Selah, Washington School District 19 – Google vs Gaggle
On Monday, December 20, 2010 Chris presented a webinar to the Instructional Technology staff at Selah School District 19 in Selah, Washington. They approached us about the decision they are trying to make between Google Apps for Education and Gaggle.
While I do not work for Google I am somewhat of a Google evangelist. I happen to think that given the choice between Google and Gaggle, the winner in this bout is clearly Google. My opinion is due in part to feature set, in part to reliability (past and predicted future), and a few other thoughts specific to the Selah school district.
Is your district wondering whether to switch to Google Apps? Are you considering Gaggle? Contact us for a personalized webinar and we’ll be glad to share with you our thoughts on the matter.
I am a tecnology teacher at a small K-8 elementary school in illinois. I would like to get email for our middle school students (6-8). I however do not have a lot of money to spend (gaggle) and have quite a few parents hesitent about giving thier studnets email that is not monitored. Plus I worry about the legality of google Apps. can you please send me some information reguarding both programs.
Kristy Cunningham
Hi Kristy,
I responded by email. Hope the information is helpful!
Chris
Hi, I am the network admin for a k-12 district in Park Hills Missouri. We are currently using Google Apps for education for our staff. We are starting to look at email for the students. Our Admistrator thinks that Gaggle is the way to go for students. Could you please point me in the right direction as to our best solution.
Thanks for your help,
Mike Dalton
Hi Mike,
I responded to this by email. Please let me know if you don’t get it. I look forward to speaking with you.
Chris
We are also struggling with the Google Apps vs Gaggle question. It doesn’t seem like Google Apps can provide the safety net that Gaggle provides (monitoring of email, documents, chat, etc.). How can we address the concerns of our administrative staff?
Hi Jerry,
Thanks for your comment. I responded by email. Let me know if you don’t get it (sometimes they go to spam). Also, let me know if you want to set up a call.
Yours,
Chris
Please forward me your thoughts as for why Google Apps makes more sense than Gaggle. I would like to utilize it for the kids, especially since we are already using it for the staff. However, I have some teacher with experience with Gaggle that say we already know how to use it, it has more capabilities that Google for monitoring email (I have not confirmed that) and so we are considering just using Gaggle.
I have sent comments via email, let me know what you think!
We are also struggling with the Google Apps vs Gaggle question. I’m currently leaning towards Gaggle for two reasons. 1)As Jerry mentioned, Gaggle monitors email, documents, chat, etc. 2)Gaggle has a data integration feature which allows for a mass import linking teachers and students to classrooms (creates the classrooms for the teachers and adds students into the classroom). Does Google for Ed offer this? thanks you – I’m interested in seeing your Google vs Gaggle presentation
I emailed you about setting up a call, let me know if you don’t get it. Thanks for commenting!
Chris – your reply must have hit my SPAM folder which I just purged yesterday. Would you please re-send me the email you sent regarding the post I submitted on Feb.7, 2012 which said:
Please forward me your thoughts as for why Google Apps makes more sense than Gaggle. I would like to utilize it for the kids, especially since we are already using it for the staff. However, I have some teacher with experience with Gaggle that say we already know how to use it, it has more capabilities that Google for monitoring email (I have not confirmed that) and so we are considering just using Gaggle.
thanks.
Hi Scott,
To make it easier, why not email me at chris at palmettolearning.com and we can set up a call to talk through this.
Chris
I’m curious about your own experiences with Gaggle. Have you used it yourself? They seem to be a lot more than email, and with the tragedies in the news lately, monitoring sounds like a good idea.
Hi Andi,
Yes, I’ve used Gaggle. The trouble, I find, is that monitoring sounds like a good idea in theory but ends up being incredibly labor-intensive. You ultimately need to dedicate someone to spend their time reading likely innocuous emails. With Google you get a much more robust ecosystem and infrastructure, and you can certainly limit what students do when Google is properly configured. For example, in my district, students can only email other students or teachers. They can’t send or receive email from outside their domain.
Lastly, most inappropriate communications between anyone in a school happen outside of the school’s established email system. They happen on Facebook, text, etc. Those are outside the purview of even Gaggle.
Just my two cents.
Chris