I am confused…
#GTAUK has hit my twitter feed massively over the last couple of days. Originally I wondered why a lot of the people I followed were so excited about Grand theft Auto (http://gtauk.com/), it was the first hit when I first googled it…it is now the second. So I have been avidly reading tweets and then more detailed blogs on all things google. It seems that sliced bread has been reinvented for the 21st century learner and the door wedge shaped software/solutions of the past have been superseded.
Now I love google apps, hane used them loads on a personal basis, the mail is great, the docs embed well into moodle and I have worked collaboratively with my dept. So, so far so good. However, taking that next step and rolling it out into the school environment needs a bit of contemplation. Our school network offers pupils/staff the following:
- email (accessible at school and at home via web, plus ability to incorporate it into outlook at home via exchange)
- Moodle
- SIMs Learning Gateway – access to their timetable, their my docs, the shared area, their attendance, their reports, their assessments
- Mahara – the ability to build portfolios of work and export if and when they need to
So if I were to go to GApps , what would I gain?
- cloud storage
- collaboration
- Google Marketplace
- GApps
But what would I need to do? and this is where I am a tad confused. The kids have email. They have access to their work from home. We will increase pupil capacity as and when it is needed. They can use many other web based tools for collaborative work and to be honest, in my personal experience, they are not that good at working collaboratively. Our pupils aren’t the pioneers that the GTAUK crowd are… they don’t like change. They just want to get in, get their work done and get home and socialise with their friends. Staff won’t like change, they are still slowly coming round to the idea that moodle will save them time and be beneficial to their teaching.
Then there is live@edu which to be honest I haven’t looked at in much detail, but from other blogs that I have read, it seems that collaboration is an issue, but according to others it isn’t!
To be honest, reading what I am writing worries me a tad. I like new things, I jump on pretty much every new bandwagon that’s going, unless it is ridiculously expensive. But I just don’t know enough to make a clear decision. Even if I did, it wouldn’t be up to me. I would then have to prove it to SLT and Governors. I would have to present to staff and pupils and explain this new world of ICT collaboration and google branding. Parents would need to be aware of this new system. It’s a big job and it needs to be thought out carefully. I think I am going to sit back and see what happens. Carrying on developing moodle and mahara and get my head round teaching OCR Nationals L3 in September.
If GApps is the way forward then I may well revisit it, if Live@edu is a success I may well go there. But for now I will read all the tweets and blogs and see how it all progresses. Maybe sometimes it is best to sit back and watch other people lead the way and jump on board when it has fully been tested.
I find it difficult to understand how you can justify this generalisation:
“Our pupils aren’t the pioneers that the GTAUK crowd are… they don’t like change.”
I doubt that’s true for every learners – or, in fact, most of them!
@Doug Belshaw thought that might be a contentious statement, but a lot of the pupils I teach are not coming into ICT lessons full of excitement about the latest application or software package they’ve found. I use many, many different applications in school and I seem to be the most excited about them. The kids are indifferent. Admittedly some do get excited and will use them at home etc, but the majority don’t. I am not saying that is a good thing, but I think it is realistic.
@misterel
I think excitement about cool tools and liking (or disliking) change are two separate things.
But anyway… your question was (unless I’m mistaken) what would you gain from Google Apps? Having implemented it across a 10-site Academy I’d say the answer would be ‘culture change’ – or at least helping move along the road to it.
At the end of the day it’s all about workflows and collaboration that focus on pedagogy. And I firmly believe that Google Apps allows that focus whereas Microsoft products don’t!
@Doug Belshaw
Its good to know that it can be implemented over a large scale, and what would really be interesting for others who are thinking about doing the same thing, would be to know how you did this and any pitfalls that we could avoid to make sure it was a smooth transition for staff and pupils.
It seems obvious that your school culture is not ready for the opportunities that GApps offers but this does not mean that you and a select group of teachers and students can’t trial it. Sitting back and waiting is oaky, but having small scale experience will be more useful in supporting your conclusions and any case you may make to SLT if you decide to go down the Google Apps route. It may seem that sliced bread has been invented but that is only because the people at GTAUK work/will work in school cultures where the tools resonate with what they are trying to achieve.
Hi Ivan.
I see your point. You have been working hard to establish a system and get your community understanding the benefits thereof. Why change?
There are issues to overcome when considering Google Apps. Corporate branding being one of them (although no-one seems to compare this to MS currently dominating computing in schools). However, what I was struck by is the Google eco-system. From one account you are connected into an online productivity toolset that is second to none. The myriad of services Google provide for education is awe inspiring. Apps, Earth, Maps, Scholar, Books, Reader, News, SketchUp. (have I missed any? Probably.) If you think these are important you might want to reconsider your systems, but, there again, why?
