Hordes of students flocked to a tent in front of the Rock on Friday to learn about Google’s free e-products and to receive free Frisbees, whiteboards and stickers from the famous mega-company.
The eco-friendly Google Bus, which is bio-diesel and solar powered, made the final stop on its “App to School” tour on Friday, teaching students how to use Google Applications such as Google Documents and Google Calendar.
“The apps speed up the process of communication,” Google Assistant Marketing Manager Miriam Schneider said. “Students are mobile people. [The apps] allow students to access the stuff whenever you need to.”
The cross-country “App to School” tour, which passed through nine other college campuses before its final stop in Evanston, aimed to generate feedback about how college students are using Google apps and also to answer any questions students may have regarding Google services.
Graduate student Mark Chicu was impressed with the demonstrations provided by the Google experts. “There’s a lot of stuff Google does I don’t yet use,” Chicu said. “It was nice to have it all laid out for me.”
The tent featured multiple computer stations where experts showed students how they could better communicate on campus with Google Calendar and Documents, among other “apps.”
According to Northwestern University Information Technology, over 90 percent of students now use Gmail. The university switched to the service over a year ago.