Do you really need a class on Gmail?

My aunt, my grandson and my Gmail-using mother

Folks are a little nervous around the district.

We announced that we are changing e-mail services - switching from Exchange (with Outlook and Entourage as clients) to the online Gmail portion of Google Apps for Education. The plan was introduced to the administrators on Wednesday and to the rest of the staff on Friday. The big switch happens on December 19th.

While about 10% of most educators enjoy anything new that comes down the pike, the remaining 90% are, often rightly, hesitant, concerned and even a shade resistant. While most people can understand on an intellectual level why such changes are good*, their guts say, "This will be a big pain in the ass. I have better things to do with my time than learn a new program. Such transitions never go a smoothly as they say. An effective, adequate and convenient means of learning new programs never happens." And to a greater or lesser degree, their guts would be right on.

We deliberately chose to switch services just before the district's ten day winter break. Why? I am predicting (hoping) that most of our staff will quickly learn the how to use the basics of Gmail without needing formal instruction - that by spending only a couple hours over break playing with the new tools, most people will quickly get comfortable with the new system and be ready to use it come January 4th.

It's not like e-mail is new concept and Gmail is about as user-friendly as one can get. The basic operations of opening, composing, sending and replying to an e-mail just aren't very difficult. (As I've been assuring people, even my 77-year-old mother uses Gmail.) We are providing links to online help materials, including a very comprehensive set of videos on AtomicLearning. The media specialists will doing some after school workshops for the truly confused and about tasks that may be a little more complex - setting up mailing lists, using labels, sharing calendars, importing calendars and contacts, etc.

I wish I knew an easier way to make changes like these. Good information, good support, good reasons for making changes, a careful choice of product - what else can be done?

I was recently asked to contribute to an article about one's "professional New Year's resolution." I am thinking mine will be to look at how to make change in schools more humane. I've had Canadian educator Michael Fullan recommended to me twice lately. I like his Six Secrets to Change:

1. Love Your Employees
2. Connect Peers with Purpose
3. Capacity Building Prevails
4. Learning Is the Work
5. Transparency Rules
6. Systems Learn

Figuring this out will be more challenging to learn that using Gmail, that's for sure.

* The introduction to staff:

Your technology holiday gift! 

On December 19th, the district will be switching its e-mail service to Gmail – a part of the Google Apps for Education package. Each individual e-mail user in ISD77 will be receiving:

• A full 7 gig of e-mail storage capacity (70 times the current allocation).
• A really easy to use e-mail, calendar, contact, chat, and task interface with lots of new features. (Doug’s 77-year-old mother uses Gmail.)
• The ability to access your account from any computer, netbook, PDA, or smartphone with Internet connectivity
• One-click access to GoogleDocs for creating, sharing, collaboratively editing and storing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and surveys all online.

Your school e-mail address will NOT change. Your saved messages will be imported into Gmail for you. You will be able to import your current contacts and calendar events into Gmail.

Watch over the next couple weeks for more information and instructions on making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone. It’s a great step forward for the district!

Comments

[Charlie A. Roy]

Love the comments on change. The concept that in a school for teachers "learning is the work" applies not only to the students but to their lives as well. We switched to gmail two years ago. Your staff will love it. Our teachers have now begun exploring google docs / apps and all it can do with their classes. Our kids go to gmail next year along with a 1:1 and now we stand in awe awaiting google wave.

[Jim Randolph]

I can't think of anything else you could do to ease the transition. Looks like you've handled it well to me. The letter seems great. Gmail will be so awesome. I forward everything from school that I might need to keep (especially stupid ginormous attachments) in an effort to keep my school Lotus Notes account clean. People hang on to too much stuff and it slows our network down considerably. That wouldn't be an issue if we could go all Google (including Chrome). And those gmail accounts are nearly bottomless. I'm at 9% usage and have been stuffing it for years. And hardly a need for lots of folders since it's so easily searchable. Man, I'm getting jealous. It's saving you time and money. Almost makes TOO much sense!

[Helen Murdoch]

Our district made the same change to google mail last March and many of our staff sound like yours: not quite ready for change. As a gmail user I was all for it. It took a few weeks, but our staff is really happy with it now. So...fear not, they will complain, but get there fairly quickly!

[Tom Hoffman]

Just make sure and stress to them that they don't have to delete email any more -- and shouldn't. Also the excellent spam filtering should be a good selling point. I don't know how good yours is but Providence's is atrocious.

[Anthony D.]

I have a question, is there a big cost saving by switching to gmail( I know its free but I figured for a school thru google apps there would be a charge) How about the ability to backup and archive email. I often wondered what the cost savings would ve by using Google Apps instead of paying for software

[Maureen Tumenas]

I started using google apps last year at school. I stuck with just google docs. Of course, it was met with the usual mixed reviews. This fall I introduced the rest - but kept the option of sticking with our old webmail system- it is simply forwarded to the google apps gmail. I would estimate that maybe 25% of the faculty use googgle apps gmail. Since they didn't have to switch- mostly because I don't have the time or expertise to guide each and every one of them thru the export process- most did not. When someone occasionally looks over my shoulder at the gmail interface they are amazed and I've gotten a few people to switch, but until I make it mandatory, it will not happen.

