Student Window

Over on the Docs Blog , Dr. Helen Barrett – a retired teacher educator and independent researcher – has written up some good tips about using “E-Portfolios” as a sort of digital resume, and how you can use Google tools to help you create your own. If you’re interested in learning more, check out this example and stop by the Docs Blog to read more about how you can use Google Sites and Docs – among other online tools – to build your own virtual portfolio. Posted by Peter Harbison, Google Docs Marketing Manager

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Creating your digital resume

Salone is a rising senior at Stanford University and has spent her summer interning with the Search Marketing team in Mountain View. As summer jobs wrap up and stores abound with “Back to School” sales, the end of summer vacation is imminent. For me, the end of August means registering for classes, endless packing sessions, shopping trips to buy a growing list of “essentials,” and the inevitable jitters that accompany the start of a new academic year. Whether you’ve been dying to get back to school or suffering from the end of summer blues, we at Google put together some study tips to help you jumpstart your school year. From getting a head start on your reading and research interests with Google Books and Google Scholar to slicing and dicing your research with timeline or wonderwheel, we hope these tips help you stay on top of your classes and get the most out of Google. But don’t fret – we know that back to school is also about catching up with your friends after a long summer. So take some time out of your busy class schedule and plan some downtime with Google, too. Good luck and here’s to a great first semester! Posted by Salone Kapur, Associate Product Marketing Manager Intern, Search Marketing Team

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Jumpstart your school year with Google

Stephanie is interning with the Google Docs Marketing team this summer and surveyed students to find out about how you’re using Docs on and off campus. Last month I asked you how you use Google Docs on campus. After hearing from over 50 students, I wanted to share some highlights of what we learned from you along the way: How do students mainly use Google Docs? Brainstorming Whether it’s taking notes during a group project brainstorm session or outlining a research paper, Google Docs helps you get your thoughts down quickly and allows you to access them from anywhere later. Group work Many of you use Google Docs to contribute your part to a group project, but just as many use it outside the classroom. Student groups are collecting RSVPs with Google forms, taking meeting minutes with Google documents, and balancing budgets with Google spreadsheets. Personal record keeping Have a to-do list or want to keep a weekly budget? Many of you are using Google Docs to stay on track with daily tasks. Your favorite thing about Google Docs? Collaboration Backing up important work is great too, but far and away students enjoy being able to contribute to the same document with friends and classmates. And it’s not just about the class projects. For instance, Students for Obama used Google spreadsheets to tell each other who had participated in phone banks, who was going on certain trips, and who would complete certain tasks. Most creative uses we heard from you: “Two of my friends used Google spreadsheets to play Dungeons and Dragons with each other.” – Chris, Worchester Polytechnic Institute, Computer Science “We used Google Docs to plan a spring break trip for Habitat for Humanity. It helped us keep track of phone numbers, dinner menus, etc.” – Jacinda, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science “Our club leadership used Google Docs for everything from constitution-writing to picking the new board, and during interviews, we would take notes on interviewees in the same doc.” – Justin, Harvard University, Anthropology Thanks to everyone who volunteered your time; it really helps the Google Docs team key in to what’s important to students so we can continue to make the product better for you. With back to school right around the corner, I’m interested to try out some of your ideas in my own campus life, and I hope some of these ideas may inspire you to get started with Docs as well. Posted by Stephanie Vezich, Google Marketing Intern

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The results are in – how students like you use Google Docs

During which international crisis did Ian Fleming get “firsthand knowledge of espionage” that shaped the character of James Bond? Which infamous book thief got caught stealing from the Chicago Public Library and was later acquitted on grounds of insanity? And which American president is pictured here in 1913 as he traveled through the streets of Argentina? Stumped? Find the answers to these and other fun questions in the Google Books game . Each day, we ask you five trivia questions on a different theme. Search Google Books to find the answers with hints to help you along the way. After you answer the day’s questions, you can enter a contest to win a Sony Reader. For official rules, including prize descriptions, visit http://books.google.com/game. So to all you bookworms and trivia gurus out there, start playing now! (Please note: some books may not be available in full view to those outside the United States.) Posted by Hicham Alaoui, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Google Books

