Need help with Google for Education

I set up a domain using Google Apps in Education. I noticed that Picasa does not appear to be part of the suite of services offered. There are gadgets that allow you to import in Picasa services but only if you have another gmail related account. At least that is what I have surmised. It seems very confusing. If someone has some clear insight into this, I would greatly appreciate it. It just seems ridiculous that google would not include this service, but maybe it's "coming soon."
Deb

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Permalink Reply by Matt Montagne on September 23, 2008 at 5:24pm

Hey Deb,

Picassa, Notebook, Blogger, Reader, etc are all Google services, but they are not part of their google apps for education package. Google Apps for education only includes gmail, sites, google chat, calendar, and of course docs.

The real value in using their hosted apps solution for your school is that it makes collaboration within the network so very easy (of course docs may be collaborated with others outside of the network if this is something yo allow via the admin console). It is also very simple to manage user accounts through the admin console.

I know it might seem like you're giving up alot, but the alternative is to have all students create their own google accounts which can be a bit messy (but quite doable, depending on the age of your students and the size of your school).

Good luck!

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Deb on September 24, 2008 at 9:42am

Hi Matt,
Thank you for your quick reply. I thought I was going crazy. It seems odd that Google wouldn't include Picasa in their education suite. What problems do you foresee in having students create their own personal google accounts? I'm sure there are things I haven't even thought of. I work in a middle school - grades 6, 7, 8 - approx. 1300 students. We are not ready to start this on a large scale because quite frankly - our teachers just aren't ready. Any suggestions you can give based on your experience would be most welcome.
Deb

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Permalink Reply by Matt Montagne on September 25, 2008 at 10:49am

Hey Deb,

For starters, to create a google account, there is a minimum age of 13. So this technically rules out having your most of your 6th and 7th graders from creating an account.

If you use the google apps for education suite, there isn't an age minimum requirement.

With that large of a student body, you are best off using the google apps for education. While you give up the picassa piece, you gain in the the fact that students will very easily be able to collaborate on documents and presentations with one another. Google apps has a really nice admin console that allows you to upload a spreadsheet file of all of your student users.

Good luck, Deb!

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Deb on September 29, 2008 at 7:48am

Matt,
I read the regular google terms and couldn't find the age 13 clause. I did find this one " "2.3 You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google, or (b) you are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the United States or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you use the Services." What do you think?
Deb

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Permalink Reply by Matt Montagne on September 29, 2008 at 7:59am

hmm...the waters keep getting murkier and murkier...I've been in this discussion before and I was always able to see the age requirement in their terms. Now I no longer see it...not sure what to think now. I'll dig around a bit as I'm quite curious now...let me know if you find anything out as well.

Matt

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Permalink Reply by Deb on February 5, 2010 at 4:07pm

I am revisiting google apps for an 8th grade end of the year project. I like wondering how they decide what to include and exclude from the suite. I would like to include the new Custom Search Engine feature but once again, this feature is not accessible via login with an educational domain account. I'd like to decide which features my students and teachers can access with the educational domain instead of having google do it for me. It is hard to complain about free but as you see :) not impossible. What do you think?
Deb

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Permalink Reply by Sean Martinson on October 21, 2009 at 4:21pm

I think this one is picking up speed as people like me are trying to find explicit direction from Google. We are being blocked at the Elementary Level (Google Apps) until we can find a response to the age limit question. I've read responses that the "administrator" can be the individual of legal age and be the contact for the group but I need something from Google stating this. If I can get that we can rock and roll with the Apps for our kids. Does anyone have a Google Contact or a place I can find this information?

I think in the end what I'm going to find.... if I can find it.... is documentation stating that if the adult administrator signs the agreement that Google will turn off the legal statement where kids log in....

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

:-)
Sean M.

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Permalink Reply by Deb on February 5, 2010 at 4:03pm

Sean, Did you ever get an answer to this? Also wondering why/how google picks and chooses the tools included in the educational suite.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Martinson on February 5, 2010 at 4:46pm

Hi Deb, here's a link to what I found out. It helped and we are now using the Apps in our school. http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/legallity-of-using-google-a...

I'm not sure how they choose the apps for education but I appreciate the ability to turn on/off certain features.

:-)
Sean M.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on February 5, 2010 at 7:11pm

OK, problem with kids have own account sanctioned by you? You can't monitor them easily---you could get each kids' address and password and then login to each account and see what's going on if you have 4-5 hours a day!! They could easily change their password and lock you out. If anything untoward happened--copyright issues, sending inappropriate pics and videos, bullying, etc and your neck in on the line.

Here's what I did-- I own a domain name adifferentplace.org (you could buy one for a few bucks) and I got gmail accounts with my domain name (they give you 50 free as an educator). So all my kids have gmail accounts with names like miranda@adifferentplace.org. I can check all their accounts at one place. Easy peasy.

Be sure to get written parent permission from parents for student email accounts and notify your admin. Nobody likes surprises.

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Permalink Reply by Deb on February 6, 2010 at 6:56am

We have our own domain and the kids have all their accounts within this domain. My issue is that from within the domain, you do not have access to certain features. Personally, I would like to be the one to decide what features they have access to rather have no choice. To me, the SITES feature provides ample opportunity to post anything negative; however, features such as creating a custom search engine are not available which we would find extremely useful on a middle school level. I am dealing with 1300 kids so I definitely don't have time to check their accounts. I know google is free so it kind of seems wrong to complain, but there are few things they could do to make the management a little more flexible.