Digital School Solutions

Blog entry posted August 19th, 2010 by Sebastian Mondrone

It’s not about a product … it’s about an approach. The ideal professional development, even for specific training on a particular piece of hardware or software, expands the conversation to consider the culture of the school itself.  In professional development that goes beyond the tradtional expectations, teachers do more than implement a new tool; they grow their interactions with their students, their peers and the world itself. Creating situations like this can be challenging; the offering must provide easy use and diverse options that are trustworthy and reliable, and of course, provide immediate relevance. Google for Educators, as explained in the two day summit for certified trainers, accomplished all that and much more.

Last week Daniel Storchan and I were lucky enough to spend a few days on-site at the Googleplex to start our journey to become certified trainers for Google Apps for Education. 

Google for Educators has three paradigms built upon the services they supply:

• Enhanced Communication (Gmail, Docs, Sites & Calendars)
• Anywhere, Anytime Access and Enhancements (Sites, Docs & Calendars)
• Security & Protection (Postini)

No matter how well you know the individual components; there is something truly transformative about the power and promise of a complete package available for FREE to schools and universities. Moving from the local network to the computer cloud is the crux of the change; and can seem daunting from the outside view. Yet, my career in education has already seen the change from chalkboard’s to IWB’s (Interactive White Boards) and from penmanship in sixth grade to keyboarding in second. This metamorphosis will happen. 

Yet, the journey is not made lightly. Nor is it expected to happen overnight, the recommended roll-out procedure involve three months of preparation and a lot of post-launch support. However, when listening to the Google developers express their work and nation-wide educators tell their stories, it becomes easy to understand why many people see this as the true model of 21st Century Learning. Providing today’s students with truly innovative and inspirational ways to learn will not happen as a result of any one product or curriculum; the best possible future of education will be an unbounded experience of communication, collaboration and unwavering commitment to growth and improvement.

I hope you will join uson this journey and we welcome your comments and questions about Google apps for educators.