So . . . STI's Information NOW and Pearson's Powerschool were the two options left on the table in late June, 2010. Our school, PK-12 plus Advancement, Business Office, and Administration, were all making the leap together to a significant SIS upgrade. Both programs offered the following services, to name a few:
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Admissions Management
Alumni Management
Assessment Management
Attendance Management
Class Scheduling
Donor Management
Enrollment Management
Gradebook
Parent & Student Portal Interfaces
Reporting
Student Database
Powerschool offered more customization options (which appealed to me and other techie staff), as well as a VERY cool calendar option. InfoNOW, however, had a big lead in the data transfer (importing and exporting) because we were already using their older system. This, in the end, was the tipping point.
As I researched these two programs more, security was a very interesting side I had not considered. STI's site was very specific, listing fields that can be made read-only or hidden, various security levels, usage permission only for the students you impact, and strict administration/permission controls. Pearson's site mentioned different levels of access, but was much more clear on the privacy end. Their website has a built-in privacy policy that is a link on every page. The language here was very similar to FERPA, except that it allows release of some info. to affiliates and promises “commercially reasonable care.” In other words, their privacy rules aren't as stringent as schools'. As to how to get access, both of these programs (and the others I've found) are fee-based. The district pays a fee (usually per-student, not per-user) and then the company gives them the power to set up user accounts.
So, all in all, STI was a good choice for our school. It's used for all of the tasks listed above, but the daily jobs I use most focus on tracking attendance and grades. The nicest part of using the same system for everyone is that I can go back and look at previous years' grades and attendance for students I teach. I can also see their standardized test scores without having to go dig up their cums. For 2011-2012, these records will only be one year deep (we opted not to hand-enter all of the old records). However, as we use the system longer, this will help us to see trends for individual students and for groups/classes, right alongside their current grades and attendance. That part is very exciting, and will ultimately be well worth the year of frustrations in getting to know and manage this new system.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Student Information Systems (SIS)
I chose SIS, with gritted teeth, because it's the only one of the three options that I use with regularity at The Potter's House. We have done some discussion and experimentation with data warehousing and learning management systems, but I wrestle with our SIS every day of the school year, and often lose. I wanted to learn more and hopefully ease my latent frustration. The research helped, as I learned more about our system and its competition.
My teeth were gritted because last summer we upgraded to a VERY different version of our SIS, InformationNOW from Software Technology, Inc. (STI). We've used STI products since before I joined the staff seven years ago, but 2010-2011 was THE upgrade. We went to a fully web-based, fully interactive system that includes parent and student portals. The basic programs are fine, but all of the bells and whistles we were promised with this upgrade were far more trouble than they were worth. In addition, at the end of first quarter we LOST all of the grades that had been inputted, right before report cards (of course) and had to do some MAJOR clean-up after STI restored the day-old backup. In short, our SIS did NOT make my life easier, though things did go more smoothly as the year progressed.
As I looked into the different SIS available to me, my favorite site quickly became Capterra.com, which is a software warehouse with over 300 SIS options. I love it because there's a filter with a range of different options to check, from how many students you're serving to whether you want to integrate donors to where you're located geographically. As I played with it, I was able to whittle the huge list down to just a few choices that would meet our school's needs. That was a very cool option!
Just to be spiteful, I decided to compare and contrast Information NOW with Powerschool, a Pearson product. It's spiteful because I was on the committee that researched and voted on last year's upgrade, and I voted for Powerschool over our current program. I was out voted, mostly because the transition would be easier with an upgrade rather than a complete change. Too bad the transition people weren't the ones who had to re-input their grades . . . Clearly I'm still a little bitter. To view my hopefully-honest comparison, read my next post.
My teeth were gritted because last summer we upgraded to a VERY different version of our SIS, InformationNOW from Software Technology, Inc. (STI). We've used STI products since before I joined the staff seven years ago, but 2010-2011 was THE upgrade. We went to a fully web-based, fully interactive system that includes parent and student portals. The basic programs are fine, but all of the bells and whistles we were promised with this upgrade were far more trouble than they were worth. In addition, at the end of first quarter we LOST all of the grades that had been inputted, right before report cards (of course) and had to do some MAJOR clean-up after STI restored the day-old backup. In short, our SIS did NOT make my life easier, though things did go more smoothly as the year progressed.
