GoogleApps

**Definition**

Google Apps is an array of online applications from email and documents to websites and calendars. They are available for people to collaborate online either on their own time or at the same time. They are free to school districts because they do not require special software or hardware.

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** History **

Google Apps was first introduced to the world with the introduction of Google documents, spreadsheets, and sites in October of 2006. All three were brought into the Google family after Google acquired the websites Writely and Jotspot and revamped them for use on Google (Google corporation's site). A few months later Google launched Gmail to the general public, after having allowed those who were invited to test drive it for about a year. Google docs, forms, sites, and gmail make up the bulk of the Google Apps family and it has been these functions that have been finding their way into classrooms across America and the world.

Even with all the benefits presented by Google Apps, educators were frustrated with the inability to see student work without the student granting permission. Google heard these pleas and the most recent adaptation to Google Apps has been Google Apps for Education; this newest innovation gives school districts access to every Google App currently available while allowing them to pick and choose what they want available to students (Burt, 2010). At the same time, teachers will have access to student information without having to wait for students to share what they have.

** Google Apps Use in Ripon High School **

To better understand the process of integrating technology into instructional practices, we surveyed several teachers and their students at Ripon High School. The use of Google Apps is widespread at RHS. All students and teachers have Gmail accounts, the school uses Google Calendars to collectively keep track of major tests and assignments, many teachers have Google Sites course websites, and the use of Google Docs is widespread for both instructional and administrative use and teacher-to-teacher collaboration. While most teachers still have access to Microsoft software, the District is moving away from supporting this and opting for free, on-line software instead, of which Google Apps is a prime example.

To implement our survey, we created a Google Form questionnaire and recruited two teachers who use Google Docs regularly. They described their classroom use of Google Docs and rated their experience in terms of ease of use, instructional outcomes, etc. (The complete teacher survey is available through a link at the end of this document.) We also asked them to share their perceptions of how their students felt about Google Docs; we had them rate various aspects of the application as they thought their students would. We were interested in seeing if teachers correctly gauged their students’ experiences of the instructional technology, and whether teachers and students experienced the technology similarly or not. Students were given a separate survey (see link at end of document) involving several questions about ease of use, enjoyment, effectiveness, etc. of Google Docs. Each teacher implemented the survey with two classes. Results for each teacher were kept separate.

** Results **

Teacher A is an English teacher who has pioneered the “paperless classroom”, teaching several courses in which all course materials other than whole books are on-line and virtually all student work that is handed in is done on-line. One of his goals in adopting Google Docs was to increase the amount and quality of the feedback he gave his students. On three of the measures we asked about (ease of use, class enjoyment, ability to do things that could not be done without the technology), this teacher ranked Google Docs 5 out of 5. In terms of saving time and enhancing overall learning outcomes, he ranked them as 4 of 5. In terms of how he thought his students felt, he thought they would give Google Docs a 2 out of 5 in terms of ease of use and absence of glitches; he attributed this likely low score to their stubborn insistence on using Internet Explorer rather than Google Chrome as their browser. He expected they would be neutral in regards to enjoyment, and would agree that Google Docs permitted them to do things they couldn’t do otherwise, save time, and enhance learning outcomes.

This teacher was broadly correct in several of his perceptions about student feelings about Google Docs: they were neutral or somewhat more positive than negative on most measures, except ease of use (as he predicted) and enhancement of learning outcomes, where students were substantially more negative than he thought they would be. A preponderance of students either disagreed (43%) or were neutral (35%) regarding the statement that Google Docs enhanced educational outcomes. Some felt that the lack of editing features in Googledocs meant that students were learning less about spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. Many felt that the glitches and slowness of Googledocs on netbooks meant that a lot of instructional time was wasted in class dealing with Googledocs. One student felt that the computer-intensiveness of the course meant that many students spent much time off-task, distracted by all the fun things they could do on their computers other than work. Overall, while the students were somewhat more positive than negative about Google Docs, they were significantly less enthusiastic than the teacher, and somewhat less positive than he perceived them to be. Many students made positive comments to the effect that Googledocs allowed low-cost collaboration, and allowed them to work at home and have access to documents without a jump drive.

Teacher B is a social studies teacher who is broadly comfortable with technology and has been a leader in integrating numerous applications into instruction. He uses Google Docs extensively and appreciates the immediacy and ease of the feedback opportunities they allow. In the project-based learning environment of the charter school he teaches in, where students are involved in a range of individual projects, Google Docs are widely relied on to manage a huge number of teacher-student interactions. This teacher ranked the tool 4 out of 5 on most measures, with a 5 out of 5 for saving him time and hassle. He perceived that his students were broadly positive about Google Docs, though somewhat less enthusiastic than he. Actually, his students were on the whole more positive than he expected, and more positive than the other teacher’s students. However, while there were both positive and negative comments, the negatives outweighed the positives in both number and vehemence. “Google Docs deleted my project!” was one lament. One long comment acknowledged the usefulness of some aspects of the tool, but disliked that being on-line was required. Another student felt that the more time students spent with the computer, the less was being learned. This comment echoed the sentiments of the student in the other class; both wrote at some length on this. It seems likely that the strongly stated and contradictory responses of the charter school students reflect both a deeper familiarity, comfort and competence with the tool, since these students use it multiple times every day, and a deeper experience of the downsides of it as well. An increasing number of students in the charter school have had their computers taken away. There is a significant subset of students who seem unable to discipline their work on-line, and who are credit-deficient as a result. Taking away the computers has proved to be the only way to get them to do their work. While this is not attributable to GoogleApps per se, it calls into question the wisdom of putting on-line a high percentage of student work.

