One for Roger! GSuite for Education - Reflections after a few years

[Ditto]

I'm working through my Google Educator L1 and L2 certification right now with the support of EdTechTeam. Part of this led me to

- it hit so many nails on the head! As a 4 years Google Admin controller and having spent time in a small number of schools on what I'll call 'legacy' MS server/Sharepoint/Exchange etc., I'm really struggling to even get schools to just look at the alternative of GSuite. I have the same issue at the school I am a governor but the big issue there is no way to get current 'legacy (vintage!) SLT' to open their eyes anytime soon.

I'm interest to learn what your view are a few years on - has MS fought back; if you are GSuite, are you as convinced as ever you made the right choice a few years on? @rogerdnixon - it would be great to hear what the the EdTechTeam teams reflections are since this recording.

[TwistedHelixis]

All the primary schools I look after are now G Suite schools. What I have always found is after installing G Suite and getting a few main people in the school to at least try it, they have always ended up preferring it to Office 365. Then I just ask which one they would like to keep and bingo.

 

It is a real shame that the LA in my area did not even give the schools a choice and forced Office 365 on them, but when they have a chance of using both side by side for a while they normally prefer G Suite.

[TwistedHelixis]

I have also found that building the school website in Google Sites is a good way of introducing a school to the Google System, everything then links in with the website, so they start to get used to the way it works and how everything is interlinked.

[Ditto]

We had some resistance to Google Docs - mainly because staff taking complex word docs and not being happy with the conversion - Twinkl could be blamed! One or two conversions issues with Powerpoint to slides, but no issues at all with Excel to Sheets. One SLT member just could not cope with not having outlook. After installing O/L himself (after being advised by 2 separate IT staff) and trying to use a tool to sync, he completed destroyed any control over his emails, but to be honest this wasn't really the fault of any software.