As I looked into the different SIS available to me, my favorite site quickly became Capterra.com, which is a software warehouse with over 300 SIS options. I love it because there's a filter with a range of different options to check, from how many students you're serving to whether you want to integrate donors to where you're located geographically. As I played with it, I was able to whittle the huge list down to just a few choices that would meet our school's needs. That was a very cool option!
Just to be spiteful, I decided to compare and contrast Information NOW with Powerschool, a Pearson product. It's spiteful because I was on the committee that researched and voted on last year's upgrade, and I voted for Powerschool over our current program. I was out voted, mostly because the transition would be easier with an upgrade rather than a complete change. Too bad the transition people weren't the ones who had to re-input their grades . . . Clearly I'm still a little bitter. To view my hopefully-honest comparison, read my next post.
Critical Evaluation of Websites
Octopi in trees? DHMO, the mystery chemical? Rennets are little rodents chopped up and put in cheese? These articles cracked me up, but the thought behind them is sobering: this is the material that so many of our kids take at face value. This is the content that they'll use in their research papers if we don't teach them how to think and evaluate material critically.
We, as educators, MUST get this one right. We must teach students, from the very youngest to the very oldest, to think critically about the media they consume, especially websites. If they cannot do this, I shudder to think about the future of our nation. This may seem melodramatic, but I honestly believe that critical media consumption is THAT important.
I've always had students evaluate sites and then submit the evaluations to me before using them for research, but this super-specific form is SO much better than what I do! It looks at everything about a site, from the URL tag (generally we guide kids away from .com) to the images to the author and the text layout. Most importantly, it drives students to complete several authenticating/comparison searches to validate the info. This is key, and not difficult to do.
By performing a few simple background searches, students can rule out bogus info. quickly and find reinforcement for good sites. If we can get them to do this up front, while in the information gathering stage, they'll be lightyears ahead when they get to actually researching. Not only will they have ruled out a number of unnecessary sites, but they will find more keywords for better searches, and they'll build their background knowledge to boot. Initially, most students are resistant to this, but if you can tell them a few good stories (or get testimonies from their peers) about students who've fallen prey to bad information, their motivation will increase.
Unfortunately, an open Google search is the default for most kids. They think all information is equal, and they just enter their topic and start clicking, from the top of the list downward, and usually printing before even skimming the text. In short, they let Google do the thinking for them. Don't get me wrong; I love Google, but there are SO many great tools and other options that they don't even know about! If we can convince them that using Google Scholar, specific, varied keywords, and advanced searches will actually SAVE them time, then we'll have won at least one battle.
As to the whole critical thinking and critical media use war, we have to take it in project- and paper-sized steps. Ideally, each building (and ideally each district) needs a scope and sequence for teaching ever-increasing levels of critical media skills. These can SO easily be built into the curriculum as we integrate reading and research across the curriculum. This is one of those places where we need to work smarter, not harder. By combining search and thinking skills into our pet projects, we'll end up with better assessments and better thinkers, all in one!
We, as educators, MUST get this one right. We must teach students, from the very youngest to the very oldest, to think critically about the media they consume, especially websites. If they cannot do this, I shudder to think about the future of our nation. This may seem melodramatic, but I honestly believe that critical media consumption is THAT important.
I've always had students evaluate sites and then submit the evaluations to me before using them for research, but this super-specific form is SO much better than what I do! It looks at everything about a site, from the URL tag (generally we guide kids away from .com) to the images to the author and the text layout. Most importantly, it drives students to complete several authenticating/comparison searches to validate the info. This is key, and not difficult to do.
