Google
is an integrated platform of digital tools for education
While Pearson creates content and makes profits from
intellectual property and education services, Google provides online spaces and
apps with its "Google Education Apps." These provide platforms for digital
educational activity, without the corporation taking any direct role in the
content that is developed or how it is used educationally. The Google terms of service provide that
"your institution (or students, faculty and staff) are the sole owners of
your data." (Google, 2014)
What Google calls the "core apps" offered
to education are the same that are generally available--Gmail, Google Calendar,
Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Sites and an Apps
Marketplace. Google claims that Google
Apps for Education are used in 145 countries.
The business model is essentially for Google to be
the platform for online activity and using the data collected in that process
to target ads to users. Google makes a
commitment not to push advertising on student use of the tools. However, profit potential exists in the
integration of children into its overall service which produces revenue in the longer term as students
continue to use the tools introduced through the education apps and have their
work stored in the Google cloud.
The Apps Marketplace creates revenue from
Google-developed apps and others integrated with the Google platform, but
developed by third parties. Google Play
for Education offers ebooks (at a cost), textbooks and novels and
non-fiction. Students can read on a
Chromebook or an Android tablet--additional sources of revenue.
The content is all stored in the cloud, so a school
or district does not have to provide tools or workspaces for students, but the
student uses the same tools and content where ever they have access to the web.
Google
expands its reach with unpaid teachers
Part of the diffusion strategy is a professional
development program. Google offers a
step-by-step planning guide for the creation of a district or school plan for
implementing Google education apps. It
offers an apps training centre and uses a train the trainer model with the
"Google Apps Education Certified Trainer" program and Google Apps School
Guides. While Google provides the online
framework for professional development, the actual work is carried out by the
educators without any cost to Google.
(Google, 2014)
Google provides management tools to teachers that
allow control of access to students and the exclusion of others who might want
to see what the students are doing. This
provides a level of security for student use, although the revelations about
the NSA spying on masses of data indicate the degree to which belief in privacy
is wishful thinking. And, of course, Google itself knows a great deal about you
from every time you do a search, use gmail, Google maps, Google alerts, Google
phonebook,etc., etc., etc.
(However, at least one Canadian province, British
Columbia, has privacy laws which prohibit personal data from being stored on
the cloud because of the US laws that allow for government agencies to access
personal data without a requirement to inform the person whose data has been
accessed. This means that use of Google
services by students is outside the law, but still common.)
We
are all unpaid workers in the gift economy
Google's overall strategy, and its education
strategy, is to depend on the 'gift' economy and third party developers. A platform is only of value if there is
content that is of interest to potential users or a place to share one's own
ideas and content with others who might be interested. Google apps are of use because of the content
that can be accessed, but Google does not have to provide any of the labour
involved in the creation of content. It
is able to provide access to massive online content with very few employees or
payments to outside content providers.
Wang and Ames critique " information
determinism" that "is tied to...the belief that free and open access
to information can create real social change." The free information frame means that
"anyone who leaves any information trace becomes a worker (albeit unpaid)
for these companies, since that data can be monetized through advertising and
other means." (Wang and Ames, 2010)
References:
Davis, M.
(2013). "Ed. Companies Exert Public-Policy Influence." Downloaded April 4, 2013 from http://bit.ly/1cgSNzf
Google.
(2014). "A technology
platform schools can trust."
www.google.ca/apps/intl/en/edu/privacy.html.
Downloaded January 2, 2014.
Google. (2014). "Guide to Going
Google." Downloaded from
https://sites. google.com/a/googleapps.com/k-12-guide-to-going-google/ January
2, 2014
Wang, T. and Ames, M. "Global Discourses of Information: Questioning the Free Information
Regime." Downloaded February 8,
2014 from https://webfiles.uci.edu/mgames/research/ubicomp2010-wang_ames_information.pdf
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