[TIPS] google apps for your district

This was new to me, but not for Kurt Paccio (http://weblog.techruminations.org/ ) who showed this to me just moments ago. You can apply to get the Google Applications Suite for YOUR district. Details here: http://www.google.com/a/edu/

 

"You can select any combination of our available tools and services and customize them with your school's logo, color scheme and content. Manage your users through a web-based control panel, or use the APIs to integrate Google Apps into your existing systems."

You can get email accounts (or not), Google Chat (or not), Google Docs and Spreadsheets, the calendar.. and more.

 

What does this do for your curriculum? Upon installation it IMMEDIATELY changes how teachers (could) view word processing assignments. The assignments become collaborative. That forces teachers to think about other types of assessments and projects. And, once teachers get comfortable with those tools the next step is to expand the classroom walls to include students from down the hall or across the globe.

 

While you're thinking about this, check out this page of google lesson ideas using Google Earth, Picasa, Google Docs, and more:

http://www.google.com/educators/activities.html