the informal interactions already occurring in classrooms and hallways, and creating new frontiers for collaboration across geographic boundaries."

To read the full report click here.

Google's new browser

Google have recently launched their very own web browser - Chrome.

Chrome has been recognised as being part browser and part operating system from it's multitude of features, beating other popular web browsers in speed, stability and search.
Although Google say they are not necessarily competing with popular web browsers, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, instead they are attempting to provide a tool for todays web applications and todays web users. It has been recognised that the web is being increasingly used for online applications, and Google wanted to create a new browser to manage multiple applications such as Facebook, Bebo, Flickr, Zoho and Google Apps. So this is good news for us Google Docs users, as this will mean a much faster and efficient service with all Google's applications.

Check out the 10 best features of Google Chrome:

Google Docs Forms update

Google Docs have recently gone through some changes with the Form application.

With Forms you can create surveys or any question based form, and collect the data from a GDocs Spreadsheet. Originally you could only create Forms (which are part of the Spreadsheet application in GDocs) from a Spreadsheet.
Recently the Forms have gone through a few interface changes; firstly the Forms can now be created from the list page view (Google Docs home) from the New drop down menu, secondly there have been some GUI changes, to make the application easier to use.

New additions to the website

We've added two extra pages to the website; Google Docs Training and Demonstrator Projects.

The Google Docs Training page consists of 4 sections to help you get started with Google Docs. There's a Quick Guide manual to Google Docs, a help point to ask any queries you have with Google Docs and YouTube and Screencast videos on using Google Docs.

The Demonstrator Projects page has been updated, with new links to provide more information about the individual projects.

So have a look and feel free to write a comment on the blog...

Google V's Microsoft

It seems that we are not only comparing web based office suites, but also the platform giants - Google and Microsoft.

Since the explosion of 'collaborative office based suites' (such as Google Docs, Zoho and ThinkFree) Microsoft have since launched their own collaborative office version called 'Office Live Workspace'. Whilst there have been many comparison reviews on Google Docs V's Office Live, Google Docs appears to come out on top when it comes to the collaboration features. However, some users may prefer using the familiar MS Office interface.

Whilst the debate over Google and Microsoft continues, I think Google Docs should pay more attention to the competition from the new up and coming collaborative tools online, such as Remember The Milk and Seesmic.

Google Docs Vs Zoho Vs ThinkFree

Web-based office suites have made a transition. While at first they simply imitated desktop applications in a Web browser, the new collaborative capabilities have developed new ways of working and studying, creating a whole new market in the web 2:0 environment. They've begun to grow away from simply imitating Microsoft Office to developing personalities of their own.

Google Docs, Zoho and ThinkFree appear to be the most popular web based office suites, and they have all been written about extensively on the web, so I'll save you from yet another comparison review! But from all the reviews I have read, in comparing functions and features, Computer World's review is the best one I have read so far. So have a read or judge for yourself to decide which one is best for you!

Over 2,000 institutions worldwide using Google Apps

Carrying on from my last blog on the Google Apps Education Edition , the latest news has just revealed that over 13 U.S institutions have just signed up to Google Apps, bringing over 2,000 institutions worldwide to Google's cloud computing.

Jeff Keltner, Google business development manager, wrote in his latest blog post. "Google Apps Education Edition is gaining momentum: more than a million users worldwide have adopted it to embrace the possibilities of technology in education."

The schools that have recently signed on to Apps include Collin County Community College District, Francis Marion University, George Washington University, Indiana University, Kean University, Kent State University, Kishwaukee College, Loyola Marymount University, Montgomery County Community College, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Florida, University of San Diego, and the University of Virginia.

Since debuting in October 2006, the free access to Google Apps allows students and staff free access to email and collaboration tools. It's also been reported that it's quick and easy to set up, as well as being versatile. "Technically Google Apps can be up and running in a matter of minutes," according to a spokeswoman. "Some universities offer services to just students and others offer to students, faculty, and staff."

The Web is less about the individual and more about a personal experience of participating in a group for work and play, says Jeff Keltner, business development manager for Google Apps Education Edition.

Google are also launching a 'App to School' road trip - a 10 stop tour coast to coast to talk about Google's applications.

The Telegraph moves over to Google

It seems we're not the only ones trialling out Google applications in professional settings. The Telegraph Media Group (TMG) began trialling out Google Apps 6 months ago, and they have already decided to move all of their 1,400 employees over to Google Apps. To read more click here.

Google Apps is a suite of applications; Google Calendar, Google Sites, Gmail, Google Talk and of course Google Docs! These applications are designed to increase collaboration amongst group settings.

After the Telegraph's 6 month trial with Google Apps, the TMG CIO Paul Cheesbrough said: "The feedback was, as far as IT trials go, overwhelmingly positive. People were able to find things much quicker and share things much quicker. So the feedback was good and certainly the bulk of the people who trialled, it would have been very difficult to take it away from them - and if you'd have said that to me at the beginning of the year, that would have been quite surprising."

Google also offers a package for educational institutions, Google Apps Educational Edition, which the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, has recently adopted. Click here to read more.

Google Docs just gets better!

Google Docs is constantly updating to make our lives easier, and now they have just brought out Templates and Dashboard.

Templates allow you to create a document, presentation or spreadsheet easily and quickly, by offering pre-set designs that you can use for your own purpose. There are over 300 template designs to choose from, whether you're creating an invoice, timesheet, slideshow, party/wedding invitation, budget form etc, they have it all for you!

To create a template simply select 'new' from the list page view and select 'Form template' from the drop down menu. You should then see a page that looks something like this:




The other new feature is the Google Docs Dashboard which saves advanced searches. Besides showing the list of saved searches in the sidebar, Google Docs creates an iGoogle-like page with containers that include results for each of your saved searches. You can reorder the containers using drag and drop and select the maximum number of results.

Depending on the way you use Google Docs, the dashboard is a great opportunity to group related documents, see a list of recently published documents, display the content of a folder or the documents shared with you by a collaborator.

To create a new container, click on "Show search options", build your query and click on "Save this search". A simple example of container shows all the documents from the "School" folder that have been shared with you:

APT STAIRS Project features in theTimes Higher

Our Project has been featured in The Times Higher Education! Check it out on our news site:

http://sites.google.com/a/jiscapt.net/project-plan/Home/News

Post Launch

Apologies I haven't written in here sooner, we were all having a little breather after the launch event. The team and I were extremely pleased with the success of the event; from the interesting speakers from Google and JISC, to the audience enthusiasm with Google Docs. The pictures of the event are on the site, so have a browse through!

Now the launch has officially opened our APT STAIRS project, we're all getting our hands dirty with Google Docs. So far we have 6 Google Docs projects lifted off the ground, and have more in the pipeline. We have a variety of projects on the go, including a project involving the use of Ipod Touch mobile devices in the classroom.

I'll be back soon with more blogs and updates on the website, including a new page on project developments.

Project Launch this week!

Recently we've all been working hard on the APT STAIRS Project Launch for this Thursday at the London Knowledge Lab.

We're looking forward to meeting everybody there, and for anyone interested in attending the event who hasn't already signed up please contact me on: c.bell@bloomsbury.ac.uk to reserve a place, as places are going quickly.

P.S The team will all be wearing APT STAIRS T-shirts so there will be no mistaking who we are!

The website is officially here, so blog away!