Moving away from M$ Office to GAFE

[TIOAOA]

I'm after advice on best practice when moving over from M$ Office to GAFE

 

We have had our email on GAFE for a year now and the staff have been shown the basics of Google drive.

 

However the uptake on the use of the drive facility is minimal. Our file servers are ageing and creaking.

 

What I would like to do is to get my staff using GAFE over M$.

 

And open ended question really but anyone moved totally away from MS to GAFE and if so how did you do it and what are the pitfalls / positives.

 

Thanks

[dastrix]

Sell it to them based on how collaborative it is.

[fiza]

Not moved totally ourselves but uptake is improving.

Try espousing the benefits of collaboration in documents. No emailing documents back and forth for amendments to occur. unlimited space on Google drive. Access from anywhere.

[dry]

That makes your internet connection a nice, big, fat SPOF though? Have you got a fail safe for when your WAN connection goes down?

 

Most staff here don't mind too much if they can't access t'interwebs for a litte while but it'd be like taking their right arm away if they couldn't access PowerPoint for more than 30 mins!

[Marshall_IT]

Of you use sims you'll still need office installed for any staff wishing to run reports.

[dastrix]

If we have no internet we send people home, much like a powercut in this day and age

[theeggmaster]

We moved away completely two years ago, apart from the fact that we have to use Office for some things (SIMS reports, third-party software, legacy PowerPoint animations). The shared drive has been read-only for a year now. I was initially worried that the slowest and least reliable part of our network (the Internet connection) was going to be a huge issue, but it's actually proved not to be as much a problem as I'd thought. We enable offline syncing of files and I'm currently looking at how I can get a reliable second link into the school for the occasion when the Internet does go down.

 

The major plus points for us are collaboration, enabling independent learning, able to use any device (we have over 100 Chromebooks which work wonderfully and are dirt cheap), unlimited storage and access to everything everywhere. It's also really hard to lose or delete files, as you have to delete it out of your drive, then the Google Drive trash doesn't self-delete, so you'd have to clear that too. Even then you've got 30 days as an administrator to recover files that have been deleted from the trash. Auto-saving of files and version history of every change is a dream.

 

The downsides are obviously when the Internet goes down it can be an issue, but we mitigate as much as we can. Backups of unlimited online storage are impossible, and staff resistance to change or new staff coming into the school means lots of training, but it's worthwhile when you have such huge benefits.

 

It's too much to go into here, but I've spent the last 15 years working with Microsoft, and the last two with Google and I've thoroughly enjoyed the last two years using Google. I'm happy to chat on the phone if you want?

[elsiegee40]

If we have no internet we send people home, much like a powercut in this day and age

 

Seriously? Are you in education? Teaching should not stop due to internet loss... ever!

[dastrix]

I agree, but teachers seem to rely on the internet so much that they say if the Internet goes off they can't teach

[Roberto]

Are your SLT all drunk or high? That's appalling.

[Boredguy]

The internet is a resource but not on the same league as a power cut. I'm sure parents would be ecstatic if they had to take time off just because the schools internet was down.

 

Anyway as mentioned further up, you will still need MS Office installed if you have SIMS for reports.

[mjk]

No Internet doesn't just mean there are no teaching resources it also means no Phone System or other communications systems.

A judgement call needs to be made by HT as to whether this is a safe environment. A backup internet line is what we have!

 

Google Docs are also available offline so it's a bit off-topic.

[mjk]

Anyway as mentioned further up, you will still need MS Office installed if you have SIMS for reports.

 

It depends on the type of report, class lists export as HTML - but larger reports are not performed everyday by teachers and can be done on a few machines with office installed - perhaps in a staffroom.

[fiza]

Google docs is available offline but only to create new docs. You cant, as far as I know, create 'offline' copies of your docs. You could use the installable Google Drive but then how is this administered for all the students? You would still need local storage space to hold all these files.

[mjk]

Here is some information about it.

 

You can access files on your computer, even when you have no Internet connection by setting up offline access in the Google Drive app.This is particularly useful when you are on an airplane or train without wireless Internet or when you are out of range of Wi-Fi.

Here are some important notes about using Google Drive when you are offline.

 

• You will need to enable offline access for Google Drive and each Google Docs app you have installed to start accessing your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings, without an Internet connection
  
• Offline access on a computer is available in the Google Chrome web browser or on a Chromebook
  
• Offline access is available only for Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings
  
• You can edit and create new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations while you are offline--changes to the files are synced to Google Drive when your device connects to the Internet
  
• You will need to allow offline access separately on each computer where you want to view your Google Drive content offline
  

Offline access is not currently available for every part of your Google Drive. The table below indicates what you are able to view and edit while offline.

 

[fiza]

Offline access doesn't really seem viable in a school with hundreds of students.

 

Has anyone got this working with students? Where is the Google drive offline content kept?

[theeggmaster]

Offline access doesn't really seem viable in a school with hundreds of students.

 

Has anyone got this working with students? Where is the Google drive offline content kept?

 

Before Google changed it to unlimited storage, it was just about feasible that we could store offline files locally and redirect them to the server through the profile. However, the offline files didn't work correctly when they were redirected, so they are just saved locally onto the machine you're working on (which is why it says not to do this on a public or shared computer). The more you use Drive, then the less likely it is that you'll be able to download all of your files before the lesson ends. We've been using it for two years and our top user has 270Gb of data on Drive. Some students have 12Gb. We clear the profiles automatically.

[mjk]

Offline access doesn't really seem viable in a school with hundreds of students.

 

Has anyone got this working with students? Where is the Google drive offline content kept?

 

 

Yes with Chromebooks.

[fiza]

Yes with Chromebooks.

 

Our chromebooks have 12gb local storage. Won't hold much when students share devices. Would they have to go back to same chromebook each time?

[dastrix]

Don't tell me it's the teachers that tell the Internet is a must