By performing a few simple background searches, students can rule out bogus info. quickly and find reinforcement for good sites. If we can get them to do this up front, while in the information gathering stage, they'll be lightyears ahead when they get to actually researching. Not only will they have ruled out a number of unnecessary sites, but they will find more keywords for better searches, and they'll build their background knowledge to boot. Initially, most students are resistant to this, but if you can tell them a few good stories (or get testimonies from their peers) about students who've fallen prey to bad information, their motivation will increase.
Unfortunately, an open Google search is the default for most kids. They think all information is equal, and they just enter their topic and start clicking, from the top of the list downward, and usually printing before even skimming the text. In short, they let Google do the thinking for them. Don't get me wrong; I love Google, but there are SO many great tools and other options that they don't even know about! If we can convince them that using Google Scholar, specific, varied keywords, and advanced searches will actually SAVE them time, then we'll have won at least one battle.
As to the whole critical thinking and critical media use war, we have to take it in project- and paper-sized steps. Ideally, each building (and ideally each district) needs a scope and sequence for teaching ever-increasing levels of critical media skills. These can SO easily be built into the curriculum as we integrate reading and research across the curriculum. This is one of those places where we need to work smarter, not harder. By combining search and thinking skills into our pet projects, we'll end up with better assessments and better thinkers, all in one!
RSS Feeds and Alerts
WOW -- I've been looking for a web management tool like this one. I've heard the phrase "RSS" in passing at a few workshops, but never knew what it does. I love it for several reasons:
1) The information comes to me, instead of me going out to find it.
2) I can scan a lot of info in a short time.
3) I can keep up (at least a little) with movement on topics that are of interest and/or necessity for me.
4) I can feel informed and smart, not lost and dumb. ; )
5) This helps keep me "in the loop" with updated info, especially research, which is often hard to find and even harder to sort through.
I'm not quite as impressed with the alerts. The few I chose are pulling a lot of info that's not pertinent to what I'm looking at. It would be nice if it had an advanced option that would focus the search more. For instance, there's more than one Potter's House School in the nation, so it would be nice to be able to specify Grand Rapids only.
Despite that, I'm enjoying playing with these new tools. The RSS video is right -- it's addicting to have so much info at my fingertips. For my classroom, I anticipate most using this to find current events articles related to History topics I'm teaching. For myself, I plan to focus on articles about Common Core and competency-based teaching, which are key goals for me this year. Finally, with colleagues, I anticipate sharing the tool so that they can play with it, and I know I'll find powerful articles to discuss. Thank you, RSS!
1) The information comes to me, instead of me going out to find it.
2) I can scan a lot of info in a short time.
3) I can keep up (at least a little) with movement on topics that are of interest and/or necessity for me.
4) I can feel informed and smart, not lost and dumb. ; )
5) This helps keep me "in the loop" with updated info, especially research, which is often hard to find and even harder to sort through.
I'm not quite as impressed with the alerts. The few I chose are pulling a lot of info that's not pertinent to what I'm looking at. It would be nice if it had an advanced option that would focus the search more. For instance, there's more than one Potter's House School in the nation, so it would be nice to be able to specify Grand Rapids only.
Despite that, I'm enjoying playing with these new tools. The RSS video is right -- it's addicting to have so much info at my fingertips. For my classroom, I anticipate most using this to find current events articles related to History topics I'm teaching. For myself, I plan to focus on articles about Common Core and competency-based teaching, which are key goals for me this year. Finally, with colleagues, I anticipate sharing the tool so that they can play with it, and I know I'll find powerful articles to discuss. Thank you, RSS!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
What Works and What Doesn't
Purposeful teacher-student interaction around learning is the key. Every experienced educator and parent "feels" that this is true; the studies back it up. Here are the main topics that impressed me from exploring the Hattie and IES materials about what works in education:
1) Feedback is HUGE, but most effective when it comes FROM the student TO the teacher. This is what we usually refer to as "formative assessment," and everything I've seen this last year keeps drawing me this direction. I've got to find ways to reduce the amount of time that I spend grading papers, and increase my efforts in conferencing, exit slips, and studying classroom-wide vs. individualized trends. I'm not good at turning around assignments, getting them grading and back into students' hands, so I'm going to have to re-think at least some of my assessments. Again, smaller, more manageable chunks are going to emerge.
