T A KIN G K I D S
T O THE
By Andy Losik, SIG-EE Communications Director
Tere is a certain kind of a ‘big wig’ technology company that is all over the media touting the benefits and bliss of computing in the “cloud.” Well, the cloud isn’t exclusive territory for only buyers of the featured operating system. It is
for everybody...even elementary kids. Te cloud, like the Internet, is open to all and through a number of portals. Simply speaking, the cloud is nothing more than online storage space. Te biggest benefit is that it can be accessed anywhere through an Internet connection. In addition, many cloud-based services offer a number of file sharing and collaboration options.
One of the best-known services growing amongst educators is Google Apps. Districts are leaving the traditional self-maintained email systems and switching over to the free services offered by Gmail. It is free, offers cloud storage and options customizable to a school system’s needs. Along with the Gmail comes Google Docs, a full suite of word processing, database, presentation and drawing tools. Economics might be driving districts toward the free Google Apps, but administrators and staff are sticking around once they discover the collaborative tools the suite delivers. All documents can be shared with other Apps users as simply an email attachment or with full editing permissions. Two users in far-flung parts of the globe can be working on the same slide show presentation simultaneously, viewing each other’s changes, all while conversing through instant messaging built into every shared document. My district Hamilton Community Schools, southeast of Holland, is experiencing this right now. We are nine weeks into using Google Apps and continually finding new ways to streamline our workload through the sharing and publishing of documents, be it across a grade level, a building, or the school district. Because everything is stored
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on Google’s cloud, there is no more passing the flash drive at meetings or leaving a CD full of work on the night stand.
Not only are teachers accomplishing more in the cloud, but our students are as well. Students in third through twelſth grade all have their own
hamiltoncommunityschools.us Gmail and Google Apps accounts and are finding that many of the technology hurdles we fought in the past are no longer in our way. Anywhere a student can access the Internet is where he or she can work on a project. In the past, trying to work on a document or presentation at school and then later at home oſten got frustrating. Te Mac version of the document didn’t usually play well with the student’s PC soſtware at home. Plus there was always the difficulty of carrying media back and forth. With cloud based apps there is no Mac vs. PC or competing soſtware version issues. Google Docs is the same no matter what machine the student uses. Problems our students faced have been cleared up by upgrading to the latest version of Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer.
Being able to work easily from any computer at school or home is definitely making students efficient, but Google Apps is making document management, and teacher-student interaction easier and better. Delivering a link, a document template, or a PDF of instructions to students has never been easier. All I have to do is email it to a whole class with a few keystrokes. Now when I have to be out of the classroom, my fourth and fiſth graders receive emails with the same instructions and links that I leave for my substitute. As long as the students can access their accounts, there is no excuse for everyone not to be on the same page.
Tere is also no more “I did it and leſt it on your desk” excuse for students because many teachers require that students add their teacher as a collaborator as soon as they start a document. Since the teacher has access to it with one click, he or she can monitor ample progress in the paper writing process, make editing suggestions, and know whether the student really did finish it on time or not. For the student, there is no last minute rush to print or the possibility of leaving the paper at home. To turn in something, all a student has to do is notify the teacher that the assignment is complete.
Students are also finding ways to collaborate on projects through shared documents as early as fourth grade. Recently
Conference 2011 | MACULJOURNAL
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