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Google Adds New Education Category to App Marketplace

djohnson — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 05:35:55 +0000

With more than ten million student and faculty users of Google apps, Google is making clear its desire to be a key player in the education market. In recent weeks Google has announced significant additions to its education services. Last week it added additional security features for school administrators. These were aimed at making Google’s cloud-based services more user friendly for schools and addressed several control issues that are unique to the school setting. Today, Google announced a new Education category for its Apps Marketplace.

The goal of this category is to provide school administrator’s with easier access to school-focused applications. This new offering is aimed at helping solve some of the unique issues faced by education institutions. These include lack of financial resources, security for a customer-base that is under 18, and the ability to access current technology. Google’s new education category is designed to offer cutting edge collaboration tools.

Here’s a quick video explaining the category:

With the creation of the Education category, Google has highlighted two significant benefits for schools.

Access to cutting-edge tools
Easy Integration

With more schools embracing Google-driven, cloud-based platforms, integration becomes a breeze. GrockIT, Aviary, LearnBoost, BrainPop, and others have lined up to provide innovative tools for teachers and students. For schools usng Gmail for student and faculty accounts, adding these applications makes real sense.

Shawn and I have been working with our IT department to provide a more robust Google apps implementation for our school. We will share more of our experiences along the way, please share yours.

The Weekly Update: January 3 -9

Shawn Roner — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:19:11 +0000

Why Teachers Should Blog, Shelly Blake-Plock

How to Save Money by Migrating to Cloud Computing, Klint Finley

When Passion Drives Instruction No Child Is Left Behind, The Innovative Educator

Thoughts on Teaching, 2001, Larry Cuban

Google Apps Gives Schools a Better “Walled Garden” for Student E-mail, RWW

The Future of the Internet

Shawn Roner — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:17:37 +0000

Future Of Internet IV | AAAS

View more presentations from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

Pew recently conducted a survey of 895 technology “stakeholders,” comprised of both technology experts and individuals who represent the Internet savvy public. The survey presented “potential-future scenarios to which respondents [reacted] with their expectations based on current knowledge and attitudes.” According to Pew,

“Respondents to the Future of the Internet IV survey, fielded from Dec. 2, 2009 to Jan. 11, 2010, were asked to consider the future of the Internet-connected world between now and 2020 and the likely innovation that will occur. They were asked to assess 10 different “tension pairs” – each pair offering two different 2020 scenarios with the same overall theme and opposite outcomes – and they were asked to select the one most likely choice of two statements. The tension pairs and their alternative outcomes were constructed to reflect previous statements about the likely evolution of the Internet.”

To complete the study, Pew based their survey on the following five questions.

Pew’s first question addresses the widespread concern that the Internet is adversely impacting people’s thinking skills. In 2008 Nicholas Carr, writing for the Atlantic Monthly, wrote a provocative piece with the cover line, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr argues that the nature of online searching and reading are limiting people’s ability to concentrate in a way that promotes “The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds.” Carr’s argument has touched off a firestorm in academic circles. In response, Pew decided to probe Carr’s concerns as part of their study. Is the Internet making us stupid? According to the survey,

“Google won’t make us stupid: 76% of these experts agreed with the statement, “By 2020, people’s use of the Internet has enhanced human intelligence; as people are allowed unprecedented access to more information they become smarter and make better choices. Nicholas Carr was wrong: Google does not make us stupid.”

Pew’s second question focuses on the impact the Internet will have on important literacy skills. According to the report,

“Reading, writing, and the rendering of knowledge will be improved: 65% agreed with the statement by 2020 “it will be clear that the Internet has enhanced and improved reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge.” Still, 32% of the respondents expressed concerns that by 2020 “it will be clear that the Internet has diminished and endangered reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge.”

Pew’s third question is interesting: Will the technologists be able to effectively identify important trends in innovation? The survey found the following:

“Innovation will continue to catch us by surprise: 80% of the experts agreed that the “hot gadgets and applications that will capture the imaginations of users in 2020 will often come ‘out of the blue.’”

Pew’s fourth question addresses an important concern of most educators: Will information continue to flow freely and with minimal regulation of the Internet? Again, the respondents to Pew’s survey provided interesting insight.

“Respondents hope information will flow relatively freely online, though there will be flashpoints over control of the internet. Concerns over control of the Internet were expressed in answers to a question about the end-to-end principle. 61% responded that the Internet will remain as its founders envisioned, however many who agreed with the statement that “most disagreements over the way information flows online will be resolved in favor of a minimum number of restrictions” also noted that their response was a “hope” and not necessarily their true expectation. 33% chose to agree with the statement that “the Internet will mostly become a technology where intermediary institutions that control the architecture and …content will be successful in gaining the right to manage information and the method by which people access it.”

Pew’s final question addresses an important concern most technologists have with the growing threat to online anonymity. According to the 895 respondents,

“Anonymous online activity will be challenged, though a modest majority still think it will possible in 2020: There more of a split verdict among the expert respondents about the fate on online anonymity. Some 55% agreed that Internet users will still be able to communicate anonymously, while 41% agreed that by 2020 “anonymous online activity is sharply curtailed.”