2) “30% of what makes a difference is in the hands of teachers.” Instructional quality DOES matter! I complain a LOT about the factors I can't control in my students' lives; I have to take responsibility for what I CAN control. Mainly, that's about using every minute of every class period wisely.
3) Direct instruction is not the anathema that many make it out to be, but HOW I carry it out does matter. As a high school teacher, I carry the "they have to be ready for a college classroom" burden. As such, lecture must be part of my instruction. However, just getting up there and talking about World War II isn't true direct instruction. Modeling, checking for understanding, and gradual release are all part of doing it successfully. Sounds like Madeline Hunter wasn't so off the mark . . .
4) Finally, programs can be effective, but it's the student-teacher interaction that makes them work. I've experienced both Reading Recovery and Corrective Reading in my career. The research shows the first to be highly successful and the latter, not so much. In my opinion, the key is student buy-in. Reading Recovery is highly personalized and focused on small-group and often one-on-one lessons. Corrective Reading is highly prescriptive, usually taught in a larger group. Here again, teacher and student collaborating over the material and having meaningful discussions brings results. We must know our kids and allow them to SHOW what they know in meaningful ways that give them ownership of their learning.
1) Feedback is HUGE, but most effective when it comes FROM the student TO the teacher. This is what we usually refer to as "formative assessment," and everything I've seen this last year keeps drawing me this direction. I've got to find ways to reduce the amount of time that I spend grading papers, and increase my efforts in conferencing, exit slips, and studying classroom-wide vs. individualized trends. I'm not good at turning around assignments, getting them grading and back into students' hands, so I'm going to have to re-think at least some of my assessments. Again, smaller, more manageable chunks are going to emerge.
2) “30% of what makes a difference is in the hands of teachers.” Instructional quality DOES matter! I complain a LOT about the factors I can't control in my students' lives; I have to take responsibility for what I CAN control. Mainly, that's about using every minute of every class period wisely.
3) Direct instruction is not the anathema that many make it out to be, but HOW I carry it out does matter. As a high school teacher, I carry the "they have to be ready for a college classroom" burden. As such, lecture must be part of my instruction. However, just getting up there and talking about World War II isn't true direct instruction. Modeling, checking for understanding, and gradual release are all part of doing it successfully. Sounds like Madeline Hunter wasn't so off the mark . . .
4) Finally, programs can be effective, but it's the student-teacher interaction that makes them work. I've experienced both Reading Recovery and Corrective Reading in my career. The research shows the first to be highly successful and the latter, not so much. In my opinion, the key is student buy-in. Reading Recovery is highly personalized and focused on small-group and often one-on-one lessons. Corrective Reading is highly prescriptive, usually taught in a larger group. Here again, teacher and student collaborating over the material and having meaningful discussions brings results. We must know our kids and allow them to SHOW what they know in meaningful ways that give them ownership of their learning.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
"Begin with the end in mind." So often, in the classroom and in the rest of our lives, we don't do this. What sounds like fun today? What will make the students tune in? What will make ME enjoy the topic? As an experienced teacher, I've done the background work, trudging through the standards and making sure all of my lessons connect to them, and using "backwards design" to be sure that the lessons build up to and support the assessments. However, in most cases, that was a WHILE ago. It's time for a curriculum refresher, and UDL is one component I'll use.
As the Common Core began making its way through our state (and into my building), I have to confess that my first thought was, "Will I have to get rid of any of my favorite lessons/topics?" I LOVE my 1920s stock market simulation in U.S. History; I wait expectantly for Romeo and Juliet to roll around in English 9; I dread teaching the Electoral College in Civics, but always find the students' questions engaging once they "get" it. How will "new" standards change all of this? Far more practically, how much time will it take me to re-build each of my core classes?
