"A class in what?" is how folks usually respond.
Can't say as I blame them much. And I'll acknowledge up front that it will not be a terribly rigorous course; but it will be a rich one. While managing the search engine will certainly be included, we're also delving into Gmail, Google+, Docs, Maps, Blogger, Picasa, and YouTube.
Doing well in the course will require a significant time commitment, including viewing videos that add up to roughly the time equivalent of the number of lecture hours we'd expect in an on-campus course. In addition, students will have to demonstrate via objective quizzes and projects that valuable (albeit oftentimes fun) skills have been learned. At least one project will involve integrating a few of those tools listed above. It will be a real college-level course.
And here's the kicker. You know that "cloud" thing that's all the rage today, but it's a little hard to pin down exactly what it is? In this course, students will be learning what "the cloud" is by delving in and working in it. Slippery concepts will be learned by doing, and the term will lose much of its mystery.
Yep, I'll be teaching a Google class. And if it works out the way I have in mind, we'll get some good, strong learning out of some good, clean fun.
