GOAL is a bit of a mad one for us. I really want to use it effectively, however to do this requires probably 2 or 3 assessments a year, plus feedback, which does mean that it cuts down on your actual teaching time. Last year i don’t think we got the best out of it. I am going to see if we can do it better this year and see if we get any meaningful results. As a cheaper alternative (free!) Yacapaca seems quite popular.

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.

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 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.