Hey Microsoft – Google gets that FREE means FREE

Schools Are Ready to Move to Cloud Computing

Many schools are at a point where they are ready and willing to make the move to cloud computing.  When it comes to choosing the best cloud-based productivity solution, the answer is not a simple one.

There are two main options: Microsoft or Google.  Microsoft has recently revamped and revamped its Live@Edu solution.  Now rebranded Office 365 for Education, at first glance, it may seem like the obvious choice for schools.  Most schools have been using some version of Microsoft’s popular Office Suite.  The move to the cloud-based version of these products may seem logical.

As is often the case with Microsoft, there is a catch.  Free is never really free.  There are various options, that most schools will want and/or need that will come at a cost to districts.  For schools to truly utilize all of the features that Microsoft has to offer, they will need to maintain multiple servers in-house.  At a demonstration of Office365 recently, the representative identified a need for at least four servers.  Providing, supporting and maintaining multiple in-house servers is exactly what most school districts are trying to avoid by going to a cloud solution.

To be fair, a district could in fact use Office 365 for Education exclusively via the web and would incur no charges and require no in-house servers.  In doing so, schools will be giving up significant  functionality.

Microsoft’s Bait and Switch

Most importantly, is the point that Stuart Ridout makes in his blog post Can You Afford Office356 for Education?, about Microsoft once again pulling a “bait and switch” on schools.  Hey Microsoft – free should mean free!  Schools all over the world are challenged to stretch diminishing  technology budgets while increasing the resources they are providing to students and faculty members.

Google Gets Education

Google Apps for Education is truly a free suite of applications that schools do not have to pay anything for and do not need to host any servers in-house, in order to fully utilize this suite of cloud-based computing productivity tools.  Google gets it.  Free means free.

When comparing Office365 and Google Apps often it is stated that Google’s productivity applications are not nearly as sophisticated  as Microsoft’s products.  This is accurate.  The reality is  that Google Apps provide all of the functionality that most users actually need and/or use.  The next argument made is that Google Docs (in particular) mess up the formatting of Word documents, which does happen.  If the documents are created using Google Docs in the first place, there are no formatting issues.

While Microsoft does offer the ability to collaborate on documents, etc., it is not done directly within the application.  Instead, users need to add Sharepoint into the mix, in order to collaborate.  This solution requires a one collaborator to “check out” a document in order to make changes.  No other users can access (let alone change) the document while it is checked out.

Google on the other hand, offers real-time collaboration within the application.  You can actually see on your screen when other collaborators are working on the same document as you .

Game Changer

The real game changer may be the latest announcements from Google that its new Google Drive Cloud Storage solution and its popular Chrome browser are now both available for IOS devices.  As schools rapidly move to include iPad‘s in the arsenal of tech resources, the ability to effortlessly access documents from various location may really push Google out in front of Microsoft.  Yes, Microsoft files can be accessed on various devices, it is not as seamless as the Google solution.

From its inception, Google Apps for Education has been a feature packed solution.  The functionality continues to expand, with no signs of a price tag for schools.

 

Related articles

• 10 top Dutch universities adopt Google Apps for Education (googleenterprise.blogspot.com)
• Growing Up Google: How Cloud Computing Is Changing a Generation (mashable.com)
• Google Apps for Education: When Will It Replace the LMS? (hackeducation.com)
• Google gives Google Docs offline capabilities (techworld.com.au)

Google Chrome for the Mac

Wow!  Finally!  It seems like I have been waiting a very long time for the release of the Google Chrome browser for the Mac.

Today I was notified about the beta release of this product and immediately downloaded and installed the new browser on 2 of my Macs.  Very exciting.

I was immediately impressed by the speed of the pages loading.  Far faster than the Firefox browser on either machine.  The sleek, clean, simple interface is also appealing.  Equally impressive is the ability to search and navigate all from the address bar.

Though I have only used it for a couple of hours, it looks very promising.  The web-based student information system used in my school district appears to work flawlessly (at least at first glance.)  This is a tremendous improvement.  Up until now users needed to use Safari as their browser in order to successfully access the SIS from a Mac.  Even Safari users encountered mixed results though.

Google continues to impress.

LI Tech Summit 2009

Attending the Long Island Tech Summit.

Will Richardson just provided a very thought provoking keynote address.  Check out his blog at http://weblogg-ed.com/. Will introduced many of the attendees to Diingo.

David Warlick, the second keynote speaker at today’s event just showed a great site he only became aware of in the last 24 hours.  Check out Trendsmap, to keep up to date on what’s happening where on Twitter.

Later today, I am participating on a panel discussion on the use of Google Apps in schools.  It was interesting to see David effortlessly and without fanfare or attention, integrate a Google docs worksheet into his presentation this morning.  You can check out a very new (not yet fully developed) Google Site I created as a central point for the roll out of our Polyvision Eno, as an example of the free tools available to educators.

Both speakers were very informative, of course.  More importantly they left all audience members questioning their beliefs, methodologies and practices concerning technology in their schools.  Questioning what technology is made available to their staff and students, and how that technology is currently being used.