Alternatives to Google Apps for Education

I have been pushing my school districts for the past few years to adopt Google Apps for Education as an alternative (not a replacement) to Microsoft Office. It is also a great way to give students space to store and share documents online. The Gmail package, calendar, and Google Sites are also impressive. Finally, around the holidays, our Sparta Area Schools was set up to use Google Apps for Education. I was pumped. My freshman classes were studying careers, so I set up a project utilizing Google Apps with career exploration. Here is what I found. Google Apps is not very good and my students hated it. There was a huge uproar as students begged to use their Office products. Be careful for what you ask for I guess.




However, this raised a question in my mind. I had heard so much about Google Apps for Education and districts adopting it and using it all over the nation. But, was there something out there in the cloud that was better? That has been my quest lately. To find alternatives to Google Apps for Education. I don't know that I can find the total package the Google offers of Email, calendar, productivity tools, Website builder, Forms, etc. But, I feel that I can find alternatives to some of these tools that are easy to use and offer more robust features.

Check back in the coming weeks to see what I can find. Thanks!

My Paperless Classroom

Several years ago, I made a concerted effort to go paperless with my computer classes. I would like to share some of my success and failures. I have to admit, as time goes by and technology gets better, going paperless is getting much easier. In the beginning, I was either screen-checking assignments or having students email them to me. Now days, with Google Docs or the Share Point Site our school uses, things are a little smoother. Every student in each of my classes has an online drop box and Wiki. All projects and assignments are posted as PDFs or converted to graphics (for my DTP classes) and linked to student Wikis where I can quickly find them.

All of my assignments are linked to my three class Websites. Students can access them from school or home. Many of my lectures are captured on screencasts using Camtasia. Students can view most of them from home also. (Some are still stuck on the school's shared network). Most of the documents I am working on are in a Dropbox account where I can access them from home, school, Web, iPad, or iPhone. I have a classroom blog with Blogger to keep parents updated. My classroom is 99.9% in the cloud.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't hate paper. We did typed letters to former teachers that had made an impact on our lives a few months ago and we did print them. Some of the students didn't realize we have a laser printer in the back of the room because they had never used it up until that assignment. :)
What has going paperless done for me? First, I am more organized. My assignments are linked and available. No copies. I also don't carry papers back and forth to school and home. Assignments are in the cloud. I carried a briefcase for a few years, mainly out of habit or so I would have a spot to keep my school keys, but stopped earlier this year. My wife doesn't like it. She is a teacher also and does carry a lot of papers back and forth. But, it is working out well for me and my students. Once they are in the practice of uploading documents to their dropbox and linking to the Wiki, they do it without having to be told. It is great.

I enjoy being paperless!
If you are thinking about trying it, checkout such tools mentioned above as Google Docs, Google Sites, Weebly, Dropbox, Share Point, and others. Search my blog. I have talked about many of these tools as well. Start small and work into it. You will enjoy going paperless also.

Summer Tech Challenge

Yes, I know it is summer and I like to forget about school in the summer. But, summer is a great time to learn something new. So, here is my challenge. Learn some new type of new technology this summer. Here are some ideas: Google Docs, Google Sites, Weebly, Prezi, Wordle, Blogger, KeepVid, etc.

I am taking a vb.net class online (it is very different than Visual Basic 6.0) and reading a new blog I found called Teach Paperless.

Find something that can help you in the classroom next year and give it a try while you have time this summer. Remember that YouTube is a great place to look for tutorials.

Thanks and have a great summer!

Web 2.0 and Social Studies

Definition of Web 2.0:  The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design,[1] and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators (prosumers) of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (consumers) are limited to the passive viewing of content that was created for them. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies. Definition from Wikipedia.

Great information
Social Studies Central
Tech Learning 2.0 - Social Studies
Favorite Web 2.0 Apps of Social Studies Educators
Social Studies « Web 2.0
A Day in the Life of Web 2.0
Monday Models
Web 2.0 Dashboard
Googlios
Top 1000 Web 2.0 Sites
21 Things for Teachers
Jenison Public Schools
Cool Tools for Schools
The Ultimate Web 2.0 Sites Listing
Blogs, Wikis, and Google Docs Oh My!
How to Teach with Tech Tools
Common Craft (Videos for those of us who don’t know anything about specific Web 2.0 tools)
Paul and Todd’s Excellent Ed Tech Adventure (Become a follower) (Lot’s of Google info)



Great Places to Begin

Get a Gmail account: It is your ticket to everything Google and there is a lot of good stuff!

Sign up for Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sites, and Blogger. (With your Gmail account)

Get a SharePoint site at Sparta. Student drop boxes, Web space, Wikis, and more! (Todd or Paul can help)

Find class materials on YouTube. There is probably something you could use there right now.