You can activate Google Apps Edu without altering what you already offer. Your community can use them as they see fit: pupils, depts, teams or groups of ppl throughout the school. There is no need to replace your VLE or ePortfolio system. However, the appeal of Googles kit is that once you are in the ecosystem you have so many things at your disposal that all function around similar methods. Collaboration, sharing, embedding, linking. For example, I have been using SketchUp at school. I was showing someone how to do some stuff on it and they were really keen to get it into Google Earth. So we exported out house from SketchUp and added it into a layer in Google Earth. Neither of us had done anything like this before. Cool.
Two more points:
1. Google move fast, with the times and are user-centred and respond to educators needs.
2. Upon seeing all this stuff in action, it is evident that the ecosystem you build with each pupil will be relevant to them for many years beyond school.
@daibarnes Thank you Dai. I really would like to introduce Google Apps, but I need to have the ability to explain why it is necessary. What you have given me is a great starting point. I can now go back and sit down with the technicians and discuss a timeline for potential implementation. I have learnt my lesson and am no longer going to rush headlong into something and I think that this will need a lot of planning and discussions.
As to where you are: on the forefront of change or ready to follow those who are – both are valid positions. For confirmation read the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – great book!
Great post. Think you are doing the right thing by waiting reading your position. Every school is different and you clearly know how hard and fast you can push any emerging tech in your situation.
I would however agree with Doug about Google v Ms and the quote he pulled out. It’s definitely not the scene at Primary level. I don’t know enough about Secondary to make any decent generalisations but is your school’s use of Moodle (not saying yours) based around content/lesson path creation rather than learning tools/collaboration? That would drain my enjoyment of ICT. What I’m finding at Primary level is the more you give cutting edge tools to pupils, the more they want and expect new tools. There is almost an expectation by the pupils in the quality of tools they should have at their finger tips. Maybe we as Primary school teachers use all their excitement up about tech innovation, although I personally think it’s more down to pupil attitude and school culture. In which case perhaps the google way is exactly what your school need?! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t usually find myself completely agreeing with Doug but on this occasion I think I do! In terms of deployment, at Primary level the biggest obstacles are the SLT & staff in general. Nobble them and your laughing with the pupils.
I agree to an extent Ivan. Lots of planning needs to be done for strategy about *how* to get services working with your community as you envisage (whatever that might be). EG department handbooks to be a Google Site by end of academic year or something of the sort. However, activating GApps for your environment can happen now and, if done whole-heartedly, doesn’t hurt anyone whilst providing some with tools they want. My presentation was about handing the tools over to the users, not holding them back. And it’s free, so it is little skin off anyones nose if they are not used (but they will be) and some pupils will really dig them dude, simply because it rocks.
As I said in my previous post, plan a trial. Low risk but lots of experience.
Thanks for loads of positive feedback. On reflection, I have probably done our school and pupils a bit of disservice with a couple of statements. I will definitely be looking at setting up a trial in Sept and promoting GApps with certain staff and pupils. I also now that if I were a primary teacher, that it would be a no-brainer and I would be using GApps with my class quite happily. However, when you only see an KS3 class for ICT 38 hours a year it does become a different proposition.
I think that last reflection summarises the ‘correct’ position quite succinctly: if you’re doing something and it’s working, more power to your elbow. Keep a watching brief on GApps (and Live@edu, although that is less demonstrated thus far) because they’re going to be significant. Any successful implementation of a learning platform needs to be applauded, although I think we could have an interesting discussion around the meaning of ‘successful’. For me, it’s technophobic staff, eager students and potentially other groups such as parents being able to use the thing with no training, and end users rather than specialists creating and editing content as well as administering the environment with little or no recourse to people in white coats with clipboards.
The second point which emerges here is the difference between primary and the rest. As those at GTAUK know, I’m keen on GApps in the primary sector, and I think I’m reasonably up-to-speed on the alternatives, but having looked at Moodle, Mahara, Haiku and others, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to justify the additional investment which primaries would need to make in order to adopt that kind of approach. That’s simply because these are course-based environments unsuited to the world of 35 hours a week with the same group of kids and the same teacher. I do think that GApps is missing a trick around the time dimension because I haven’t yet figured out how to introduce any notion of workflow into GApps, but again there’s a trade-off there and the extra complexity might make that counter-productive. ‘Safe. Simple. Free.’ – that’s the mantra we’re sticking to, and GApps comes mighty close.