UDL will give me a structure to facilitate the changes that are coming, and I am confident that even my favorite lessons will be more approachable and more meaningful when this process is done. I think the most appealing quote from the reading and videos is that we need to "reduce the disabilities in the curriculum itself, so that fewer kids will be labeled as disabled, and more will be successful." WOW -- that was NOT written by a textbook publisher! I love the view of our educational "stuff" as disabled; few teachers would disagree. Creating more interactive, flexible media with excellent content is an art form that is coming along, but has not yet reached a sustainable, affordable level.
I think UDL's Book Builder is going to help this. I've been playing with it a little, and am seeing the potential of the online, interactive style. This one bears watching. Textbook companies are getting the clue that their competition is gaining strength, and today's school books are much more visually appealing and have more bells and whistles (especially web and smart board connections) than their predecessors. However, purchasing new texts for an entire building, let alone a whole district, is cost-prohibitive. I wonder how much more life traditional textbooks have.
Aside from the disabled curriculum, I have to look at my own disabled methods. As a high school teacher, when I'm tired and busy, lecture becomes my default. I know the content well, and I love to talk, so this isn't hard. Yes, I pause to ask good questions and have discussions. Yes, I put notes on the board/overhead/projector. Yes, I use visual aides. Yes, I have an engaging presentation style. However, lecturing does not allow students to engage the material at a level necessary for deep understanding, and it does not give them ownership of learning. I'm the one doing all the work and most of the thinking. This is the main thing that has to change in my classroom.
The biggest problem here is that I don't always start by thinking of UDL's "multiple means" rules. Yes, within my several-week unit, I hit all of the learning styles, and I often provide choices within my assessments. However, UDL's principles, combined with the Capturing Kids' Hearts training our staff attended in June, is revising my thinking on how to handle each class period. Part of making every kid successful is setting a small, achievable goal for EACH class period; something they can walk out and "know" or "understand" or "do." I need to make my building blocks smaller, and be sure that every student can approach, be engaged by, and then act on each part.
This is best done by, as one UDL video put it, "translating standards into things that are important to do." I love the Book Builder text called Making History: A Guided Exploration of Historical Inquiry. This is a perfect example of an important learning process, broken up into approachable steps. It's a model for what I'm going to try to do: find the ending target and then break down the "chunks" into incrementally smaller pieces, one class and one learner at a time.
As the Common Core began making its way through our state (and into my building), I have to confess that my first thought was, "Will I have to get rid of any of my favorite lessons/topics?" I LOVE my 1920s stock market simulation in U.S. History; I wait expectantly for Romeo and Juliet to roll around in English 9; I dread teaching the Electoral College in Civics, but always find the students' questions engaging once they "get" it. How will "new" standards change all of this? Far more practically, how much time will it take me to re-build each of my core classes?
UDL will give me a structure to facilitate the changes that are coming, and I am confident that even my favorite lessons will be more approachable and more meaningful when this process is done. I think the most appealing quote from the reading and videos is that we need to "reduce the disabilities in the curriculum itself, so that fewer kids will be labeled as disabled, and more will be successful." WOW -- that was NOT written by a textbook publisher! I love the view of our educational "stuff" as disabled; few teachers would disagree. Creating more interactive, flexible media with excellent content is an art form that is coming along, but has not yet reached a sustainable, affordable level.
I think UDL's Book Builder is going to help this. I've been playing with it a little, and am seeing the potential of the online, interactive style. This one bears watching. Textbook companies are getting the clue that their competition is gaining strength, and today's school books are much more visually appealing and have more bells and whistles (especially web and smart board connections) than their predecessors. However, purchasing new texts for an entire building, let alone a whole district, is cost-prohibitive. I wonder how much more life traditional textbooks have.
Aside from the disabled curriculum, I have to look at my own disabled methods. As a high school teacher, when I'm tired and busy, lecture becomes my default. I know the content well, and I love to talk, so this isn't hard. Yes, I pause to ask good questions and have discussions. Yes, I put notes on the board/overhead/projector. Yes, I use visual aides. Yes, I have an engaging presentation style. However, lecturing does not allow students to engage the material at a level necessary for deep understanding, and it does not give them ownership of learning. I'm the one doing all the work and most of the thinking. This is the main thing that has to change in my classroom.