[Todd Wandio]

Students in our division aren't even allowed to have emails provided by the school. We have the capacity for them, but for some reason, the school division thinks it's too risky allowing students to have email accounts. I find it laughable, since I use email a lot with students, and need them to email items to me. I use their hotmail and other web based email servers. To me, that's more risky, because the school division has no control over that.

[Libby]

I like the six secrets to change, especially #1, and positive tone of your announcement e-mail. In my limited experience, the most confusing concepts to someone comfortable with Outlook are 1) moving from filing/folders to archiving/labels/searching (knowing that labels can be used like folders can help), and 2) how Gmail keeps an entire conversation together. Good luck!

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Charlie,

Your comment is appreciated. There is hope for the department yet - even after the change over!

Doug

Hi Ninja,

I sense loss of control to be the major reason (fear) most tech departments have for not moving in this direction. But as we all know, control is just an illusion anyway!

Thanks for the comment,

Doug

Thanks, Helen. I hope our experience is similar to ours.

Doug

Thanks, Tom. Good point on not needing to delete messages.

We will continue to use our Barracuda e-mail filter in conjunction with the Google Postini filter as I understand it. Both systems seem to let too much through for my taste even though I continue to "train" them.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Anthony,

Our cost savings will come because:

1. We won't need to maintain, update or replace our current e-mail server.
2. We will need less back-up equipment.
3. We should need less tech support both at a district and workstation level. We won't cut staff, but we may not need to add as quickly.

The long run cost savings, though, will come in the form of being able to have kids use less powerful machines (netbooks) to meet day-to-day computing needs like email and creating documents instead of the more expensive desktop and laptops now in use. Less maintenance to keep up a single image on all computers - configured just to get to the internet basically.

This make sense?

Doug

Hi Maureen,

We will let people continue to use Outlook or Entourage as their email clients here too if they insist. We are just not advertising the option!

All the best,

Doug

Hi Todd,

We dropped student email some years ago simply because kids preferred their own hotmail or gmail accounts! I suspect there are a LOT of districts like yours and teachers like you who have figured out the work around.

Thanks for the comment,

Doug

Hi Libby,

I agree with your assessment of the confusing aspects of Gmail. I find I like the threaded conversations, but I am still up in the air about the labeling/search conventions. OK for now, but what will this mess look like in 5 years???

Doug

[Tom Hoffman]

How much spam comes through your GMail account? I've barely trained mine, and my email address is all over the web, and I don't get enough spam to notice it. I guess if I think about it I might get a half-dozed a day on some days. It is not enough to register as a problem for me. And if I'm losing important email to false positives, I've never discovered it. Does adding your barracuda system on top really make a difference?

I'm just surprised because I'd think never having to worry about spam filtering again would be #1. on the list of GMail features for the school Tech Coordinator.

Also, I've used GMail for everything since its inception, and almost never labeled everything. Just searching the giant pile works extremely well and not trying to organize everything saves tons of time.

[Drew Mundsinger]

Doug, our district made the switch two years ago and despite the rumblings of those who resist any change, it has dramatically changed the way our staff interacts with students and each other. They ability to collaborate in the cloud through Google docs, sites and calender make for fewer meetings and have streamlined many day to day tasks. The one big positive we've experienced is the decrease in paper usage across our district. We are saving a lot of money and going "greener" with the ability share documents, agendas, etc... Hope your district sees the same results.

[Clint Buhs]

It sounds like you have things well under control, Doug. Just in case it's helpful, here are two free tutorials on Gmail.

Best of luck!

[Ann Carnevale]

We made the switch this school year, and chose to provide Gmail training as part of a professional development day. I think it's important to offer some type of training for those 90%. It sets them at ease, knowing there's a safe place to learn (and get immediate help) if they hit a stumbling block, and it's one less new thing to have to worry about. It also provides at least some new information (such as label options) for those who are relatively comfortable with it.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Tom,

Not as much spam comes through as gets caught, I guess. It's mostly regular marketing stuff that I am dealing with as I think about it. I still scan my spam for legit stuff as well.

I think our IT guy feels kind of bad about having Barracuda and not having a use for it. Not sure how much difference it will make.

Doug

Hi Drew,

I need encouraging stories like yours! Thanks for the comment,

Doug

Thanks, Clint. We subscribe to your fine (Minnesota-based) service and appreciate all the Google-related tutorials.

Oh, why are there no tutorials on Google Calendar? Or am I just missing something?

Doug

Hi Ann,

You are right, of course. We will be doing some classes for those who want them. I think it will interesting to see how many actually NEED them, though.

Thanks for the comment,

Doug

[Tim Lauer]

I would think that not having to have two guys watch the blinking lights on the mail server would be a considerable cost savings... :-) I liked the six secrets to change too...

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Tim,

The only problem is the guys watching the lights blink may not agree! I believe some of this cloud stuff is pretty un-nerving to some of our tech staff. Of course, around here they still have PLENTY to do.

All the best,

Doug