Google Apps is a package of online applications that makes communicating and collaborating at school easier and more efficient. The cornerstone of Google Apps is Gmail, Google’s web-based email program, which integrates with Google Docs, for creating and sharing documents, and Google Calendar, for coordinating schedules. All of these services are hosted online, so email, documents, and calendars are always accessible from any computer.
Both Staff and 4th-12th Grade students will intially receive an account.
One exciting thing about issuing student email accounts is that we now know what they are. This means that once we go live, we can easily present student names to Outlook to make it easier for you as a teacher to email your students. Simply type their name into the To: field of the message, just like you would for a fellow staff member. We will also be presenting class based distribution lists so that you can easily email your entire class (details on naming conventions are still being worked on).
Generating Google Apps accounts does mean that staff will receive a second email account. We are working towards making the Google Staff accounts auto-forward so that you as a staff memeber will continue receiving all of your mail in your Outlook Inbox. This feature should be completed prior to going live.
Want to take a look? 
Official roll-out isn’t until January, but if you would like to see what all of the fuss is about you can take a sneak-peak early at http://start.g.kpbsd.org
4 Comments
I went ahead and established an account for myself at G-Mail. I also thought it would be interesting to upload a Word Document to see what it would look like. Here is what I discovered. We have the newest version of Microsoft Office 2007. That version appends a .docx at the end of the file. G-Mail cannot handle that particular type of file. So, I saved the same document as the Word 2003 version. Then I was able to upload and see the file. Hopefully Google will support the .docx (Word) and .pptx (PowerPoint).xlsx (Excel) in the future!
Google Apps now supports the 2007 Office formats!
Q: What will the new email addresses be like?
A: The addresses will use the following format; first.last@g.kpbsd.org
This could set up some real forward thinking integration of technology in the classroom. Using a Google Doc eliminates the issue of “taking a file home.” This should also greatly ease the process of completing group projects.
However, we need to be sure that teachers are trained not just how to use Google Docs, but also how to use GDocs as a teaching tool. That second part seems to be what we usually miss.
I am enrolled in a Graduate program at Boise State University and they use gmail as the official school email system. It works great.