Schools move to 'Google Apps for Education' to save money and expand instructional tech offerings

When we baby-boomers were in school, a good dictionary, a copy of Roget's Thesaurus, and a portable typewriter made up the tools of our academic arsenal.  And whether or not we were fortunate enough to have a full set of Funk and Wagnalls at home, regular and frequent pilgrimages to the library were a must.  Students in today’s Information Age are looking at quite a different school scene.  Most of them are literally working in a cloud.

Oregon schools for example have become firmly entrenched in the academic end of the Information Age as they became the 1st state in the U.S. to open up Google Apps for Education to public schools throughout their state.

Beginning this week, the Oregon Department of Education is offering Google Apps to all the school districts in the state – a move that’s going to save the Oregon state education budget $1.5 million per year. The school districts should also realize cost savings in reduced hardware and software upgrades.

Amongst other things, Google Apps provides local and remote-access for website creation and e-mail. Student and faculty documents will be available online in the cloud, meaning individuals can work, study, create, communicate, and collaborate in real-time from anywhere where they have a working internet connection.

Utilizing Google’s cloud-computing capabilities means that users can access applications from the company’s servers instead of a local hard drive, which will ultimately change the way students write research papers.  Instead of handing in the project and having a teacher grade the entire paper at once, students can share their work with teachers via Google Docs – allowing teachers to make suggestions and corrections on-line and in real time.

Google Apps are available for free to Oregon public schools on a voluntary basis and are designed to help schools improve digital literacy and reduce IT costs while maintaining the security of school and student data.

Educators and students now have access to the same cutting-edge technology used in the business world with added federal student privacy and confidentiality protections, said Susan Castillo. In a time of dwindling resources, I am grateful for Google’s partnership. Our students have a wonderful opportunity to prepare for the workplace by using workplace technology in the classroom.

In addition to e-mail and website building, Google Apps for Education services also include calendaring, online documents, and video conferencing in an advertisement-free environment. School districts receive their own domain and can manage user security and safety. School staff controls the amount and type of email messages allowed in the system. No system upgrades are necessary as the applications work on any operating system through a web browser.

We’re thrilled to see the Oregon Department of Education take this huge step forward for their students. It’s critical that students develop the technology competencies they will need for the 21st century,’ said Jaime Casap, Google Apps Education Manager. “Google Apps for Education will help Oregon students reach that goal, and it’s exciting to see the state sign on and bring this change about for their kids.”

Google worked with the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Department of Justice to create a unique user agreement that met state legal requirements and provided adequate compliance around federal student records and safety protections.

This public-private partnership with Google is more than exciting,” said Vickie Fleming, Redmond School Superintendent. “As public education strains to keep up with digital content and applications, this partnership is critical to students, parents and classroom teachers. As a school superintendent I am very appreciative of the leadership and work that went into crafting this deal and we look forward to putting it to work.

How many typewriters did you burn through during your school days?

Click here for more information and school district sign up details.

 To receive e-mail alerts to Richard's articles, simply click on the Subscribe button above. 
E-mail alerts are free, private and secure, and you won't get any ink on your fingers.

(lead: Kat McCarty: Las Vegas Free Software and Web Resources Examiner)

(source: Oregon Department of Education  /  images: Wikipedia)