Live@edu vs. Google Apps for Education

Our district is currently looking at going to a free email hosted solution with the capability for online storage and document creation. We are looking at these two.

I am finding that Microsoft has recently put a lot of resources into their platform and it looks pretty interesting.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/liveedu-grows-evolves-into-offi...

Has anyone made this decision/comparison recently? I would love to hear what you all have to say.

Tags: apps, google, live@edu

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Permalink Reply by Jim Siegl on March 17, 2011 at 10:36am

unfortunately It depends on what type of document (word, excel, powerpoint or one note) and if you are talking about editing in the office client, or the web app.

In the web apps, only excel supports simultaneous editing for Word and PowerPoint simultaneous editing, you’ll need to have the full client versions of the Office 2010 products. See http://blogs.kraftkennedy.com/index.php/2010/03/08/simultaneous-edi...

This article also has a good comparison of google v office web apps in this area http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/IT/archive/2010/08/26/co-authoring...

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Permalink Reply by Bill Campbell on March 22, 2011 at 7:48am

I used Etherpad and now use Google Docs pretty heavily. The major revision Google made to Docs not too long after they bought Etherpad showed that they integrated most of Etherpad's features into Docs word processing. The only Etherpad feature I have found missing from G-Docs was the way Etherpad showed a different highlight color for each editor in real-time. To pick out individual user contributions in Google Docs, you now need to look at the revision history.

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Permalink Reply by Lezlie Harris on March 16, 2011 at 8:40am

I wouldn't upload at all. It is much faster to just recreate it in Google Docs. Then play it online when you need it. Google Docs doesn't have transitions like PowerPoint, but it does have incremental reveal just right click on the border of a text box or picture. Presentations print in pdf form and they look great!

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Allison on March 16, 2011 at 10:37am

The other thing I've done is start online with a Google doc or presentation then download it in to Word or PowerPoint only if I need to do some sort of fancy editing for a final product, etc. I, too, have learned that starting in Google makes more sense then uploading from Word.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Allison on March 16, 2011 at 10:42am

Thanks everyone for good insight into the two products. May I ask at what age you are giving students email accounts? Also, what policy/procedure things are you doing regarding this? Have you required parent permission for kids under 16, for instance? I would love to see any documents you've created, if you're willing to share.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Isaac Zimmermann on March 16, 2011 at 10:52am

We are looking at giving all students gmail acounts but limiting access for elementary students to in district email.

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Permalink Reply by cpstechcoach on March 16, 2011 at 11:05am

Is there a way to do that with google?

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Permalink Reply by Isaac Zimmermann on March 16, 2011 at 11:22am

Yes, whoever is set up with admin accounts can determine what email groups have what rights. You can allow students to only recive email from within the district. You can also allow certian domains to email your students and you can block what type of attachments they can use.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Siegl on March 17, 2011 at 10:39am

The google admin does this through the Postini component using inbound and outbound content rules (for email) the other tools do not support this level of granularity they are either on or off for a group of users and sharing outside the domain is either on or off for any user that has access to the tool.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Siegl on March 19, 2011 at 3:52pm

True, that is a good option if you only have 2 groups (all open and restricted).http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=177482&hl=en

I have not check the new Google option to see if it is smart enough to allow the specific email addresses that Google uses for things like calendar notification etc.. In postini you have to allow these specific emails.

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Permalink Reply by Lezlie Harris on March 16, 2011 at 6:47pm

Our school system uses Gaggle for 3rd grade and up. It is strickly monitored. Since I teach 2nd grade, I don't know much more. Our Google Docs is a school account also. All students have a Google Doc account.

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Permalink Reply by cpstechcoach on March 16, 2011 at 11:46am

Thought this was interesting on the Google informational PDF under the section about CIPA/COPPA:

"How does use of Google Apps affect compliance with the Child OnlinePrivacy and Protection Act (COPPA)?Your school assumes the responsibility for complying with COPPA and theinformation that students submit. Per the Google Apps for Education Agreement,any school administering Google Apps for Education acknowledges and agreesthat it is solely responsible for compliance with COPPA, including, but not limitedto, obtaining parental consent concerning collection of students’ personalinformation used in connection with the provisioning and use of the Servicesby the Customer and End Users."