Google Apps for Secondary schools

[Will Nolan]

Hi, we are looking at rolling out Google apps in our School in the southwest in a school with 1200 pupils and nearly 100 staff. To begin we will be looking at it purely for staff. My question really is have people had problems with google apps which has been installed in other schools and is office 365 a worthy product in competition to google apps?

Also the school are looking for some form of project management software to manage goals and key dates for ongoing projects. We are looking at Smartsheet and Zoho projects. Has anyone had any experience of these in education settings?

Regards

Will Nolan

[John Hegarty]

+1 on Google Apps for Education. 

We have been using it in my school for a number of years. Happy to answer questions off-list if you like.

jh

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[Nicholas Handy]

John

It would be a pity to take this off-list as I think it's something that a lot of schools would be really interested in.  I think GoogleApps is underused and it might open up the ebate.  Is there a problem with it that I am not aware of.

Nicky

[Mary Linehan, IT Co-Ordinator]

Hi Will, 

I'm based in Cork - We've been using Google Apps on a phased in basis over the last two years. Its been fantastic - transformed our school, how we operate, how we communicate on a whole number of levels. I'm happy to help where I can …. free to contact off list - or could meet if you're nearby.

Mary

[Will Nolan]

Thanks all, I was just wondering if anyone had any problems with it in general. We will be moving from Outlook exchange which is locally based in the school and backed up off site. I suppose I was just being cautious when I would be moving that number of people over to a new system. 

Does anyone know if it is possible to backup a copy of some of the google apps accounts locally to a server in the school as fail safe?

[John Hegarty]

If the accounts you want to back up are going to continue using Outlook and it is the email that you are concerned about then it may be enough to just backup the .pst file from Outlook for those users. If you have a backup procedure for the files of these users you may already be backing up the .pst file too.

More about .pst files here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287070

If you have the email in an Outlook .pst file and in the cloud with Google then perhaps you wouldn't need another backup as you would already have the information saved in two locations.

jh

[Mary Linehan, IT Co-Ordinator]

You can download the google DRIVE locally on to your computer so you'll have off line access

We did have problems with emails at the start - when we set them up, especially on outlook, the recommended ports didn't work for pop3 accounts. After a few 'googles' of the problems we came up with solutions (I can't remember them at present but it was straightforward enough).

When we rolled it out we started off with Emails and group emails etc for the staff. We then started using Google Drive for shared documents (eg a spreadsheet for booking IT room) etc. then bit by bit we've expanded its roll.

We incorporated Google training into staff meetings - I found one step at a time worked best. When we started to roll out Google Drive we only used a few 'key' documents at first, then we rolled the rest out after a while.

It's been hugely successful with little or no negative feedback so far.

Hope this helps

Mary

[Fintan Costello (Clarion Consulting Limited)]

Hi Will

As you're already on Exchange / Outlook then it's very straightforward to deploy Office365 - and you'll get Office 2013 free for your students as well. Feel free to contact me directly to explore the options - I manage Office365 for education in Ireland.

Fintan Costello
Microsoft Ireland
v-fi...@microsoft.com

Sent from my Windows Phone

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From: Will Nolan
Sent: ‎8/‎5/‎2014 14:59
To: cesi...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [CESI List] Google Apps for Secondary schools

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[Robert Chaney]

We connected our school to GAFE several years ago, and have tested and used its features on a phased basis since.
The initial registration with Google took longer than expected so be patient.
And we also had a few issues with the Secretary's emails on Outlook on her PC, but tweeks sorted that out.

The internet bandwidth that we had several years ago did cause problems when we had a whole class using Google Docs at the same time - it was slow and clunky - but that should be resolved nowadays with improved broadband speeds in schools.

Finally, Google Docs does NOT like being used on older browsers. We had a computer room using IE that wasn't updated (roll-back cards and a reactive IT maintenance support service to blame there). It particularly likes to use Chrome (no surprise there, heh?!)

The only issue with Office365 is that it isn't free, as far as I'm aware. Otherwise, it is good, from comments that have been made to me, with Sharepoint etc.

Rob Chaney
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[Fintan Costello (Clarion Consulting Limited)]

" The only issue with Office365 is that it isn't free, as far as I'm aware. Otherwise, it is good, from comments that have been made to me, with Sharepoint etc."

 

Just to clarify: Office365 for education is 100% free for teachers and students. And it will work quite happily on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE or whatever you like to use in your school ;-)

 

Fintan Costello
Education Technical Advisor – Microsoft   Office: +353 (1) 2797834 v-fi...@microsoft.com

 

 

http://education.office365.com

Get the latest Office 2013 for your students

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[John Hegarty]

Is this page out of date?

Office 365 Education plans and pricing

http://office.microsoft.com/en-ie/academic/compare-office-365-education-plans-FX103045755.aspx

jh

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[Fintan Costello (Clarion Consulting Limited)]

Hi John

 

No, that’s current; the left hand column there is the A2 plan, which is completely free. That’s what most schools and universities are using. It’s been free since it launched.

 

There are paid options which give you more functionality, but that’s your choice. Most schools can also get Office 2013 for their students at no additional cost.

 

Fintan Costello

Education Technical Advisor - Ireland