Google Apps for Education

These are exciting times in Seymour...we have made a definitive decision to leverage the powerful Google Apps for Education suite here in the Seymour Public Schools.  This has been something that I have envisioned for several years now and to see it materializing is pretty cool.  Getting started on the other hand, is a bit overwhelming.  There are many considerations that must be addressed before you just "turn it on" and it's important to make sure that those decisions are informed and not done in a rush.

So far we have registered our domain and verified ownership.  We also opted to create a sub-domain (students.seymourschools.org) so that we could have our students using Gmail while our staff stays on the legacy Exchange server which we have configured and in place.  It seems that Google is moving all of the archiving and security to their servers from the 3rd party applications such as Postini so we will be leveraging those services from the start.  This is something that is very new to us here in Seymour because we have never had e-mail accounts for our students.  This is going to be a welcome advancement for staff who have been struggling for years with setting up students accounts and sharing through Google.

The next steps now are to provision our users and setup the groups and policies.  This is something that must be considered carefully because you do not want to have to hit the reset button after you realize you made a mistake in organizational structure.  I will be conferring with New Canaan Public Schools' Tom Honohan quite a bit moving forward as he has been my go-to contact the past few weeks (and months really).

I will continue to update our progress through this blog and look forward to sharing our experience with everyone else.  If you are reading this and have gone through the process...please drop a comment with any advice.  Also, if you are a school district setting up your school right now, let's chat and compare notes.  Until the next installment...

Oh by the way...in addition to setting up GAFE we are also going to be piloting the Acer Chromebook in several different classrooms at the elementary, middle and high school level.  Like I said at the beginning of this post...these are exciting times here in Seymour!

Google Drive

For a while now I have been using Google Docs in conjunction with Dropbox to save files to the cloud for access on the web.  Recently, Google introduced a new name for docs and added some great features for saving, publishing and sharing files online.  Google Drive is a cloud based file storage solution that also incorporates Google Docs and some elements of Google Plus as well.

After uploading or creating a file in Google Drive you can share it as you would previously in Docs publicly or with a link.  New to Google Drive is the ability to discuss files and folders with others on the web and also one click sharing to your Google Plus circles.  Some of the new features that I really think will be useful are the search feature which will allow you to not only search text in docs files but also scanned files.  I also liked that Google Drive will allow you to open all file types right within the application including those files that require a special program such as Photoshop files and PDFs.  For more information about Google Drive check out the video below.




Now What?

Google Drive is another service which is free and accessible form anywhere with a network connection.  These cloud based storage solutions are great for students who do not want to carry around a flash or e-mail files back and forth.  The new feature which allows for threaded comments could be quite useful for students sharing files back and forth with one another or the teacher.  Currently Google Drive is offering 5GB of free storage.

Google Apps

When talking about the newest buzzwords associated with 21st century literacy, Google Apps is always included because of it's accessibility, ease of use and of course it's price, which is absolutely nothing!!! So what is Google Apps? At this point, I don't think there is anyone in the world who isn't aware of Google and the word "apps" stand for applications or computer programs. In this entry I am going to limit the apps to the three that I think are the most useful to you as a teacher, Blogger, Sites and Docs.

Blogger: http://www.blogger.com

The word blog is short for "web log" and the possibilities for educators are virtually limitless. Blogs can be created by teachers for students, such as this one that I used when teaching computers here at the middle school, used as a tool for student writing and collaboration (ideas here), or accessed as resources by teachers looking for fresh instructional ideas. Two education blogs that are worth reading include Kathy's Schrock's "Kaffeeklatsch" and David Warlick's "Two Cents Worth". One other site worth checking out is David Warlick's blogmeister site where teachers can set up classrooms and monitor their students' conversations and comments. Dina has used this site in her classroom and may have some insight on how it can be used. Google's Blogger application is free to use and very simple to setup. Click on the link above to get started today!

Sites: http://www.sites.google.com

Google Sites is the easiest way to make information accessible whether it be for your students or if your students are creating something for you or the class. Using sites, students can work together to add file attachments, and information from other Google applications (like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa). Creating a site is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it's just yourself, your students, or the entire school. You can even publish your site for all the world to see. The best part is that the Google Sites web application is accessible from any internet connected computer and is completely FREE! Check out this site to see how other teachers are using this web application to their benefit!

Docs: http://www.docs.google.com

Google Docs is essentially Microsoft Office but with a twist. It's an easy to use web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables you and your students to create, store and share instantly. Google Docs also allows users to collaborate online in real time on the same project. You can create new documents from scratch or upload existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations that were previously created with Microsoft Office. There's no software to download, and all your work is stored safely online and can be accessed from any computer. This eliminates the need to carry around a flash drive all the time or e-mail files back and forth. Below is a great video where teachers and students discuss how they use Google Docs throughout the course of their school year. After watching the video, check out these ideas on how you can use Google Docs in your classroom!

So now you know a little more about some of the web applications that are available to you on your quest to educate. To get started all you need is a Google account which can be set-up here. After that you are on your way to becoming a technology guru!