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Play the Google Books game

Last year we launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge — a global university competition that gives undergraduate and post-graduate students hands-on exposure to online marketing. Working with their professors, teams receive the equivalent of US$200 to spend on Google AdWords advertising, then work with a local business to devise an effective online marketing campaign. Teams are given three weeks to mastermind the strategy before submitting a campaign report to an international judging panel of professors. Today we announce the results; our global winners come from Deakin University, Australia and were taught by Chia Yao Lee and Bardo Fraunholz . The team of Andrew Kidd, Richard Blakely, Kevin Fung, Clinton Hinze, Katalin Kish and Howard Lien worked with a local kids play center, www.littletigrrs.com.au , to create a well-crafted campaign that highly impressed our judges. Clockwise from top left: Richard Blakely, Chia Yao Lee (professor), Katalin Kish, Kevin Fung, Bardo Fraunholz (professor), Howard Lien, Andrew Kidd, Fiona and Mike (from Little Tigrrs), Clinton Hinze and Mick, The Big Hearted Tiger Read more about the challenge and the other top finishers on the Official Google Blog . We sent a survey out to every participating team, professor and business and the results were overwhelmingly positive. One professor noted, “The Google Online Marketing Challenge is among the most practical learning experiences one can offer their students. Thanks, Google!” Students seemed to agree, one commenting, “The Google Challenge enabled me to develop my online marketing and consultant skills by working with a real business. The Google Challenge has been the best assignment I have ever had!” And finally, my personal favorite favourite: “The teams have bonded and the learning process was blissful in every way! Our BEST memories ever: Thank YOU for having opened the Challenge to overseas students. It means the WORLD to us!!!” For anyone interested in competing in the 2010 Challenge, formal registrations will open later this year, but in the meantime you can register your interest . Posted by Lee Hunter, Product Marketing Manager

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It’s kids play for winning students in the 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge

In the spirit of graduation season, we’re doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more! Whether you’re starting a new job, or traveling for a few months, or moving to a new city, you might want to keep a journal of this time in your life. Personally, I’ve been very unsuccessful with keeping journals or diaries over the years. It was always something I aspired to, but my notebooks would ultimately be full of blank pages. For a while, I tried blogging as well, but my commitment to writing daily posts waned over time. That is, until I learned a useful feature in Blogger that made documenting the day-to-day events of my life super simple. And since then, I’ve kept up with my posts for over 2 years! I essentially photo blog, meaning instead of writing lengthy text posts about my life, I just capture what goes on in pictures that I post online. What makes this process even simpler is that I’m able to take a spontaneous photo on my mobile phone, email it to my blog’s address, and have the photo published within seconds. After doing this for two years, it’s amazing to go back and look at what I took a picture of months or a year ago, and to remember what I was doing or who I was with at the exact time and moment the photo was posted to my blog. If you want to do this, here are some steps to get started: Follow the steps at www.blogger.com to create a new blog for yourself (if you don’t already have one). After you’ve created your blog, go to “Settings”. Click “Email & Mobile”. Under “Posting Options,” fill in the field to create a Blogger email address for your new blog (make sure to keep this email address secret!). Select “Publish emails immediately”. Click “Save Settings”. Now take a photo on your mobile phone, and email it to the Blogger address you created. The subject line for the email will be the post’s title, and you can include text in the body of the email that will appear along with your photo on your blog. Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager

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Grad tip: An easy way to journal using Blogger

In the spirit of graduation season, we’re doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more! It wasn’t until after my friends and I had graduated and left the bubble that was our college life that I realized how much I’d taken our years of proximity for granted. For four years, we were never more than a 10 minute walk or a quick bike ride away from each other. And now we’re in all parts of the world, in different time zones, and sometimes separated by long flights. If you and your friends are scattered across cities too, you should try keeping in touch with voice and video chat in Gmail . You can either make a voice call (pretty much a phone call, but it’s free and you don’t have to use up your cell phone minutes!), or if you have a web cam, you can make a video call to chat with friends “face to face.” To make use of this free service in Gmail: Download the voice and video chat plug-in. Log back into Gmail. Make a voice or video call to any friend that has a camera icon next to their name in your chat list by selecting their name and clicking “Video & more.” So even though graduation may make you feel far away – now you can stay close with Gmail! For more Apps news Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products, check out the Google Apps Blog ! Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager

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Grad tip: K.I.T. using Gmail’s voice and video chat

In the spirit of graduation season, we’re doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more! Transitioning into post-college life can be pricey, so chances are, you’re living (or planning to live) with roommates. Managing expenses and a tight budget can be tricky, especially when you’re not just managing your own. So we’re letting you know about the ’shared house expenses’ spreadsheet available in the Google Docs templates gallery. It covers all the usual house hold expenses: electricity, gas, water, Internet, phone, groceries, etc. Just enter dollar values for how much people spend on each item, and the spreadsheet will automatically display charts and details like how much each person owes everyone else. This spreadsheet template was actually created by Googlers who live together and have to manage their own household expenses together. Here’s a video of them talking about their own experience. And if you’re also interested in better managing your own money, you can browse the template gallery to find other helpful tools, like the personal budget tracker and the credit card payoff calculator . For more Apps news Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products, check out the Google Apps Blog ! Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager

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Grad tip: Manage home expenses in a Google Docs spreadsheet