(Network World) You can think of it as "Schoogle."

That would be Google Inc.'s laid-back but unflinchingly ambitious plan to woo college and university IT departments into outsourcing not just student e-mail but also Web-based productivity applications and calendaring to the search company.

And a growing number of schools are doing just that. This week, Google announced 13 academic institutions had signed up for the free, and ad-free, cloud-based services, ranging from the Collin County Community College District, in Plano, Texas, to giants such as Kent State and Indiana University.

That brings the total number of Googlized institutions worldwide to about 2,000 since the Google Apps Education Edition program was announced almost two years ago. Google said that there are now 1 million active users among their students and faculty. To promote the idea, Google also announced that it's launching in September the "App to School" road trip, a 10-stop tour, aboard an "eco-friendly" bus, visiting schools from coast to coast to talk about Google applications and listen to what students have to say about them...............


More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9111342&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1