Google Apps for Education vs Microsoft’s Live@edu

The second part of our look at the free online apps for education from these kingpins of the software industry.

One of the first things that struck me about Google’s “Education Edition” of Google Apps was that their informational pages seemed a lot less cluttered than Microsoft’s. You get a cleaner, more precise overview, and while there is some depth to the information and links provided, I didn’t find myself with the sensation I had on the Microsoft Live@edu pages, where I was quickly lost, clicking from link to link across a seemingly endless set of pages, link, goofy videos, etc. The functionality available in Google’s Apps for Education were easy to learn about.

Applications in the Google Apps for Education toolset

* Communication Tools: Email, Messaging, and Shared Calendars
* Collaboration Tools: Google Docs, Google Sites (team website creation), Google Video
* Infrastructure Solutions: Host your own domain, API’s for Single Sign-On, Centralized Admin console, and more

Looks like these offerings are pretty similar to those from Microsoft in their Live@edu environment, and much like Microsoft’s tools these also work with many common operating systems and browsers. So, how do we dig a bit deeper and learn more?

[Please click here to continue reading the complete post at EmergingEdTech.com, where I blog regularly about the use if Internet technologies in education. Thanks!]

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