Google Apps for Education has had a big year, further emphasizing Google’s push for cloud computing. A push that has included a recent guarantee of 99.9% uptime on certain Google Apps. Cloud computing with Google Apps has often been discussed in the business context, and it is clearly quite relevant to the education field as well.

Miriam Schneider of the Google Apps for Education Team talks a bit about what the crew is up to. Schneider says:

2008 was an action-packed year for Google Apps for Education. We grew by 300% since last year, released two new products: Google Sites and Google Video, heard directly from thousands of students on our cross-country road trip across the U.S., celebrated our two-year anniversary, and fostered new relationships with schools across the globe who have decided to make the move to Google Apps.

We think this is an early sign of change to come. In fact, according to a recent study, 71% of universities are currently considering a hosted solution, and 56% of those schools are going with Google Apps for Education.* We spend a lot of time talking with educators and students, and it’s clear that they’re as enthusiastic as we are about all the new possibilities and potential that these services provide in and out of the classroom.

Google Apps Education Edition indcludes:

– 7.276626 GB / account of email, shared calendar, and collaboration tools right from the browser

– Free with no advertising for students, faculty and staff
 
– Ready to integrate with many APIs and use of Open Standards

– Add-on security and compliance tools available at a 66% educational discount

– Google Video for education.

Google is changing the way schools educate students in many cases. Just look at this page displaying ways teachers are using Google Docs. Of course there is plenty of educational benefit to Google’s YouTube property as well.