What will the Internet look like in 2020? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

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Using Cloud Computing to Improve School Communication

Shawn Roner — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:01:44 +0000

Cloud Computing

If schools are going to use technology to improve organizational processes, it’s important their leaders consider moving many of the school’s daily operations onto a cloud-based network. This enables the sort of communication that can only be accomplished by utilizing the networking and information sharing power of a cloud system. I enjoyed a post on this topic from a few months ago, entitled “Heads in the Cloud.” The author discusses a few ways his school uses Google to communicate more effectively. Here are a few ideas I really liked:

Noticeboards– “[the author's school] no longer use a noticeboard in the staffroom as all staff log into our Google site from anywhere in the world and the first thing they see is our ‘virtual’ noticeboard and a staff calendar, which outlines what’s going on over the next few days.
All staff can add events to the staff calendar or add announcements on the Virtual Noticeboard. Although we are a small school, there are, on average, 4-5 announcements made each week. These range from reminders about meetings to announcements about new resources. Teachers often post up announcements that they have uploaded new resources to our resource sharing section. The calendar also gets used for smaller events that don’t generally make it on to traditional staffroom noticeboards. For example, people can see who’s gone on EPV days, if the principal (me) is at a meeting or if a psychologist is in. Another cool feature of the “Announcements” section is the ability for staff to comment. For example, last week I made an announcement on the site asking staff which week they would prefer parent-teacher meetings and gave a date to answer by. 50% of the staff left a comment on the site and the dates were chosen.”
Staff Meetings– “ ‘Will you stick x on the agenda please?’ is an often forgotten job, which can lead to disgruntled staff members. In my school, if a staff member wants to add something to the staff meeting, we have a “live” agenda document which can be added to by anyone. A few days before the meeting, the document is “closed” and the agenda is set.”
Learning Support– “I have found the “cloud” one of the best things for Learning Support. One of my aims of Learning Support was to have weekly booster sessions for children who might not have grasped a concept during class, for whatever reason. I wanted to free up a 15 minute session for 5 days so the support staff could teach that concept to get them back in the fold. Sometimes a child doesn’t need a long period of Learning Support so this was ideal. However, it would be almost impossible to manage without my cloud.If a teacher feels that a child (or small group of children) require a boost in a certain area of the curriculum, they can book a “catch-up session”. This involves them filling out a simple form. The Learning Support team then “grab” and book a particular session for a particular week. The teacher can then, at a glance, see when their child will be given this session. It works on a first come first served basis. It’s working really really well in my school.
Another cool thing for our Learning Support team is to have access to any of our assessment results. Our Micra-T and Sigma-T results can be seen in a table so that we can pinpoint and prioritise who will be allocated Learning Support.”

If you are using cloud computing at your school, please share your ideas!

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Five Apps for Busy Educators

Shawn Roner — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:59:30 +0000

Staying organized during a hectic school year is certainly a difficult task. With hundreds of e-mails, phone messages, parent conferences, and meetings, staying organized can seem impossible. To help, I’ve put together a short list of helpful apps I use to stay on top of things.

1. Google Apps for Education– “Google Apps Education Edition is a free suite of hosted communication & collaboration applications designed for schools and universities.” The suite includes apps to help teachers communicate (Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk) and collaborate (Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Groups, and Google Video).

2. Evernote– Evernote is a great tool to save ideas, things you see during the school day, and important information. Teachers and administrators can use this app from their smartphones to create a note on a student or class, clip a web page to look at later, take a photo, grab a screen shot, or save an audio file. Evernote is a wonderful tool that can help busy teachers easily capture important information and quickly organize it. I access Evernote from my smartphone during the school day to organize my thoughts and record important school-related information. When I get a chance to sit down at my desk (and I have a little more time to think), I access Evernote from my desktop to update and further organize the information I captured with my smartphone.

3. Basecamp– Basecamp is a terrific project management application. Users can easily share files, assign tasks, organize information, and manage deadlines. Basecamp is a wonderful tool for site administrators, department chairs, or site committees.

4. Dimdim– This app enables users to easily screen share. Users can deliver presentations online, share videos, or other types of interactive information. The best part of Dimdim is that it is 100% browser-based and, therefore, doesn’t require instillation or downloading of software. Dimdim is a great way for teachers and administrators to share information, host online meetings, and participate in professional development activities.

5. Mindmeister– Mindmeister is a mind-mapping tool that can help educators design, organize, and share complex ideas. Mindmeister is a great tool to map and design curriculum, organize department strategies, or outline a district policy. Another similar app I use on my smartphone is Thinking Space. Although it’s not quite as good as Mindmeister, I like being able to access the tool on my smartphone while I’m meeting with teachers, sharing ideas, or organizing my thoughts (on the run!).

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Social Learning Tools

Shawn Roner — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:40:36 +0000

Jane Hart (Center for Learning and Performance Technologies) put together a very useful chart comparing the three different ways of building a social learning environment.

Here are three related articles from Inside Learning Technologies magazine: