E-mail rapture - tomorrow
Friday, December 18, 2009 at 05:27AM Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34
If all goes as planned, 1400 e-mail users in ISD77 will begin using Gmail tomorrow morning.
After waking up at about 2AM every morning for the past couple weeks thinking about how to ease this transition (I am calling it The Rapture) with minimum rooftop gunfire, suicides, and drug overdoses (and that's just by our tech staff), our department has:
- Tried to keep the staff informed about the move - why, what to expect, etc. - in honest, but positive e-mail messages.
- Minimized what extra work we can for our users by moving all saved e-mails, keeping the same e-mail addresses for everyone, and dealing with passwords well in advance.
- Done short presentations/demos to the administrators, technology advisory committee, secretaries' groups, and media specialists.
- Given training to our media specialists who in turn will provide building inservices and support as soon as possible.
- Prepared lots of little "how-to" help sheets, especially on thing we know may be problematic for staff members (How do I move my calendar and contacts? How do I create folders and subfolders? How do I set up my iPhone?)
- Stressed the use of our AtomicLearning subscription to answer "how do I?" questions. We're hoping this might be an opportunity to change our school culture to having AtomicLearning become a first stop for help rather than a last resort.
- "Branded" the new resource MAPS* Apps - on the advice of Osseo (MN) school staff so teachers suffer less confusion separating their personal Gmail accounts from their school accounts
- Created a technician deployment plan for Monday morning where by all administrators, secretaries and media specialists will get direct help if needed before noon.
- Planned a series of 'cool tips and tricks" e-mails to follow the change over in early January. We'll be using the Docs portion of MAPS Apps to distribute help sheets, district forms, etc. to get people using it. My hope is that any unresolved issues with the change in e-mail/calendaring services will fade rapidly as staff starts to use and benefit from Docs, Sites, etc.
Our tech staff members, especially Mr. Keltgen and the other Mr. Johnson, have done outstanding work on this. I'm thinking about giving them Christmas and even New Years Day off as a reward.
I wonder what unforeseen troubles will strike? I wonder if humans ever get better doing these big transitions - or if we just find new ways of messing up? I wonder how many nasty e-mails I will get tomorrow from Fundamentalists objecting to my use of the term Rapture in this post?
* Mankato Area Public Schools
Reader Comments (7)
Good luck - We did this a couple of years ago and added our students a year later (got a different domain for our students). Most of your teachers will embrace it - a few will complain because they don't want to learn anything new: You already know who most of those are, don't you ? Media Specialists pushing it to collaborate has been a good thing.
How about one more idea:
Teach a group of students how to use gmail, especially the tips and tricks, and let them help you support teachers. Call them the G-Squad and let them come up with some ideas of how to help teachers.
Doug!!
Did you know I was raised Fundamentalist Pentecostal? Explains a lot about me, doesn't it!
Anyway, about gmail, how will you keep centralized records using gmail? My former district had a problem with teachers "fraternizing" with students and as part of the investigation, email records were subpoenaed and our district's version of you had to pull all the emails from our school, print them out, and take them to court.
God forbid something like that should ever happen to you (It's a nightmare) but if it did, how would you comply with the court order?
I'm sure the transition will go more smoothly than anticipated. I'm thinking our SD should do that now, while we're between school management softwares. Nobody will know the difference, and we won't have to keep receiving the emails from Tech Dept. to pare down our folders. Cheers, Doug!
Your resources are GREAT! Keep them coming as our district will be transitioning in Mid January. Either I will be celebrating in the halls or left in the dunce corner crying... All in all, I believe the benefits for our district will be significant and I envision many new innovations in our schools and classrooms.
Jen Hegna
I applaud you and your district for making this move. I look forward to the time when our district moves to Google Apps for Education. I find most of my students do not use email because the ePals and/or Gaggle email is so cumbersome. If they had Gmail and Google Apps, they could easily find their documents and emails, modify them, and send them. We would not have to be concerned about students not having Office at home to finish projects. We would also not have to be as concerned about students who cannot afford flash drives. Keep raising the bar for us! This is great!
Thanks, Tim, for your words of encouragement. I know in the long term this is a good move. It's just the short term issues that bite. I DO feel responsible when people are discomforted!
Oh, I want to see the kids on this spring!
All the best,
Doug
Hi Sylvia,
Great idea - at the building level. Tougher to implement at the district. I appreciate how you always empower kids.
Have a great holiday season,
Doug
Hi Shannon,
Well, I was raised Baptist so that might explain our mutual admiration!
We will contract with either Google or Gaggle to archive our staff email. There is a cost, but it sounds like it is the law.
All the best,
Doug
Hi Todd,
I'll try to keep Blue Skunk readers posted on how things are going. So far, so good.
Doug
Thanks, Jen. You will do great. I think we all need faith that what we are doing is best for the long run, despite the short term pains.
Doug
Hi Sharon,
Yes, the long-term benefit will be to the students. I see this working into a changed climate that encourages collaboration instead of isolation and competition. You just never know!
All the best,
Doug