Just about four years ago, Google launched Apps for Education – a version of Google’s online productivity tools (including Gmail and Google Docs) that is geared towards K12 schools and colleges. Now, Google just announced, there are over 10 million students, staff, faculty and alumni that are actively using Apps for Education. With the beginning of the new school year, Google must have added about 2 million new users, as the company cited 8 million users until just a few weeks ago.
Some of the Schools that Switched to Google Apps this Year:
Gonzaga University, Barnard, Brown University, William and Mary, Villanova University, Georgetown School of Business, Case Western Reserve University, Hawai’i Pacific University, Brandeis University, more than half of the 23 campuses in the California State University system, Morehouse University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Texas A&M Alumni, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, 13 of the SUNY schools, Pace University and Wilfrid Laurier
Just a few weeks ago, our own Audrey Watters pointed out that the number of states and school districts that are thinking about moving to cloud-based offerings like Google Apps for Education continues to increase. Moving to the cloud can provide these colleges and school districts with significant savings.
It’s worth noting that Google is not the only company that is targeting this market, although it has been very successful in its campaign to win over more schools. With Live@edu, for example, Microsoft offers a similar suite of online productivity tools for students.
