Google Docs-looking for school's experiences

I am looking for input from schools who have done large implementations (more than a single classroom, preferably schoolwide) with Google Docs.

What worked well and what didn't? How would you compare going with all Google Docs vs. having students store work on network drives?

From personal experience, I am hoping that going with Google Docs will help with all the file management issues we often have in schools, but I am looking for input from someone who's tried this on a relatively big scale.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Tags: docs, google

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Permalink Reply by Mark Isero on June 15, 2009 at 1:38am

Hi! Google Docs has been awesome for our school. We went to Google Docs for the same reason you're thinking of -- student work on network drives just didn't make sense. Now it's impossible for students (and their teachers) to lose work. Plus, it's so easy to collaborate.

The only drawback is that some students and teachers worry that moving entirely to Google Apps will not prepare students for "the Windows working world." My response is that the online platform is where everything is moving, anyway.

The most important thing, of course, is to get Education Edition with your own domain so that you can manage all the users (which is easy, by the way). Plus, it's free and ad-free.

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Permalink Reply by David Kapuler on June 15, 2009 at 8:54am

I second that, we used Google Doc's w/ our 7th graders this year and if you don't get the Educational version you are in for a "world" of issues. This means that the only items they can add on their "start page" are the apps provided by Google, such as: calendar, doc's, mail, etc. If you don't do this, any user can click on the "add stuff" button and add any content they want such as Hooter's Girls, Babe of the Day, etc. This totally violates CIPA/COPPA compliance.

We also use Google in Collaboration w/ Gaggle which houses/filters all of GMail, this is important when having to abide by strict policies for students safety.

For more info on that you can click here, it is roughly 3 dollars per student... https://www.gaggle.net/googleaps.html

Finally, w/ Google Apps you can add Google Analytics for tracking purposes which is nice by simply adding an API.

Hope this helps!!

Here is the page I use w/ our kids/teachers starting out.... http://www.greendale.k12.wi.us/kapuler_d/Google_Apps.html