Gmail Driving Google Apps Adoption at College

This article discussed the expansion of Google apps on college campuses. Google is trying to encourage universities to drop their previous email host and other software and go straight Google. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this switch, which is why I had some mixed feelings while reading the article.

At first, the proposal sounds too good to be true. Students can email, collaborate, and share everything they want for no cost to the school. Using Google in college would allow students to continue using the same account after leaving college. It would be a universal account for students who transfer from one college to the other and it would allow the easy access to documents from any location with internet access.

If you stop to think, the picture isn't quite as perfect. Although, I enjoy using Gmail and many other applications, they don't always seem as user friendly as opening a word document or excel file. One immediate problem is that not everyone has internet access and, especially in the rural areas, there isn't always high speed internet available. Trying to use these applications while on dial up is frustrating and often ineffective. There is also the concern of security. When a campus has control of the email accounts and other applications they can create more specific filters and fire walls.

I think that it is good most colleges aren't jumping on the Google train without thinking first. They are mostly finding ways to utilize the benefits of both worlds. This is another great feature of Google, you can use as many or as few of the features as you want. http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2007/08/gmail-adoption-driving-google-apps.ars