Sun Devils Get Their Google On

In a move that lends some cred to the 800-pound gorilla of the interwebs, and adds some hip to their own bad selves, Arizona State has adopted the search giant's "Google Apps for Education." Hosted e-mail, Google Calendar, and a bevy of googlicious integrations with sundry apps, hacks, and APIs will make students [@] ASU all Web2.0-ish. I guess that means at least a few profs may have to accept papers submitted as "collaborate" links to Writely, or some of the engineering department will be spreadsheeting online. And of course, let's not leave out the ubiquitous Blogger.com and blogspot, for all those late-night who-was-drunk-at-the-party posts. And-- watch out!-- now YouTube integration.

It's all very postmodern ultra-hip. And, quite frankly, probably a great score for both parties, in that Google gets a high-profile client in the higher-ed space, and ASU scores some (relatively) cheap IT support. Cool, huh?