Google apps for education
In the 1980s a company created a suit of productivity tools for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations. That company than began to market their suit of products to schools. Soon, they indoctrinated an entire generation of users (my generation) to their software. The company was Microsoft and the software was Microsoft Office. While Microsoft continued to make upgrades and changes to Office, they did not consider the paradigm shift to Web 2.0. Microsoft Office was originally designed for one user at a time. With that functionality at its core, Microsoft has not been able to reimagine Office for online collaboration, creation, and curation.
Google saw a need for a more collaborative suit of productivity tools. They created Google Apps back in (circa) 2007 and followed Microsoft's business model of offering it to schools. Google made one important change from Microsoft. They offered, and still offer Google Apps at NO COST to schools. Google is creating a generation of Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets users. Google Apps is cloud-based, connected to a user account and not the device. It is ubiquitous, simple to use and allows students to create a digital portfolio of work that will follow them beyond the walls of Independence Schools.
Independence Local Schools is a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) district. This means that every student and staff member is given a username and password to log into the Google Apps for Education suite of products. GAFE allows for collaboration, creation and curation in the digital world. GAFE utilizes "the cloud" to store all files, bookmarks, and other digital content.
Access
Android, Mac, PC and iOS can all access GAFE. Students can move nearly seamlessly from device to device and continue working on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and webpages that were previously opened on another device. In the cloud, work follows your account, not your device. No more worrying about a dropped device, flash drive that went through the laundry or a bent floppy disk.
The Basics
Every Google Apps for Education account comes with a core suite of creation apps. These apps automatically save to a user's Google Drive. Think of Google Drive as your digital flash drive. The core apps are Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawing, and Forms. These Google apps are comparable to Microsoft Office and Apple iWorks. While they help teach our students how to create using a word processor, presentation, spreadsheet and image application; they offer much more. Built-in collaboration tools like the "share" button allow students to work on the same document, at the same time. No more chasing down multiple versions of a file via email attachments and flash drives.
What Else is Included
Beyond the core apps of GAFE, Google allows third-party companies to create apps, extensions and addons for use with Google products. These apps are vetted by Google and available either in the Chrome Web Store or directly in specific Google Apps like Docs, Sheets and Forms. Independence students and staff also have access to products like Google Calendar and Gmail to help them organize and communicate digitally. These products also follow a user's account, not their device, meaning information can be synced with a smartphone app and bookmarked on multiple devices.
Control and Transparency
Every Google Apps for Education account (@ipride22.org and @independence.k12.oh.us) is supervised by the Director of Technology, Mike Pennington. Google allows school districts to push apps and bookmarks and user settings to help give our students a better online experience. All email and files stored in Google Drive are backed up in a free application by Google called Vault. Within Google Docs, Sheets and Slides is a built in revision history. Every change in these files is stored and connected to the user that created those changes. Teachers can visually see the edits a student makes to an essay, students can track the changes members of their group make during a group assignment and parents can check the time and date that their child is completing their work. There are other free features with the Google Apps Ecosystem that also aid in tracking student work and provide clarity to paperless workflow.
Google saw a need for a more collaborative suit of productivity tools. They created Google Apps back in (circa) 2007 and followed Microsoft's business model of offering it to schools. Google made one important change from Microsoft. They offered, and still offer Google Apps at NO COST to schools. Google is creating a generation of Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets users. Google Apps is cloud-based, connected to a user account and not the device. It is ubiquitous, simple to use and allows students to create a digital portfolio of work that will follow them beyond the walls of Independence Schools.
Independence Local Schools is a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) district. This means that every student and staff member is given a username and password to log into the Google Apps for Education suite of products. GAFE allows for collaboration, creation and curation in the digital world. GAFE utilizes "the cloud" to store all files, bookmarks, and other digital content.
Access
Android, Mac, PC and iOS can all access GAFE. Students can move nearly seamlessly from device to device and continue working on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and webpages that were previously opened on another device. In the cloud, work follows your account, not your device. No more worrying about a dropped device, flash drive that went through the laundry or a bent floppy disk.
The Basics
Every Google Apps for Education account comes with a core suite of creation apps. These apps automatically save to a user's Google Drive. Think of Google Drive as your digital flash drive. The core apps are Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawing, and Forms. These Google apps are comparable to Microsoft Office and Apple iWorks. While they help teach our students how to create using a word processor, presentation, spreadsheet and image application; they offer much more. Built-in collaboration tools like the "share" button allow students to work on the same document, at the same time. No more chasing down multiple versions of a file via email attachments and flash drives.
What Else is Included
Beyond the core apps of GAFE, Google allows third-party companies to create apps, extensions and addons for use with Google products. These apps are vetted by Google and available either in the Chrome Web Store or directly in specific Google Apps like Docs, Sheets and Forms. Independence students and staff also have access to products like Google Calendar and Gmail to help them organize and communicate digitally. These products also follow a user's account, not their device, meaning information can be synced with a smartphone app and bookmarked on multiple devices.
Control and Transparency
Every Google Apps for Education account (@ipride22.org and @independence.k12.oh.us) is supervised by the Director of Technology, Mike Pennington. Google allows school districts to push apps and bookmarks and user settings to help give our students a better online experience. All email and files stored in Google Drive are backed up in a free application by Google called Vault. Within Google Docs, Sheets and Slides is a built in revision history. Every change in these files is stored and connected to the user that created those changes. Teachers can visually see the edits a student makes to an essay, students can track the changes members of their group make during a group assignment and parents can check the time and date that their child is completing their work. There are other free features with the Google Apps Ecosystem that also aid in tracking student work and provide clarity to paperless workflow.