Tag Archives: Google Apps for Education

Using Google Apps in (and outside of) the Classroom

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As more faculty move to Google Apps for Education, we want to provide some ideas for how you can use the apps in your classes. We would also like to hear from you. If you have interesting or innovative use cases, please send an email to [email protected]. We would be happy to feature your stories in an upcoming newsletter.

Create
You can use Google Drive to quickly create and share lecture notes and presentations. Gather the information you need, create your doc or presentation in Drive, and then click “share” and copy the link to send to your students.

Collaborate
In addition to creating your own documents and presentations, you can also use Drive to start projects and then invite students to collaborate. Students can also use Drive to create assignments and then share them with you in order to get feedback. Drive allows for real-time chat, multiple comment conversations, and maintains a full history of revisions. You can work with students to develop a paper or presentation and track their progress as you provide feedback.

Collect
Need to gather information from students at the start of the semester? Looking for an easy way to create appointments during your office hours? Try Google Forms. You can create forms from within Drive in order to gather feedback quickly and track the results in a spreadsheet.

Empower
Your students can use Google Sites to compile portfolios or gather resources for a group project. Sites allows for embedding of documents, spreadsheets, images, videos, and more, making it the perfect place to create and display projects while gaining valuable technology and communication experience.

To find out more about each of the apps and what they can do, visit the Google Apps project site and click on the links under the “Using Google Apps” section.

Google Apps for Faculty and Staff Remains on Schedule

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google_apps_smAs of today, Technology has migrated approximately one-third of all faculty and staff to Google Apps for Education, including the School of Social Work and the School of Management. In the coming weeks, we’ll be working with GSLIS and the School of Nursing and Health Sciences to transition them to Google Apps as well.

With Spring semester moving along quickly, we want to make everyone aware that we’re hosting four drop-in training sessions every week on Tuesday and Thursday. Three of these sessions cover the basics of Gmail and Google Calendar, while the remaining session focuses on the other apps, like Drive and Sites. You can find an upcoming session by viewing the training calendar available here. You can also access additional resources on the Google Apps project site: googleapps.simmons.edu.

The Google Apps Migration is Under Way

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Over the last month, we’ve been busy helping staff members in the Library, Student Life, and elsewhere migrate their email to Google Apps. As we move into February, we’ll be finishing migrations for most of the administrative staff and focusing our efforts on staff and faculty in each college. To find out when you will be migrated, please check the timeline on the Google Apps project site. As we get closer to your migration date, our team will reach out to you get some additional information and set a date to move your email to Google Apps.

In the meantime, you can do a few things to prepare for the move. We know that, for most people, this is a big change, and we want to make it as painless as possible. To help, we’ve gathered resources on our project site, including answers to frequently asked questions, and introductions to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and more. We’re also holding weekly drop-in trainings where you can watch a short presentation on Google Apps, ask questions, and get help with your account if you need it. Starting in February, we’ll have four sessions every week. Take a look at the schedule and find a time that works for you.

We also want to take this opportunity to reiterate a couple of important notes about the migration. First, your email address will not change. You can still use your @simmons.edu address as you always have. In addition, all of your email will come along with you to your Google Apps account. We’re migrating all of the email on your Simmons computer or on the Simmons server to your new account. When you log in for the fist time at gmail.simmons.edu, you’ll see all of the email that was in your inbox previously. Finally, events scheduled in Meeting Maker will not be migrated to your new account. There is no foolproof way to do this without potentially compromising your previously created meetings and events. To learn more about moving your events from Meeting Maker to Google Calendar, please see the step-by-step instructions available here.

We hope that the hands-on approach we’re taking to this project will make the transition smooth for you. It will take some time to learn new email and calendar systems, but the long-term benefits of moving to Google Apps are many. If you have specific questions about the migration process, please reach out to Roy Balcom ([email protected]). If you have questions about using Google Apps once you’ve been migrated, take a look at the FAQs on the project site or contact the Service Desk at 617-521-2222.

An Update on Google Apps for Faculty and Staff

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The Technology team is moving rapidly to prepare for the Google Apps migration for faculty and staff. As we get ready to kick things off in January, we wanted to let you know when you’ll be migrated and what you can do to prepare.

We have recently posted the full migration schedule on ourproject website. The timeline is broken down into departments and schools. As your migration date approaches, Technology will work with a department or school liaison to coordinate individual migrations based on your availability.

Prior to your migration date, you will receive additional information about what to expect. If you want to get a jumpstart on migration, you can take a few steps to prepare. These include cleaning up old email folders. If you have email from several years stored on your computer, this is a great opportunity to get rid of old emails and files you no longer need. If you have questions about how to do this, please contact us. If you want to know more about the Simmons College email retention policy, please visit theSimmons College Policy Index or contact the College Archivist, Jason Wood.

If you’d like to learn more about Google Apps and how to use it, we recommend checking out the Quick Start Guides on the project site or attending an introductory training. We’re scheduling these sessions now and they’ll be available starting in January. Each session will provide an overview of Google Apps for Education and we’ll be available to answer questions you might have.

A question we’ve been hearing a lot recently is, “What’s happening to Meeting Maker?” To make this transition as smooth as possible, we’re going to keep Meeting Maker running for the time being. Once everyone has been moved to Google Apps (late April), we will set a timeline for shutting it off. One reason for keeping Meeting Maker active is that not all faculty and staff are moving to Google Apps simultaneously. If your department is moving early, you might still need Meeting Maker for appointments set by colleagues in other departments. Additionally, there is no foolproof way to move all meetings from Meeting Maker to Google Apps without potentially losing data. You will need to manually create any recurring appointments in Google Calendar. We estimate that this will take no more than an hour, even for those of you with complex recurring meetings. The Service Desk and migration team are also here to help you with the transition.

We hope you will take time to look at the project site and to familiarize yourself with Google Apps for Education. We’ll make announcements about training and additional resources after the winter break.

An Update on Google Apps for Faculty and Staff

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As we continue to plan the migration of faculty and staff email and calendaring to Google Apps for Education, we want to keep you up to date on the project. We respect your need for information, so we will be transparent throughout this process as we bring these powerful new tools online for the community.

Right now, Technology is working with the Leadership Team to determine dates for migrating faculty and staff. The migration will be done in phases so we can provide individual assistance and instruction to everyone. Our goal is to begin the migration in January and continue through the Spring semester. We hope to have the full migration schedule available for you in December.

In order to prepare for the migration and to better anticipate issues that might arise, we are currently moving all Technology employees to Google Apps for Education. This pilot period will help us work through technical challenges so we can minimize disruption during the larger migration. During this period, our staff is also completing additional Google Apps training and certification so they can provide expert-level support.

With regard to training and support, we are evaluating options for online and on-site training sessions and preparing a project website that will provide you with the migration schedule, answers to commonly asked questions (for example, what if you have a personal Gmail account?), links to support resources, and more. You can access the site here, and we hope you’ll continue to check back for updates as we move forward.

We will continue to communicate updates frequently via this newsletter, the project site, and individual messages as necessary, and we are always available to answer questions you have.