andykemp.org.uk

Hi Andy – just whilst I think about it in Google Sites you can embed any type of media (iframe) using one of the Gadgets.

Go to INSERT > MORE GADGETS > FEATURED > Look for the EMBED GADGET

…then you can paste any embed snippet you can get from other services. If you are able to store and then share your PDFs elsewhere on the web this may be a work around.

We just recently got our district on Google Apps and I am totally excited to use it this next year. Of course we haven't used it with our students yet, so we have to wait and see how that goes over. But, to answer your questions, I know I will continue to use MS Office in my classroom. Mostly because I train my students to be able to pass Certiport's IC3 and Microsoft's MOS exams. However, once I introduce PowerPoint, Word, and Excel to my students I plan on getting them on Google Apps so they can collaborate on work.

There is an add-on named OffiSync (http://www.offisync.com/) that allows you to use Google Docs in MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I haven't used it too much, but plan on trying it out more.

With the wikis and blogs situation, sites has many templates for both that I plan on using with my students.

I am totally excited about using Google Apps with my students. I know there will be challenges as well as great successes, but that's part of teaching technology.

Hmmm… I think you're trying to shoehorn a cloud-based and future-facing system into an outdated model, Andy.

I completely understand the need to have a hybrid approach whilst transitioning users to new workflows and ways of collaborating. However, incompatibility (for example) with some Microsoft stuff wouldn't be high on my list of worries.

Every school, college and university has its own particular quirks and needs, but I think my default recommendation from now on would be a Moodle installation with single sign-on to Google Apps.

The VLE is dead!

Beat me to it, Tom, I was just going to say the same thing! Embedding Scribd or other pdf viewers is a piece of cake. You're right, Andy, in saying that the functionality is more limited than with legacy client apps like MS Word, but once you start to build a library of templates in GDocs that becomes less and less of a concern. I agree with Doug – don't look back unless you have to! I know that's Utopian, and we live in the real world, but MS compatibility need not be the limiting factor you think.

My concern with Scribd style solutions, much like the YouTube video options
is one of copyright… Whilst I can put exam papers on a private site, I
cannot put them out in the public domain, I am also concerned about the
amount of work involved as for Maths (the department I run) we still teach
13 A-level modules each with two sittings a year and 5 years worth of
papers… Then all the A-level and IB papers as well!?!

Repeating that across a lot of departments is a LOT of work!

I'm not concerned so much about keeping compatibility with MS office so much
as loosing functionality that I regularly use (such as fonts etc). Combined
with the requirement of many MIS systems to still need MS Office for various
features…

I want to embrace the future and not look back but we already got bitten by
doing that with Citrix a few years ago (when everyone was saying
virtualisation was the future) and we have been sadled with a system with
some great features but also lots of very frustrating limiatations! The
last thing I want is for us to end up feeling the same about GDocs – which
is why I am trying to find out as much as possible about the options.

Additionally we are quite a large school with a relatively inexperienced (in
relation to ICT) staff, who would find the transition challenging anyway…
It is important that if I am to make a case for GApps that I have considered
all the options, alternatives, problems and potential solutions otherwise it
is unlikely it would even be properly considered.

Sadly I don't have a clean slate to work with and must look at how things
would integrate with what we have and the parts that cannot be easily
replaced (like SIMS – which requires MS Office).

Apart from compatibility with MIS issues, I am not concerned so much with
comptibility with MS Office, as I am about loosing the ability to do things
that I currently use regularly…

From the perspective of the rest of the staff, I would be worried about
loosing PPT as many have large collections of files, and in general anything
other than simple ppts dont convert well to GDocs in my experience.

Whilst I like moode, it seems wrong to go back to an on site system, when
part of my interest in the whole GApps approach is moving the majority of
our services in to the cloud! Maybe in a college or uni where they have
more staffing, but not in our school…

Unless there are cloud based moodle options which include the GApps
integration – but I am not aware of any…

Great read Andy and agree with you're overall summary. We use Google Docs as a component in Year 8 to create presentations, websites, spreadsheets and forms. Whilst their is no doubting the power of collaboration and the simplicity and brilliance of Forms (a huge plus in my book) student invariably come away disappointed as they want to be able to do more. Sometimes this is a good thing in that with Sites they appreciate what you need to create a website and that it is not easy but with the presentations it is just very irritating (I guess the penalty of workign with powerpoints for so long).

The overall feeling we leave with is that if you want a quick online design that is software independent and can reach a larger audience then Gapps is your tool. But then again there is EduLive and the Microsoft Cloud….

