UPDATE 9/30/11 – the Google SketchUp Pro Statewide K-12 License Grant is available to other states and countries, too! Click here for more information!

Have you heard?  The New Jersey Department of Education recently announced the availability of a statewide Google Sketchup Pro license!

Quoting from their release:

Google SketchUp is a 3D modeling software application that is used extensively by schools worldwide. Although there is a free version of SketchUp, there is also a Pro version which is typically a product for which schools must pay. Google’s new SketchUp Pro Statewide K-12 Licensing Grant is now being offered to all states within the USA who want to provide an opportunity for their schools to use this valuable tool, at no cost to anyone.  New Jersey has applied for and been granted a Statewide K-12 SketchUp Pro license.

Google Sketchup has implications throughout the curriculum the Pro version has many features the regular version does not. Click here or on the image below for a comparison:

You have to give props to the NJDOE for their help getting this tool in the hands of K-12 students statewide. Bravo!

Again, for more information and to apply for a school license, visit http://www.state.nj.us/education/techno/SketchUp/.

Hope this helps,

-kj-