By
now you may have heard of Google Apps, and terms such as “Cloud
Computing”, and may be wondering what it means and how it can be
utilised in your school.
What is Google Apps?
Google Apps is a free suite of web-based collaboration and communication tools:
Google Docs is a suite of web-based collaborative tools that
allows the entire school community to share information and ideas
easily. Imagine groups of students being able to collaborate together
which a teacher on a project, live and real-time. The nice thing is
that they can access these documents from anywhere there is an internet
connection, so they are potentially able to work from home too!
Google Forms gives you the ability to create questionnaires,
email them to students, staff, parents or anyone in the wider community
and the results are automatically collated into a spreadsheet, which
can then be easily analysed, graphed and published. The possibilities
are limitless!
Google Mail & Gmail allows you to route all your school's
mail through Google's powerful mail servers for free, thus removing the
need for a mail server onsite at your school. You can have as many
email addresses as you like, and each one comes with approximately 7GB
of storage space. You can continue to use your existing mail client
software, or you can use Google's web-based mail solution, Gmail to
manage all your email. You can even mix and match these two options to
suit your school's needs.
Google Video is a video hosting and sharing solution – share,
communicate and collaborate using video. You can have up to 10Gb of
storage for free with your Education Edition account.
Google Sites is a website creator and host. You can create a
professional and elaborate website using either HTML code or the Google
Sites easy-to-use website creator, and you can host your website with
Google as well, all for free!
Google Calendar allows you to organise your schedule (timetable)
and share events with the rest of the school and the wider community.
You can schedule events anywhere from your mobile, and get reminders
from SMS and email.
By the way, don't forget about all the other great Google products, such as GoogleMaps, Blogger, YouTube, Google Groups, Google Scholar, Chrome (Google's innovative web browser) and much more.
Where do Watchdog fit in?
Watchdog is Google's Preferred Partner for Education in New Zealand,
and we provide services to integrate, train and provide support for
Google Apps. Whether your school has 20 or 2000 students, we can help
you get the most out of Google Apps.
Services Watchdog provide
Google Apps Education Edition account creation and bulk user account creation
We will create and verify your Google Apps Education Edition account,
and create as many user accounts as you require for your school.
Directory Service Synchronisation
We can set up synchronisation between your existing directory service
(for example Active Directory) and Google Apps, so you only need to
update accounts in one location.
Re-direction of email via Google
We will re-route your mail through Google's mail/spam filters, and
organise for your existing email accounts to be transitioned seamlessly.
Upload of existing mail data to Gmail client
If required, we can arrange for your existing mail data to the Gmail client.
Upload of existing data to Google Docs
If required, all your existing data can be uploaded into Google Docs, retaining existing security.
Training
We can provide training on all levels on all aspects of Google Apps
Technical Support
We have a specialist Google-trained Technical Support Helpdesk that
will be happy to help with any issues you may have. Various pricing
packages are available.
For any queries or more information, please email
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, or call 0508 WATCHDOG.
Useful links
Educator Resources by Google:
http://www.google.com/educators/index.html
Lesson plans and classroom activities utilising Google Apps:
http://www.google.com/educators/activities.html
Wellington Google Apps Presentation
Case Studes from Schools and Universities
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/customers.html
What's New in Google Apps
Click here to see what's new in Google Apps:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleAppsUpdates
