Early in 2011, issues with FirstClass, our email client, propelled AIS-R into a brave new world of cloud-computing.  Cloud-based services are software programs that are hosted on the Internet and accessed from a web browser, with no requirement to install any software on your computer.  They are becoming increasingly popular amongst International schools because they are not dependent on any one computer operating system.  They work equally well on a PC running Windows XP or 7 or on a Macintosh computer.  At AIS-R, we have primarily Windows PC computers, but also have a large number of Macs and most students in the HS who bring their own laptops to school, bring Macs.

We have been thrust into the use of Gmail and Google Apps, a free cloud-based service for Educational Institutions, as a result of our FirstClass issues.  In many ways this is proving to be a wonderful opportunity for our school.   This problem has highlighted some of the changing needs in our communications systems. Email communication between parents and teachers and access to email and files for our teachers and students from off-campus is ever more important.  We envision many educational benefits to using Google Apps and Gmail:

1.   Simplicity: Rather than one system for learning and accessing resources and homework, and a separate system for email, Gmail can be accessed directly within Moodle. Students now have just one login and password to remember and that allows them to login to the computers at school, access Moodle and Skyward and check and send email. Simple!

2.   It just works: Unlike our previous efforts to integrate email and document sharing into Moodle, this system works very smoothly without too many clicks.  Parents, students and teachers can login to Moodle with their existing username and password, which takes just one click, and Gmail fetches your email and displays it in Moodle without any extra clicks or logins.

3.   No more sending files to yourself: With Google Apps, students and teachers have access to an online office suite of tools to create and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more.  Instead of emailing files to themselves to work at home, students can simply add them to their Google Docs account and work on them wherever they want.  Instead of emailing the files to teachers as an attachment, they can share those files directly in Google Docs and the teachers can view, edit and make comments, online.  No printing required!

4.   Always available: Since Gmail is hosted by Google, it is available anytime and anywhere you have an Internet connection.  Even in the event of a school closure, students’ files and email and even access to Moodle will all be available without interruption.

5.   Free: Google Apps for Education, which is the service we are using, is free to our school.  This offers AIS-R cost savings in hardware (the FirstClass server), software (FirstClass), and also additional services we use to support FirstClass, like spam filtering and virus scanning.  All these services are included in our free Gmail account.  This will allow us to use our funds in different areas, like increasing our school’s bandwidth and providing more laptops for students on campus.

6.   Collaboration: One of the greatest advantages to using a cloud-based service like Google Apps is the ability for multiple people, teachers and students, to work on the same file at the same time.  Students can work in groups and create one slide presentation that they can all contribute to, simultaneously.  Teachers and students can engage in shared writing experiences, working on one story or research report, simultaneously.  Students can share resources, like useful sites for a research project, through a shared document that all can access anytime and anywhere.  There are a host of collaboration tools built in to Google Apps and Gmail that will allow students to work together online and learn 21st Century Skills that they will need in the future.

In summary, though this was an inconvenient period of time to be without our school email system, we have capitalized on the opportunities it has afforded us as a community. Change in this area, while unexpected, has been positive and helped AIS-R move forward.

Michael McGlade
Director of Technology