Project: Google Integration

Opportunity/Background

It was 2006 when I was reaching for new technology and began using Google Apps. This came about as I looked for and tried to find the new best technology, and I ended up finding Google Docs to be an exciting way to share information and I immediately recognized the benefits of encouraging teachers and students to collaborate online.

Google’s education initiatives focus on:

• Making learning magical for students

• Empowering innovative communities

• Building a foundation of technology and access

With Google Suite for Education, educators can create many opportunities for learning, streamline administrative tasks, and challenge their students to think critically. All these are carried out without disrupting the current flow of working. Google Suite's tools are powerful on their own, although they work much better when they have collaborated with each other.

Benefits of Implementing Google:

The benefits of implementing of Google's tools are many! They support and connect with each and every student and every teacher. One can easily work online or offline, anytime, and on any device available. Also, implementation of these tools encourages collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, and work one-on-one or with the whole class.

It is becoming a necessity that students develop an enhanced skill set focused on 21st century skills and learning . I realized early the potential of Google'd tools as compared to any other available resources. I pushed for wider implementation for over the next ten years, patiently sharing, teaching, and training other teachers and staff how to use Google Apps. As I trained them, more and more staff saw potential and began using the tools. Entire libraries of internal information and procedures were developed by administrators allowing for easy sharing and editing in real-time - instead of websites or Word Docs needing to be revised, re-saved and re-shared. Staff found the benefit in the accuracy of information and saving time. All the while, the information was becoming more reliable, more accurate and more secure.

Evaluation

In the beginning, the process of integration was slow; the time when I began using Google Apps and sharing documents with others, until wen others began to use took many years to develop momentum. My tactic was to share documents in meetings or with other staff to collaborate and over time the fire began to grow, that "fire" began spreading eventually to where others began creating new documents. They began using the applications on their own and slowly, eventually, more and more staff were using the tools and resources.

As I worked to implement using Google tools I learned about the "technology adoption wave." This curve depicts how people tend to adopt new technology and where different percentages of the population fall. I found that the more I focused my beginning efforts on those who naturally were "early adopters" the enthusiasm for the new tools grew quickly. Those who had gone through this started learning about the new technology adoption process or adopting the life cycle and these enthusiasts and innovators people had started working through change and adopting the change

The early adopters automatically shared new ideas with their sphere of invfluence and began to encourage more staff to use the tools. I created plans and steps to bring other early adopters on board and then ways to bridge understanding toward the early majority while recognizing and sharing info with the laggards. As administration started using Google apps to share information with each other or teachers, those teachers started using Google Apps to share information with each other and with their students. Over the next five years, I contini=ued to use Google Apps and share the vision for how our staff and students might use the tools too.

I also designed and lead professional development sessions for teachers to show them how to use the applications for student learning. I planned and implemented training on how to organize and use Google Apps to support teachers and their day-to-day duties. During the 2009 preparation for accreditation visits from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) the use of Google Docs became organized and widely implemented. The timeline to prepare a WASC self-study report (12 months) contains huge amounts of input and research from all stakeholders. Combined with the need to quickly share writing and ideas, we used Google Docs to draft and write our WASC documents. The necessity of using Google Docs turned into enthusiasm, with seeming nay staff and teachers using the tolls and realizing the potential.

There was a continued and rapid growth in the usage of Google apps and use over the next five years with me leading professional development. More and more teachers began using with each other (in regional teams) and then with students to share lesson plans and assignments. Google continued adding tools and other resources, opening avenues to more creative solutions and applications. Over the past two years, we have seen more students using Google Apps to submit assignments. Our school added a new school Google domain for students, which provided access to a controlled, safe area to send emails to staff and each other and create and share documents, sheets, and slides in Google Eventually, as we moved more courses to our virtual/online format, using Google Apps and exploring ways to write and share information virtually became a necessity.

Now Google has became a normal part of the routine of our school's daily routine and everyday used by 99% of our staff. Google has taken the place of paperwork and maintaining records. Our information is more secure and easily accessible and no longer dow e worry about loos of paperwork due to some strange accident.

As I supported the staff and shared the vision I helped to facilitate and observe a change in our school culture. Implementing Google Apps has helped our school to become more highly focused on 21st-century innovation and teaching while helping to set expectations and procedures for students to become 21st-century learners.