Edmonton Public Schools Builds Collaborative Learning Community with Google Apps for Education
This article talked about school district, Edmonton Public Schools, that adopted google apps for education. There were a few problems that the district was experiencing that led them to the decision to adopt. First, there were only 30 computers per 400 students! Almost all of there students had internet access at home, but they had not collaboration program to utilize this outside internet access. For teachers, they wanted to see more progress in group projects. With google apps, teachers would be able to see who is doing most of the group work, and they would be able to give better feedback. There were many problems to the technology they were currently using at Edmonton Public Schools. The solution that they came up with was to adopt Google Apps for Education. One huge advantage of the google apps is that they are free to use! Not only are the apps free, but they are also very easy to use. The school ran a pilot trial, and they got lots of great feedback that solidified their adopting of the program.
Adopting this program has a great impact on education. First, collaboration from student to student and student to teacher became much easier! This allowed for a lot of feedback and formative assessment. One quote from the article stated that Google Apps "improved the way students learn and teachers teach." The school even began to see and increase in the homework completion among students. This was probably, in part, due to the increased interest that was being seen among the students. It did not just affect the students. There was high enthusiasm among both students and teachers after adopting the technology program.
My school is uses Google Apps for Education. I like to think that I use them the way I should, but I still have a lot of work and research to do in order to utilize this program in the way it should be used. If done right, Google Apps can increase the effectiveness of my teaching!
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