** Use of Google Apps At Berlin High School **

The use of Google Apps at Berlin High School is not as widespread as it is in Ripon, but it is becoming more popular among staff and students. Due to the lack of use of any Google Apps, a survey was not practical for obtaining information. Through informal discussions with staff and students, some ideas about their use were gleaned. A few of the teachers on staff have begun to encourage their students to use Google Docs when writing papers, but only one teacher actually requires students to write group papers in Google Docs. Most of the teachers I talked with said that by using Google Docs students could collaborate better, and it allowed students to work on papers outside of school. This past trimester, I required sociology students to write one of their papers in Google Docs; after that point, about two-thirds continued to use Google Docs when writing papers. In discussions with students, the overwhelming response for why they used Google Docs was that they liked being able to work on their paper wherever they had Internet access.

** Summary of some advantages of Google Docs **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ease of collaboration
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ease of giving feedback on student work
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ease of tracking multiple individual projects over time
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ease of use once a certain level of proficiency has been attained
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">time savings for teachers particularly
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">saves money for the District
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ability to access anytime and anywhere as long as you have Internet connectivity (not only at school on the network server)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">good for collaborative note-taking
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">saves school districts money by not having to purchase word processing software

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">** Summary of some disadvantages of Google Docs **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">limited formatting and editing functions (it is difficult to create correctly formatted citations in Google Docs, for example)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">inadequate spell check and grammar check features -- some students feel that their learning is thereby reduced, as well as the quality of their work
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">difficulty of use for foreign languages and lack of effective foreign language spell check options
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">need to be on-line to use (in a sprawling and largely rural District, a number of students do not have reliable Internet access at home)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">glitches with speed, cursor control, etc, partly based on browser choice (the need to change browsers is experienced as a downside by many students) and partly based on the quality of the computer or netbook and the number of people who are working simultaneously
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">formatting problems when importing content
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">start-up costs in becoming proficient with use
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">instructional outcomes are not generally seen to be improved, and according to several students may even go down

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Student survey

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">To view the survey as the students and teacher saw it, follow the link, go to the form menu and select "view live form." Select "show summary of responses in the same menu to see their overall results.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">student survey <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">[|https://docs.google.com/a/ripon.k12.wi.us/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuXLxV2xYiUxdHRMWVhBWnVCYTRxMEV1MF9lZzA4RkE&hl=en_US#gid=0]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Results for student survey, teacher A (paperless classroom) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">[|https://docs.google.com/a/ripon.k12.wi.us/spreadsheet/gform?key=0AuXLxV2xYiUxdGRDQlQwM2pzaVlmeHcxd1M4bmRtWnc&hl=en_US&gridId=0#chart]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Results for student survey, teacher B <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">[|https://docs.google.com/a/ripon.k12.wi.us/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuXLxV2xYiUxdHRMWVhBWnVCYTRxMEV1MF9lZzA4RkE&hl=en_US#gid=0]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Teacher survey

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">[|https://docs.google.com/a/ripon.k12.wi.us/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHRMWVhBWnVCYTRxMEV1MF9lZzA4RkE6MA#gid=0]

**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Future Direction **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">[|https://docs.google.com/a/ripon.k12.wi.us/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dDktSWRoSkpJMjJ6aTVBWUhINDF0VUE6MQ#gid=0]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Google Apps for Education

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The future of GoogleApps, especially Google docs, looks promising. Many school districts are switching to GoogleApps in order to save money and space on their servers. As budgets continue to be cut, this consideration will likely grow in importance. It is possible that Googledocs will improve over time in response to user demand for better editing and formatting features. It is also possible that schools will encourage their students to make use of other free Web 2.0 tools that offer special formatting features when these are needed, rather than expecting "one stop shopping" with Googledocs. Here are a few of the reasons districts are switching over: ability to work from anywhere at anytime, ability to collaborate, and the availability of tools that all will be able to access. Not only are staff using these apps, but also the students are encouraged to use them. In Berlin, many teachers are encouraging students to use the docs so that students do not need to worry about thumb drives or printing several copies of their writing. As more students begin to use the apps, the more they will become a staple in the schools.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Overall, Googledocs seems well-positioned to capture the market of a significant percentage of K12 students and their teachers. Within a year or so of pushing for adoption of GoogleApps as a free alternative to expensive word processing and other programs, Ripon High School is dealing with a veritable flood of Googledocs and almost universal acceptance of the Apps as a fact of life. It has become difficult to imagine getting by without them for a wide variety of administrative, planning and communications needs, not to mention teaching. Few changes, particularly technological ones, have been embraced with less complaint, speaking to the quickly-perceived utility of Googledocs. The technologies which catch on quickly often seem to be those which permit people to perform an existing, familiar task more easily. GoogleApps overall allow teachers to do many things somewhat more easily. New, unanticipated uses of the applications are also likely to be found over time.