Google Apps

We are a School District of about 73,000 students. We have about 90 schools! We are in the process of moving to Google Apps. We realize NY Schools have already made this move. Can anyone provide some best practices for the roll out of a system this large?

IE: How did you prepare the students for this new responsibility, What training? New Policies? Did you roll it out with a lot of features all at once or are you phasing it in?Are you delegating admin to each school or centrally managing it? Are you allowing Email for Staff and students?

We believe this is a necessary and important step in furthering K-12 Education, however we still want to balance it with sensible controls and training.

George Grachis CISA, CISSP

District Information Security Analyst

Brevard Public Schools

Tags: Apps, Best, Education, Google, K-12, Practices., Training

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Comment by George Grachis on January 26, 2011 at 10:36am: Thanks, yes I realize it wont be implemented over night. Kentucky schools did choose Live.Edu and as I understand it, they moved rather quickly to deliver it to all their schools.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/06/03/kentucky-shifts-public-ed...

Comment by George Grachis on January 27, 2011 at 8:10am: Thanks again for your input.

What are your Districts plans for implementation? Phased? Will each school admin it or will it be centrally managed from the District? Will students and staff get cloud email? Are all your schools excited about Web 2 and ready to use it as a critical part of classroom learning? What other challenges or issues do you foresee in this implementation?

Comment by George Grachis on March 25, 2011 at 11:07am: We are still moving slowly towards a Google Apps Pilot.
We looked at one District that is revamping their AUP process.IE: moving to a one time AUP and merging the AUP into the student Handbook, this will help schools manage the high volume of AUP processing every year and will include a Google Apps one time permission slip. Is your District looking at any AUP process changes besides just getting permission for a student to use Gogle Apps and its Email? Thanks

Comment by George Grachis on March 25, 2011 at 11:48am: Thanks, What was the deciding factor in selecting Live.edu vs Google? I understand that Live.edu is now charging?? Is that correct? We have an administrator that wants both, now that would be a challenge....

Comment by Dr. Rita Oates on June 7, 2011 at 8:19am

ePals SchoolMail365 was chosen by New York City Dept. of Ed. for schools in NYC.

http://corp.epals.com/news/press/press_feb02_11.php

ePals SchoolMail³⁶⁵ is a cloud-based solution integrating Microsoft Live@edu infrastructure. It allows users to access their accounts anytime, anywhere and on any device. The communication solution is based on what leading education reporter Chris Dawson terms as the “template for education in the cloud.”

ePals SchoolMail³⁶⁵ is the only communication solution delivering enterprise-grade email specifically designed for K-12, with role-based policies governing all email communications, SchoolSafe™ controlled access to third-party applications, and embedded student learning support.

ePals SchoolMail³⁶⁵ has many features that set it apart from other K-12 email products, notably:

Role & Group-Based Policies – The only communication solution delivering hierarchical, K-12 role and group based policies governing inbound and outbound, intra-school and cross-district email traffic. Includes mail monitoring, moderation and filtering. Automates COPPA, CIPA and FERPA compliance.
Smart School Directories and Contact Lists – Email address books are auto-populated based on school policies and an individual’s role and communication rights, greatly improving ease of communication and eliminating the need to find and manage approved contact lists.
SchoolSafe™ Access to Third-Party Applications – The SchoolSafe™ dashboard provides policy-based access linking students to district-selected third-party learning applications (e.g. Google Docs, Moodle).
Automated Account and Policy Administration – Integrates with current and legacy student information systems to provide simple deployment and automated day-to-day manageability.

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