Advise on "selling" Google Apps Education Edition

Hi:

My wife recently started a new career as a teacher at a local public school district here in California. They use Outlook Web Access exclusively for their email with no IMAP, POP3, etc. So this also means no mobile devices and a frustrating experience for non Windows platforms.

It seems (to me) like the entire school district (admins, teachers, parents, and maybe even students) would benefit greatly if they moved to Google Apps Education Edition. They would likely save money at the same time as I’m sure they are spending money keeping their Exchange system online.

I’m considering lobbying for this change and am seeking advice on the best way to make this happen. Or is there even a better solution than GAEE? What sort of obstacles might I encounter?

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Casal on October 4, 2010 at 6:03am

Some districts are confoudning.

NYC has a Google Apps license. We have full Google Apps access. What is the one thing the NYC DoE won't let us use? GMail. We use the web-based Outlook.

I'm not sure which is worse, no Google Apps at all, or teasing us with free Google Apps access and blocking GMail.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Casal on October 4, 2010 at 9:20am

Phones may be able to get Exchange, but it'll cost $$$.

The DOE's Exchange server is free and easy via the iPod/iPhone/iPad, but costs significantly to setup on the Blackberry and Android.

Google is free and easy all the way around.

And with what the DOE allows us to use Outlook for, which is straight basic email, I don't see any loss to teachers by moving to GMail as a client (some City high schools have abandoned the City email for their own domain name hosted on Gmail.).

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Casal on October 4, 2010 at 9:52am

When the DOE set up the server they initially left all the ports open and Blackberries and the like could easily get the Outlook push. They recently did an upgrade which crashed the entire system. In trying to figure out why the upgrade crashed they discovered a number of open doors, so to speak. Blackberry access was one, and they close it.

Now if I want my Outlook to push to my phone I have to upgrade with Verizon to the Enterprise plan and pay the DOE $80 to activate.

They haven't changed iPod/iPhone/iPad access so I use my iPod and iPad for my Outlook access...

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mumford on October 4, 2010 at 1:17pm

Exchange server can support desktop/mobile clients via IMAP/POP3, but only if configured to do so. Unfortunately the school's administrators have chosen to disable these ports and only allow web client (AKA OWA) access.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mumford on October 4, 2010 at 2:16pm

Then if I'm not mistaken your server is either configured to support Exchange ActiveSync or Outlook Anywhere.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony VonBank on October 4, 2010 at 12:41pm

"Selling" this concept is part of my main interests. I have blogged extensively at teachingwithgoogledocs.blogspot.com, and if you are interested, I can even send you my presentations I use when I talk with districts about moving to GAE.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mumford on October 4, 2010 at 1:29pm

Very nice! I'm looking forward to reading your blog this evening when I get home. I am interested in looking at your presentation. I'll send you a message with my email address.