Thanks Gideon,
I am undecided about the benifits of Live@Edu vs GApps… I was mostly
falling on the Live@Edu side of things but having looked more into the GApps
options, there are a lot of interesting options that can be added into the
GApps suite via the marketplace which make it appealing!

For now I don't see that we could easily give up some form of desktop office
package (whether MS or Open Office), as there are too many useful things
that can't be done in GApps yet!

I'm wondering whether something like
OffiSync<http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=3506+18157877874930227237&hp=topRated>might
be enough to bridge the gap and allow us to begin transitioning to the
cloud whilst we wait for the cloud to catch up in some areas… One thing I
really want to achieve is remote access to all files, so would love to find
a cost effective solution that syncs students MyDocs folders to the cloud -
like dropbox but for schools!
Syncplicity<http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=393+9547105767200082343&hp=topRated>offer
this but is currently prohibitively expensive for a school, but
apparently they are working on a solution that uses the GDocs storage so
that may bring the price down… If they could offer something using the
google storage for around $3-4/student per year then this would be a
fantastic solution!

Hi Andy,

I am probably late into this discussion. We have had a Google Domian for our 600 pupil junior school (7-11) for the last year. I started by rolling it out for staff and ended up rolling it out for Year 4 & 6 pupils after staff requests. We also had three years on Moodle and 2 years on Studywiz as our VLEs.

For us the biggest plus is the collaboration. Being able to create a folder in Docs make it view only or edit and then share it with others enables real time collaboration.
http://philbagge.blogspot.com/search/label/Goog...
Staff find that network documents can occasionaly be only opened in read only as others are using them. This is especially true of shared planning across 5 classes in each year group. With GDs all staff / pupils can edit at the same time. You are right to say that GDs is limited in terms of rich word processing tools, we especially miss a reasonable table tool in the word processor. Users make documents with complicated tables in MS office and then upload and share these in the Google cloud. The template feature is also useful in that you can create a proforma in Word, convert it into a GDoc and then upload it as a template where everyone else in your domain can use it. I am considering scrapping MS office on non staff PC's and installing open office to save money. I think at present you do need some form of external editor for richer features. I agree with your comments on Powerpoint and Multimedia but education has had death from powerpoint so not sure if this is such a big issue and lets be fair outside contrived lessons how often do we really need to animate slides or add video or sound?

The big thing going for live@edu is the storage space 25gb per user for any doc type and the possibility of migrating to sharepoint 2010 in the future. I have signed up for a trial of this with my County. If we only use the storage space it will be worth it especially if I can map drives. I suspect that we will concentrate on Google Domain but keep a close eye on live@edu.

I have staff who are using our VLE really well and staff who are using Google Domain well. Personally I think I can do most things with Google but good practice is good practice and I am just pleased it is happening whatever the platform. I miss Moodle as it fostered a shared community which Studywiz has never achieved but I am not sure if it was those cohorts who were pre facebook/bebo hence their adoption of Moodle and that later cohorts have moved on to non school social media such as Facebook and Bebo or if Moodle was just a better tool for discussion as it allowed email subscription?

Google Gadgets are a problem for us. They are blocked in school but pupils could access them at home. Some of these are porn gadgets. You are able to white or black list these but you have to send commands to the shell and that is beyond me. I have not been able to find an easy how to guide either. We cope with this through good digital citizenship, encouraging responsibility through greater tool access to responsible users whilst restricting those who prove less trustworthy.

Finally I am unable to logon as a pupil to see work, investigate issues etc without changing their passwords. There is a way of doing this with oath but it was also beyond me and I was quoted £500 for a poss fix.

Sorry for the ramble

All said I love my Google Domain but not every junior school would be ready for it.

Hi Andy

I know this was posted a while ago but have stumbled across it today. I would certainly recommend running your Office Suite along side GApps for a while until GApps has more of the features of Office. You will always have power users of office so not sure you will get rid of it completely. However I am sure students would embrace it far quicker than the older generation and I am not sure the students ever use all the features of the Office or really need to. If you need the features of Office look at http://www.godocsync.com/ which integrates office with GDocs. You are able to save Office Docs into the cloud.

Moodle 2.0 will have a Repository API that will give the user the ability to bring resources from GDocs into Moodle. It will support many other repositories. Here is a link that show the various repositories that will be supported. http://docs.moodle.org/en/Repository_API

Hope this helps.

Regards
Les

Thanks Les,

I'll take a look at the things you have suggested!

Cheers,

Andy

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It
really odd that GApps does not include any blogging  systems, and all the other great things
that google offer which are not integrated.Thanks to share this 

Really
informative and impressive write up, Thanks a lot for sharing this
informative article here.

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