The biggest problem here is that I don't always start by thinking of UDL's "multiple means" rules. Yes, within my several-week unit, I hit all of the learning styles, and I often provide choices within my assessments. However, UDL's principles, combined with the Capturing Kids' Hearts training our staff attended in June, is revising my thinking on how to handle each class period. Part of making every kid successful is setting a small, achievable goal for EACH class period; something they can walk out and "know" or "understand" or "do." I need to make my building blocks smaller, and be sure that every student can approach, be engaged by, and then act on each part.
This is best done by, as one UDL video put it, "translating standards into things that are important to do." I love the Book Builder text called Making History: A Guided Exploration of Historical Inquiry. This is a perfect example of an important learning process, broken up into approachable steps. It's a model for what I'm going to try to do: find the ending target and then break down the "chunks" into incrementally smaller pieces, one class and one learner at a time.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Google Docs
We've been using Google Docs at The Potter's House for the last 2 years. Our school e-mail now goes through Gmail, so Google Docs is at my fingertips and my entire address book is available for collaboration in a click. Here are the things I LOVE about it:
-Instant collaboration: Kids (and staff) can work in real time on group projects without having to get together. This is especially handy for my younger students who don't drive (and for my middle-school-aged son, as well).
-Access to past versions of documents: If they go one direction with a presentation and then decide to change their minds, they don't have to start over from scratch. Also, if one group member changes something or "accidentally" deletes someone else's contribution, it can be rescued and returned to the original version easily.
-Access from anywhere: No more "It's on my other flash drive," "My flash drive is in my room at home," or "I SWEAR I saved it on the server!" Far fewer excuses, plus my kids who have to use the computer at the library, at their aunt's house, or after school in the lab can get to everything from one place.
-Automatic saving every 30 seconds: Almost no one loses anything when their computer (or the school server) crashes. They can also still access their documents, even if their laptop or home computer got a virus.
-As the video overview said, no more attachment blizzards!
There are a few frustrating things, as well:
-Formatting documents with anything beyond basic paragraphs (especially columns) is very difficult. This is slowly improving, but has a long way to go.
-The view on your screen isn't necessarily what you get when you print. You have to flip back and forth to "print preview" regularly, because it downloads to a pdf before printing.
-If Google is experiencing peak traffic, it can be very slow.
All in all, I love Google Docs for basic presentations, documents, and spreadsheets. I also LOVE that Google understands the need to convert to and from other formats, and you can upload and move between document types very easily. It doesn't default to some annoying proprietary format that takes 10 steps to move into Word.
As to Word (and the other Office products), I still prefer working with them and then uploading the document to Google Docs for easy transport and sharing. Or, I'll create the basic document on Google Docs and then download it to the appropriate Office product for final formatting and printing.
I don't think the cloud programs are ready to replace Office yet, but they are FREE, which is a HUGE bonus, especially for schools. They're all that most young students need, and when my high schoolers want to do some of the fancier formatting, they can use Open Office (which is nearly as good as its Microsoft namesake). I predict that Google Docs and other cloud programs will increasingly bite into Microsoft's products. I notice that Microsoft has created an online document viewer/editor with hotmail, so they're dipping their toes into the cloud computing water, too.
It will be interesting to see how schools respond to this new wave. Our tech director saw this coming and set us up 2 years ago. He says it's Harvard's system, too. Also, last week I attended a GRCC fall orientation session with one of our alumni, and their system is entirely Gmail and Google Docs. They sang its praises, and I generally do, too. Here are some ways I use it (or can see it used) with students:
-I can get on a document with a struggling students and begin a sentence or paragraph for them, to get them over the "I have nothing to write about" hump.
-I can create and share a document with errors, and they can go in and edit it for me, each student choosing a different color. It makes grammar and proofreading practice much more fun.
**Not my original idea -- borrowed from a colleague.
-We're moving to editing rough drafts online. Particularly for our research papers, the students write rough drafts and then I put in corrections electronically. Google Docs has an option to highlight a word or section and then insert a comment bubble. The student can then go in and make the correction, and then I delete my comment when I see they've done it. LOVE it!
-Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration! This is far and away the best use, and the sky is the limit. Kids teach each other (and staff do, too). I'm told it tracks how many minutes each student is logged on, as well (and logs them out after some down time), so the teacher can see who contributed how much to the group's final product. I haven't actually tried to use that feature yet, but one of my friends swears by it.
So -- give Google Docs a shot. It solves a number of document problems, it's free, and it functions very much like the Office products we all know and love. Wade into the cloud computing waters -- you'll find them warm and inviting.
-Instant collaboration: Kids (and staff) can work in real time on group projects without having to get together. This is especially handy for my younger students who don't drive (and for my middle-school-aged son, as well).
-Access to past versions of documents: If they go one direction with a presentation and then decide to change their minds, they don't have to start over from scratch. Also, if one group member changes something or "accidentally" deletes someone else's contribution, it can be rescued and returned to the original version easily.
-Access from anywhere: No more "It's on my other flash drive," "My flash drive is in my room at home," or "I SWEAR I saved it on the server!" Far fewer excuses, plus my kids who have to use the computer at the library, at their aunt's house, or after school in the lab can get to everything from one place.
-Automatic saving every 30 seconds: Almost no one loses anything when their computer (or the school server) crashes. They can also still access their documents, even if their laptop or home computer got a virus.
-As the video overview said, no more attachment blizzards!
There are a few frustrating things, as well:
-Formatting documents with anything beyond basic paragraphs (especially columns) is very difficult. This is slowly improving, but has a long way to go.
-The view on your screen isn't necessarily what you get when you print. You have to flip back and forth to "print preview" regularly, because it downloads to a pdf before printing.
-If Google is experiencing peak traffic, it can be very slow.
All in all, I love Google Docs for basic presentations, documents, and spreadsheets. I also LOVE that Google understands the need to convert to and from other formats, and you can upload and move between document types very easily. It doesn't default to some annoying proprietary format that takes 10 steps to move into Word.
As to Word (and the other Office products), I still prefer working with them and then uploading the document to Google Docs for easy transport and sharing. Or, I'll create the basic document on Google Docs and then download it to the appropriate Office product for final formatting and printing.
I don't think the cloud programs are ready to replace Office yet, but they are FREE, which is a HUGE bonus, especially for schools. They're all that most young students need, and when my high schoolers want to do some of the fancier formatting, they can use Open Office (which is nearly as good as its Microsoft namesake). I predict that Google Docs and other cloud programs will increasingly bite into Microsoft's products. I notice that Microsoft has created an online document viewer/editor with hotmail, so they're dipping their toes into the cloud computing water, too.
It will be interesting to see how schools respond to this new wave. Our tech director saw this coming and set us up 2 years ago. He says it's Harvard's system, too. Also, last week I attended a GRCC fall orientation session with one of our alumni, and their system is entirely Gmail and Google Docs. They sang its praises, and I generally do, too. Here are some ways I use it (or can see it used) with students:
-I can get on a document with a struggling students and begin a sentence or paragraph for them, to get them over the "I have nothing to write about" hump.
-I can create and share a document with errors, and they can go in and edit it for me, each student choosing a different color. It makes grammar and proofreading practice much more fun.
**Not my original idea -- borrowed from a colleague.
-We're moving to editing rough drafts online. Particularly for our research papers, the students write rough drafts and then I put in corrections electronically. Google Docs has an option to highlight a word or section and then insert a comment bubble. The student can then go in and make the correction, and then I delete my comment when I see they've done it. LOVE it!
-Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration! This is far and away the best use, and the sky is the limit. Kids teach each other (and staff do, too). I'm told it tracks how many minutes each student is logged on, as well (and logs them out after some down time), so the teacher can see who contributed how much to the group's final product. I haven't actually tried to use that feature yet, but one of my friends swears by it.
So -- give Google Docs a shot. It solves a number of document problems, it's free, and it functions very much like the Office products we all know and love. Wade into the cloud computing waters -- you'll find them warm and inviting.
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