Help in starting up GoogleApps

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Francine Safdeye on May 27, 2010 at 7:29am

Mark my school is also interested in doing this transition this summer, we have not 100% decided. I am looking forward to the feedback you will get here.

Permalink Reply by Roger Nevin on May 27, 2010 at 9:00am

Hi,

We have been using Google Apps Ed. Since Feb 2008 in a 7-12 school.

We registered all the students and gave them orientation (for teachers who wanted to use it) through the school library. We also gave them this orientation assignment .

Here is some info on the implementation.

Generally students learned Google Apps with little problem. Teachers took a little more time.

I started teachers with Google Docs - sharing assignments with students and having students share assignments with them. I have had not teachers stop using Google Apps once they started.

I have some of our teachers and students talking about Google Apps on my web page connectingeducation.com

Google Apps is well worth the effort.

Email me for more info.

Roger

Permalink Reply by Mark Fuson on May 27, 2010 at 10:27am

This is awesome information. Thank you so much, Roger!

Permalink Reply by Debra Spear on May 30, 2010 at 6:23pm

Agreed - this is very helpful. We are also setting this up at our school. Thank you.

Debbie

Permalink Reply by Anita Harris on August 21, 2010 at 9:43am

Thanks for the tips and resources! We are also implementing a pilot this year in our district. Will 'tune in' on this discussion for more sharing. :-)

Permalink Reply by J Hartzog on August 5, 2010 at 11:16am

Mark, we transitioned to Google Apps this past school year (09-10). In January, Technology Services began using Google Apps so that our people could transition without the pressure of the district users clamoring for help. It gave us time to investigate areas that we thought might give us and our users some trouble. Our technology staff of 11 began testing the various components - email, calendar, groups, etc. Over the July 4th weekend our network administrators migrated email accounts from Exchange to Google Apps and all district email users were blocked from accessing the old email system.

Prior to rolling out the new accounts in July, we created a Google Apps Help website (https://sites.google.com/a/nasdschools.org/nasdapps/) and a "how to" brochure. We also ran several "Sneak Peek" overviews which were 1-hour in length at the end of the 09-10 school year. Just enough to excite the masses! This summer I ran several 2-hour sessions on how to use email and the calendar - (mission critical stuff first). Our wiki and website direct users to NASD's Google Apps Help site.

So far our summer users have been excited about the new email/calendar system. Many have tried to attend a 2-hour workshop session that I offered or call Technology Services for some quick get-started tips. Not everyone is as excited as we are but change takes time. In the fall, I plan on running some after-school sessions for the late adopters.

Throughout our transition period (Dec - July), I held informal meetings with the Technology Services staff about once a month so that we could discuss, test, and feel comfortable about the move. Now that we have transitioned 100% to Google Apps, I plan on meeting with Technology Services through the fall and longer if needed.

Good luck in your transition.

Permalink Reply by Anne Jeschke on August 17, 2010 at 7:47pm

J,
I'm so impressed with your website! Great job, it looks like a lot of work!

Our district has had Google Apps for almost 2 years but recently we transferred our tech support to an outsourced company. I've been appointed as admin of Google Apps and have some questions, hopefully you or someone else will know the answers.

1 - we currently don't have email for our students, just our staff. We are starting online high school courses this year and want our students to have email accounts. I heard or read somewhere that student email accounts could be limited to "in domain" accounts only. That would allow students to email only teachers or others in online courses - at this time that's our desire - I can't figure out how to limit their get/receive email reach.
2. I want to add services to our account, specifically Offisync. When I select our organization (we haven't yet set up but one subcategory - Offisync - of which only I am a member) I see all users, when clicking the "services" link I see a listing of services which are all set to "active" When I go Dashboard it shows additional services (Offisync is one) - the one I want. When I click "enable service" I am able to see Offisync from my inbox as a regular user but it doesn't show as a new service in the admin services link. I want to be able to try Offisync with a few people in our district to work the bugs out prior to district wide implementation.

Advice?

Permalink Reply by J Hartzog on August 23, 2010 at 6:48am

Anne,
Until now, we have not distributed email accounts to students. With Google Apps, we will now provide our secondary students with email accounts.
I do not oversee our network but I may be able to steer you in the right direction.
Let me contact our district network administrators to ask either of them to respond to this topic since they are the people who handles all email accounts. I am sure that they can answer your questions.
Jayne

Permalink Reply by J Watson on August 30, 2010 at 2:21pm

The best way (I believe) to do this is like so:

For problem 1:

1. Have 2 domains e.g., stjoes.edu, stjoesstudents.edu

Get the free postini add on and then limit where the students can email. Give the staff normal access

ta da! Done

Permalink Reply by Garrison Daily on August 20, 2010 at 4:38pm

I am looking forward to your discussions, too. I have one foot in, one out. Not formally going with the new domain, but requiring my 8th graders to have a google account and they're doing all things google.