Archive for March, 2008

EdTechRoundup - podcast episode 3

Published
by
Doug Belshaw
on March 23, 2008
in Podcasts
. 3 Comments

PodcastDue to work commitments and other things it’s taken longer than we’d have liked to get the third episode of EdTechroundup’s series of podcasts available for download. This was actually recorded a couple of weeks back and comes in at a shade over half-an-hour. Enjoy! :-D

 
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EdTechRoundup 3

Presenters:

This show is very much a battle of the web 2.0 heavyweights, blogs and wikis.

News:

Multimedia

Images:

Del.icio.us links:

15 days of Google answers - day 15

Published
by
sinclairmackenzie
on March 18, 2008
in google education apps
. 0 Comments

We’ve reached the last of our questions put to Google. In our final question, Sinclair Mackenzie, a Physics Teacher from Thurso High School, asks about the internet safety aspects of using Google Education Apps in schools.

A recent BBC Panorama programme highlighted children’s lack of awareness regarding safe use of the internet. I have also found that school management are reluctant to give permission for online collaboration activities such as Google Apps or wikis. This was echoed in discussions over a recent GTCS consultation document. What actions are Google taking to allay the fears of parents and educators with respect to internet safety? - Sinclair Mackenzie

Google replied:

Google takes internet safety issues very seriously – after all the internet is at the core of everything we do. In general, hosted software is extremely reliable, safe, and secure and we have multiple and extensive safeguards in place to protect our users’ data.

We understand that each school needs to make its own decision about the systems that it makes available to its students but we have found that most schools take a very pragmatic approach to providing their pupils with this kind of technology. The overwhelming feedback has been that using online communication and collaboration tools has been extremely useful in improving communication and working practices both amongst students and teachers and parents and teachers.

15 days of Google answers - day 14

Published
by
sinclairmackenzie
on March 17, 2008
in google education apps
. 1 Comment

In our penultimate question to the UK Google Education Apps team, Doug Belshaw had a question about Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs).

“As many of Google’s products form the basics of a VLE, will Google be officially entering a targeted VLE solution over and above Google Apps for Education?” - Doug Belshaw

Google replied:

Currently we have no plans to develop a Virtual Learning Environment solution but we have found that many schools and universities are very successfully using Google Apps communication and collaboration tools alongside their existing VLE.