Google Apps implementation

[Susan Smith]

I am planning to pilot Google Apps to our 5th grade students this fall. Does anyone have experience with an implementation?

If you are planning an implementation and want company I would like to collaborate with you during our pilots. At this point I am doing research and developing a proposal to be approved by our academic technology committee.

[Art Gelwicks]

I don't think this was a conscious decision on their part but rather a reflection of standard child protection laws preventing gathering personal information about children 13 and under. Since Google is a data mining, advertising based company it's a relatively safe legal disclaimer.

[Maureen Tumenas]

I too am wary about the age requirement for google, but keep reading about 3rd/4th graders who are using apps. I set up a ning for my 7-9th graders and some are not yet 13...it is a closed system and the parents sign off on it...but not exactly following terms of service.

Does anyone use the fake acct- student+your acct.gmail to log on to google docs? Does this work with multiple kids signing on with essentially the same acct info?

[Ernie]

Susan , we have been using Google Apps (Education Edition). This will be our second year and I would be glad to talk with you...

[Susan Smith]

Hi Ernie,

Google apps has really taken off in our middle school division. We are utilizing google calendars for homework posting - parents will get an orientation to this tonight. We are not using the email but hope to utilize many other features. The old saying be careful what you ask for holds true. With any new rollout there is an increase in helpdesk tickets without an increase in resources to deal with them.

Are you using google sites as well?

[Jim Heynderickx]

I'm going to echo Demetri's comment and ask if anyone has gone the live@edu route so far. The main part I'm interested in is the creation of Exchange Labs accounts for students, giving them 10 gigs of storage and a choice Outlook Web Access, Outlook, MacMail, Windows Mobile, etc.

Secondly, I'm interested in Microsoft Identity Lifecycle manager, and the control of AD in the creation and manipulation of accounts over time. Specifically, I'm wondering if student Exchange Labs email accounts can share a global directory with a faculty/staff Exchange system hosted locally or remotely. (Thus, a split but connected system.)

Third, I also know that single login authentication is offered, meaning that Outlook Web Access could be part of a school portal system.

Fun things to consider. Let me know if you'll already done all the work I'm interested in... :)

[Demetri Orlando]

Jim-
We have Exchange labs running for our students (using only OWA so far) and it's working fine, though there is a delay of about 20 seconds when you use the exchangelabs system to resolve names in the address book. Students automatically have our faculty in their address book. Faculty must browse to a public folder and add the Student Emails as an address book. We haven't taken the time yet to figure out how to allow Outlook (on the students' machines) to access their exchangelabs account.
-D

[Jim Heynderickx]

Demetri, thanks for the update.

We have a trial set up, but we haven't created the sub-domain or MX records for it yet. (We need to be careful, because the main domain MX records are very complicated.)

Two other quick questions-- how many students do you have in the system, and do you have admin priviledges into their mailboxes if you needed them?

Jim

[Patrick Phillips]

We at Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School are implementing a collaborative classroom context in our school. The idea is easy. The task is a challenge.

We are focusing on Google Apps right now and are primarily concerned with:
1) Cost (with email)
2) Data Security and Access
3) Support
4) Test Piloting in the classroom
5) "Helpdesk" Resource Load

I'm sure we are not alone!

We have reviewed A LOT of information, but have NO relationships with others who have experience.

Can anybody with experience implementing Google Apps speak to any ONE or more of these important facets? We are creating a needs and options matrix and it sure would help to have some of your perspectives.

Thanks!

Patrick

[Art Gelwicks]

1. Cost - Virtually nil if you're dealing with a small (under 500 user base). Some additional costs can be incurred for storage and Postini if desired, but we haven't encountered them yet.

2. Being a web based app it has all the standard cloud issues/benefits with access and security. User accounts are centrally managed, permissions to shared resources are handed out by the owners of the resources rather than the central admin, etc. Google Sites provides more structure but is still in early stages for use.

3. Support. Again, completely web based eliminates the bulk of your infrastructure support issues and allows for remote support in most cases. For example, we created a help desk ticket system using Google Docs (Spreadsheet and Form) and embedded it into the school's intranet (Google Sites).

4. We haven't made the leap into the classroom yet. There are some governance issues to resolve first (student email accounts, access management, etc.) but we hope to soon.

5. No more load than any other IT solution. The upside is it's web-centric nature, decent UI, and heavy user base.

[Patrick Phillips]

Thanks Art!

Can you tell me a bit more about your school and user base?

Are you using Postini? We wonder if the Google pricing structure is truly $4 for filtering and $8.50 for archive, etc. seems a little loose...

Anybody else know about these particulars??

[Art Gelwicks]

We have more than 400 students and over 100 staff/volunteer accounts. We're not using Postini primarily because of the cost factor. I believe $4/$8.5 are accurate, but it really depends what your needs are. What critical features does Postini bring that you don't see as part of the basic offering?

[Patrick Phillips]

I'm new to this school — my role is to enable web-based collaboration. We currently are using our own mail server with a Barracuda spam firewall. It was developed by our IT person.

The issue I think is more a culture shift, from safe, understood, internal control of data and mail, to releasing that level of control to Google. Postini most likely would be a "parallel" level of control and could calm the "release-control" anxiety.

I suppose I'm seeking that magic elixir, the story or stories that would help us transition from a legacy culture to Google.