Saturday, March 14, 2009

Re: Anyone Using Gmail?

We didn't use conferences. We are a little school. Students don't have
accounts. I could never get anyone interested. Consequently, I didn't
have to deal with that part. That simplified things for us. It
definitely made sense to switch since we weren't at all taken
advantage of the power of First Class.
Ellen


On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Elizabeth Davis <lizbdavis@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks Ellen,
> How did you manage the transition from FirstClass conferences? We use these
> a lot. I was thinking that GoogleGroups might work.
> -Liz
>
> On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 12:19 PM, Ellen Baru <ebaru@cathedralnyc.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi Liz,
>> 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 ]
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>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > 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.
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> 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