The Google Apps Marketplace contains great third party applications that integrate with your Google Apps domain. Lucid Chart is one that I often recommend. Until this week Google Apps Marketplace apps could only be added to a domain and a user's account by a domain administrator. That has changed with the latest update to Google Apps. Now Google Apps for Edu domain administrators have the option to allow individual users to add apps from the Google Apps Marketplace. Domain administrators can also choose to customize which apps are made available to their domains.
Applications for Education
In the past if there was a Google Apps Marketplace app like Lucid Chart that a teacher wanted to use, he or she would have to ask a domain administrator to add it. This update makes it possible for domain administrators to give teachers the rights to adding the Marketplace apps that they want to use.
The Google Apps Marketplace has had some good education applications since its launch last year. At that time I showed you how to add services like Aviary to your Google Apps for Education account (note, you need to have administrative rights to add apps to a Google Apps for Education domain). Today, Google announced that they have launched a separate education section to the Google Apps Marketplace. In the new EDU section you will find services designed for school use that you can add to your Google Apps for Education domain.
Learn more about the education section of the Google Apps Marketplace in the video below.
Note, not all of the services in the Marketplace are free.
Earlier this week the Google Apps Marketplace opened to everyone. Thanks to Fred Delventhal, one of the first apps that I learned was in the Marketplace is Aviary. Aviary offers free, web-based, image editing services and sound editing services. You can find some of my previous posts about Aviary's services here, here, and here.
By offering their services for free in the Google Apps Marketplace, Aviary is allowing anyone using Google Apps for Domains (either education or enterprise editions) to integrate Aviary services into the Google services they're already using. When added to your Apps, Aviary will appear in your list of Google Apps services just like Docs, Reader, and all of your other favorite Google tools.
Here is a video produced by Aviary about using their services in Google Apps.
Aviary isn't the only service with educational uses in the Google Apps Marketplace. You can also find some free scheduling tools, document synchronization tools, and security applications. Most of the offerings in the Google Apps Marketplace are not free. Hopefully, in the future there will be more companies like Aviary who see the value in offering their apps for free to educational institutions.
Applications for Education Integrating Aviary into your Google Apps will provide your students with a free, easily accessible alternative to Photoshop and other expensive images editors. Aviary's sound editing service also provides students with the ability to work on sound mixing projects from multiple computers.
