We switch to GMail from First Class last summer. We did not attempt to
move everyone's old mail to the new GMail accounts. Instead we kept
First Class as an archive with the ability to forward mail to the new
GMail. We gave everyone this year to do it. If I had it to do over, I
would give people until December and then get rid of First Class
altogether.
As far as training users to use GMail, it was pretty easy as well over
half already had their personal GMail accounts.
The negatives about GMail is not having a technical support person
available to call when there are problems. We are all Macintosh. Some
users have problems sending mail on occasion, inability to access
contacts, a few calendar issues. Some we've been able to correct
though they sometimes reappear.
Overall I've been happy with the move. I just wish Google would
establish a way to have tech support. We definitely wouldn't mind
paying for that service.
Ellen
On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 12:12 PM, Elizabeth Davis <lizbdavis@gmail.com> wrote:
> We are switching to Google Apps (from FirstClass) this summer. Does anyone
> have suggestions for the best way to transition?
> -Liz
>
> Liz Davis
> Director of Academic Technology
> Belmont Hill School
> Belmont, MA
> davis@belmont-hill.org
>
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 12:22 AM, Tom Phelan <tphelan@peddie.org> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:35:05 -0400, Keith E Gatling <keith@gatling.us>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >Hi. I've been suggesting to my students that although they each have
>> school
>> >email accounts through OWA, they should get Gmail accounts because in so
>> >many ways they're easier to use and more reliable. An example of this was
>> an
>> >Internet quiz during which a number of students got hosed when their
>> >school-supplied OWA accounts froze up on them and they lost their work. At
>> >least those with Gmail accounts would've had anything done within the last
>> >five or so minutes automatically saved.
>> >
>> >Anyway, our tech director wants to know of any schools out there that are
>> >using Gmail "officially" so that he can visit them. It's time for a
>> >"Mouseketeer Roll Call."
>>
>> We switched to Google Apps for Education in September 08 after about 2
>> years
>> of testing and a significant pilot program in 07-08. We also use Postini
>> for
>> anti-spam and email archiving. Our main focus has been on email and
>> calendar
>> although we've enabled the whole Google Apps suite. Overall the switch has
>> been very successful. Google has made steady improvements to the suite with
>> the most recent one of adding offline ability for both email and calendar.
>>
>> If you have specific questions/concerns please post them.
>>
>> --
>> Tom Phelan
>> Director of Technology
>> Peddie School
>> tphelan@peddie.org
>> Office: 609.944.7625
>> Fax: 609.944.7913
>> http://www.peddie.org
>>
>> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
>> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
>> non-commercial, share-alike license.
>> RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Liz Davis
> http://www.edtechpower.blogspot.com
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
> RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
>
--
Ellen Baru
Director of Technology
The Cathedral School
1047 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10025
Phone: 212-316-7447
Fax: 212-316-7558
E-Mail: ebaru@cathedralnyc.org
"Please consider the environment before printing this email."
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
