There is some exciting news for Faculty and Students this year. The District will be implementing Google Apps for Education!
So what does that mean for you as a staff member?
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Well the biggest change will be that your email client will switch from Novell Netware to Google's Gmail. Your email address will stay the same, but now you will be logging into Gmail using your email address and password to access your work mail. There are a ton of benefits to this change though. Here are a few! |
- Unlimited Storage Space! No more pruning out your old emails to consolidate on space. No more wasting time wondering what should go and what should stay.
- Accessible Anywhere! Easily add your email to your personal phone, tablet, and home pc. And because it's cloud based you're assured a 99.99% up time even when natural disasters such as hurricanes.
- Apps Integration! Your email will now work with a network of other Google products. Google Classroom, Google Drive, Google Calendar, YouTube, Hangouts, etc. All of which will help making collaborating, organizing, communicating, and getting involved all the more easy.
- Tons of support options! You'll no longer be limited to internal support. With Gmail there is a wealth of support features, YouTube videos, and resources at your command, but to top it off we'll be creating our own community of support options to help you make the most of what you have.
- Gmail Features! Including their labeling system, themes, searchability, filters, and more.
- Reach out! To students, and faculty alike. We're adding student accounts. You'll be able to securely communicate with students via email, and they will all have accounts that you can easily contact through directory listings. The Google Apps for Education environment will include directory searching in the same way we have now.
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Google Drive will mean online cloud based unlimited file storage!
No more cleaning house, deleting files each year. Google Drive is a cross platform cloud based highly accessible file storage system. Connect to it via your iPad, desktop, or Chromebook and you now have a way of actually saving items you create on it. And coming in January Google will be releasing Google Vault, a free archiving system that will ensure that you won't have to worry about losing a file. It also ties in a tremendous amount of Google applications allowing you to create and store a wealth of material.
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Synchronized calendars with Google Calendar!
Add it to your phone, desktop, iPad, or Chromebook. Get alerts from devices. Add events from anywhere and receive them anywhere. With the added benefit of directory connectivity you'll be able to organize like never before. |
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Create via a cross platform cloud based desktop publishing environment!
Cross-Platform means... whether you are on an iPad, a Chromebook, a desktop or your phone, when you create a document, spreadsheet, or presentation it will look and function exactly the same. What's better is that this connects directly to Google Drive. It auto saves and retains a revision history every few seconds. It also allows for collaboration with coworkers. You can have multiple people working on the same document and track exactly who made what change. Or you can distribute documents easily to anyone in the district or outside with just a few clicks via Sharing. Additionally, you'll be able to migrate those files back and forth between Google Docs and Microsoft Office (which we're still purchasing for desktops.)
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Google Apps for Chrome, Chromebooks, Drive, Extensions, and Add ons
The Google Apps market is getting larger and larger, and we will now have access to a wealth of resources available through it. Pixlr, EasyBib, LucidChart, Edmodo, IXL, Educlipper, and on and on.
Plus pretty much any testing software we will need to run is available.
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Google Classroom!
Google Classroom is an easy way for teachers to create classrooms, add students, create assignments, receive assignments back, distribute documents, add grades, and every assignment allows you to attach any kind of document, media, or link you'd like. And it automatically stores and organizes all files in your drive, probably more neatly then I've ever done myself.
You really just have to see it in action.
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Inherently functional with Chromebooks!
We've purchased over 300 Chromebooks for the district, and we're only looking to increase that number as times goes on. But with Google Apps for Education both teachers and students will have a perfect combination when matching their Google Apps accounts with Chromebooks. You'll be able to log on, do all your work, log off, and not leave a trace behind on the device. No more cluttered devices.
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Create Multimedia Communities!
Okay, so this is still a bit more experimental, but we have the ability to take advantage of social media via Google+, Hangouts, Youtube, and Groups. For instance I just created a tutorial video combining Hangouts and Youtube. In the past I've created Google Groups to collaborate for Committees and Activities. And Google+ will enable us to share all these resources internally if we so desire it, so that we can create communities privately within our school. We could potentially build our own private YouTube environment, or talk to each other, or do distance
learning. There's a wealth of possibilities.
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Where do we begin?
Well first off, you're going to have to check out our Instructional Community Page by clicking here or on the Menu button to the left. On that page, we'll be collating a ton of resources and videos (some created by members of the district).
But since you're on this page already, here's a quick FAQ.
What is the new log on page?
A: There are a bunch of different addresses/ways that will take you to the log in page.
You can click the New Email button under For Staff on the wmtps.org homepage
You can go to http://mail.wmtps.org (no www) And click Sign In at the top right corner
You can go to http://mail.google.com/a/wmtps.org and just sign in
You can go to http://mail.google.com or http://www.gmail.com
What about all my old stuff?
A: The Tech department is currently working on with an application that promises to be able to convert over all our data from one system to another, but we're still in the testing phase of that implementation. More information will be released as it becomes available.
Is Google secure?
A: Google has invested a ton into security. Their security infrastructure is far and away much more secure than anything we could possibly build on our own. But any security infrastructure is only as safe as the users allow it to be. That means regularly changing your password, and having them be a bit more complex. It also means being weary of emails that fish for your account information. In this day and age nothing is bullet proof, but we'll do our best, and again, Google will do just as well at safeguarding that information as anything we've had to date. But to add to it, we are considering courses in Digital Driver's License, that educates on security. We're also going to make use of Google Vault as soon as it becomes available. Additionally, being a school district we are not as susceptible as the private industry, from attacks.
Does Google Mine Data?
A: Google only ever captured heuristic nonspecific data, and never targeted members directly, but as of April 2014, they took further measures to update their practices and
eliminated all data mining and advertisement options from Google Apps for Education users.
When?
A: We are shooting for the December break. It's a pretty aggressive timeline all things considered.
Why are we switching again?
A: There are a wealth of benefits as stated above. But also it's cheaper, more supported, and it works extremely well with our student and Chromebook initiatives already in place. Plus we'll be using the same software, that we expect our students to learn. I could potentially list you 100 different reasons why this switch is a positive one.
Well this is all fine and well, but will I be losing <Insert feature I'd liked here>?
A: The long of it? Probably not. What Google doesn't inherently provide is additionally often available by either
- Doing the same thing but in a different way.
- Installing an extension or app.
- Available, and we just have to figure out how to do it.
There is one thing that I'm aware of us losing though, the ability to recall an email that has not been read by the recipient. Google gives you a 10-second rule for stopping an email from going through.