Google Workshop by APU

A3 is proud to organise the Asia Pacific University (APU) Google Workshop on 6 July 2015 at SMJK Tiong Hua, Sandakan. This workshop provides 29 high school students and 3 teachers with a very valuable opportunity to learn about using Google properly.

The Google Workshop was a perfect fit for the participants as they consist mainly of students from the ICT class. Many people, including working adults don’t really have the knowledge is using Google’s various applications and tools properly. Among the applications covered in the 20hour workshop include Calendar, Contacts, Emails, Google Docs.

A very large number of smart phone users have a Google Android phones and many don’t realise that a lot of data in the phone is backed up in Google servers via their registered account or email. Changing a phone, for example when upgrading to a new one does not mean you need to go on Facebook to ask your friends to PM you their contact. Just start the new phone with the same account and all the backed up data, including your contacts and applications will be automatically downloaded into your new device.  On Google Calendar the users can share as many of their calendars with other users as they wish. This is very convenient for those who work in a business partnership or even students who wish to set a date for a group meetings.

Students in the workshop also learn that Google recognize words, even if you have a typo or punctuation as long as the key words are there. Student was able to learn how to use Boolean queries using the symbols ( – ) , ( “” ) , ( ; ) and many more to get better results. Have you seen a photo and wonder where it was taken or who is the person in the picture? You can now find the place or person by just dragging a picture into Google Image Search. The amazement on the student faces was enough to tell us that the workshop was a success.

There were so many things that students and teachers have learned at the brief 1.5-hour workshop. Students were given a quiz at the end of the session and everybody was raising up their hands eager to answer all the questions.