For the past couple of weeks I have been working with the technology department in my school to help my school transition from Outlook to Google Mail. The transition hasn't been incredibly easy. In fact, I have had to go to every teacher, individually, to install a migration program and transfer all of their files to gmail. We're talking hours. However, I think the transition will be best for the school in the end.
With Outlook we were receiving a ton of spam emails and the features weren't too good considering what we were paying. And well, gmail is free, and there are significantly less security issues with gmail. So far, so good. But the tech. department and I are all starting to realize is that the staff's ability regarding Google Apps varies significantly. Some people are contacting the technology department because they need help logging in to their gmail account. This is the lower end of the spectrum, but it is indeed an issue that must be addressed, and unfortunately, I don't think that the technology department planned on such a need. So, I've volunteered to help.
I met with the head of the technology department and the technology coach to discuss what the next plan should be. We all agreed that we can't really help until we know what people can or can't do. Therefore, the first step will be a general survey on Google mail, calendar, and drive. After we know what people can and can't do, we can start targeting the major areas of need in the staff. Hopefully this works. My worry is that the staff that don't know how to login to gmail at this point will really need a lot of one-to-one time and training in the tool. Change is hard for everyone, but some just have a bit more trouble with it than others.
With Outlook we were receiving a ton of spam emails and the features weren't too good considering what we were paying. And well, gmail is free, and there are significantly less security issues with gmail. So far, so good. But the tech. department and I are all starting to realize is that the staff's ability regarding Google Apps varies significantly. Some people are contacting the technology department because they need help logging in to their gmail account. This is the lower end of the spectrum, but it is indeed an issue that must be addressed, and unfortunately, I don't think that the technology department planned on such a need. So, I've volunteered to help.
I met with the head of the technology department and the technology coach to discuss what the next plan should be. We all agreed that we can't really help until we know what people can or can't do. Therefore, the first step will be a general survey on Google mail, calendar, and drive. After we know what people can and can't do, we can start targeting the major areas of need in the staff. Hopefully this works. My worry is that the staff that don't know how to login to gmail at this point will really need a lot of one-to-one time and training in the tool. Change is hard for everyone, but some just have a bit more trouble with it than others.