Tech Director Chat #016 – Fellowship of the Gmail

I try to answer questions about technology in education as directly as possible. That can be a challenge, as often some of the issues surrounding technology decision making are affected by a number of issues; bandwidth available to a school district, local culture regarding social media, parental awareness of technology use for learning, and the list continues. It’s easy to make decisions based on our own individual or classroom realities; it’s another think entirely when you consider the realities of dozens of classrooms across a building or school district.

That having been said, I will stand my ground that all K-12 schools that have Google Apps for Education accounts should seriously consider creating just #OneDomain for their staff and students; the explosive uptake in collaboration, communication, and creativity that having all learners in the same “digital space” provides will greatly overshadow concerns and possibilities that often drive school districts to create two separate domains. As always, my opinions are up for debate, but I hope that you’ll enjoy much more than just Google issues to discuss in this week’s Tech Director Chat!

Time stamps for this week’s questions:

:58 What has Pete been up to?

3:45 Wait, so we don’t have more laptops and devices coming from the bond?

6:14 Jason asks, what importance does Pete see in keyboarding skills?

8:00 So Pete isn’t the type of guys that read instructions?

10:30 Steve asks, why do some school districts separate Staff Google Accounts from Student Google Accounts?

12:15 Why do Tech Directors want to separate staff systems and student systems?

17:55 Mr Wolski wants to know, should Google Hangouts be open for student Google Accounts so they can video chat with experts outside of the school?

22:05 Stump Pete!

23:15 What was Pete’s first computer?

Tech Director Chat – Fellowship of the Gmail

2 comments

  1. Thanks for spreading the word, Ben! I just worked with a group of Tech Directors in Florida today and did my best to convince them to stick with a single domain.

    It is worth noting that Google Apps does now support sup-domains within the same management console, so if you really do what separate email addresses for staff and students, you have an option.

    1. I’m really glad to know that Google is making it easier to allow sub-domains to interact with their parents domains. Does Google Classroom and other apps work with that setup, or is it just management of the sub-domains within the same console as the parent domain?

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