[elearning] Alis volat propriis: Oregon’s bringing Google Apps to classrooms statewide

[Roland Gesthuizen]

In February we switched our school mail from Groupwise to GoogleApps for
Education, best thing I have done all year and took us less than an hour to
switchover. Crikey, one less server for us to manage, 8+ Gb cloud storage
per user and free too! Nicely syncs with our AD server, my edumail etc. Been
talking to colleagues in the USA who are similarly dropped their school
exchange servers, space administration and Monash Uni. I am impressed by the
many collaborative tools, cool mobile-web email interface on my iPod Touch,
plugins and potential for this in a school environment. Goes way beyond just
email and I can see now why NSW headed down this path. Happy to run a
workshop after school one day if anybody is interested. I'll supply the tea
and coffee, you can ask my techs the questions. Just contact me off list.

Regards Roland
**

*Alis volat propriis: Oregon’s bringing Google Apps to classrooms statewide*

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/sBSENe0_Ymw/alis-volat-propriis-oregons-bringing.html<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/blogspot/MKuf/%7E3/sBSENe0_Ymw/alis-volat-propriis-oregons-bringing.html>

via The Official Google Blog by A Googler on 4/28/10

Growing up in the late seventies in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan, technology
wasn’t really a part of my educational life. My teachers graded printouts
and the idea of collaborating with my classmates on a project anytime,
anywhere just wasn’t possible. Not to mention, we didn’t have a computer at
home and working on the Internet was still a pipe dream for a middle
schooler.

Things have changed since I was in middle school of course, and there are
people working hard to bring technology into classrooms to help students
learn and teachers teach. Today Oregon is taking a huge step in that
direction — they’re the first state to open up Google Apps for Education to
public schools throughout the state.

Starting today, the Oregon Department of Education will offer Google Apps to
all the school districts in the state — helping teachers, staff and students
use Gmail, Docs, Sites, Video, Groups and more within their elementary,
middle and high schools. School funding has been hit hard over the past
couple of years, and Oregon is no exception. This move is going to save the
Department of Education $1.5 million per year — big bucks for a hurting
budget.

With Google Apps, students in Oregon can build websites or email teachers
about a project. Their documents and email will live online in the cloud —
so they’ll be able to work from a classroom or a computer lab, at home or at
the city (or county) library. And instead of just grading a paper at the end
of the process, Oregonian teachers can help students with their docs in real
time, coaching them along the way. It’s critical that students learn how to
use the kind of productivity technology they’ll need throughout their lives,
and Oregon is helping students across the state do just that.

It blows my mind to think about how far technology in the classroom has come
since I was in school, and how far we still have to go to make sure kids in
classrooms everywhere have access to these tech resources. Cloud computing
tools like Google Apps are one way teachers, schools — and now a whole state
— are addressing the issue. Oh, and alis volat propriis? That’s the Oregon
motto. It means “she flies by her own wings” — makes perfect sense for a
state heading to the cloud.


--
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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