Technology Integration

Has there been some sort of agreement with Google?

We have a four-year, statewide agreement with Google that any school in Iowa may use. It provides free access to specific Google applications listed in this document. The AEA has Google trainersd and will train district and AEA staff over the next year on the applications.

Does my district have to use Google Apps?

No…It is optional to utilize Google Apps. Districts do not have to utilize Google Apps if they don’t want to.

What applications can my staff and students access?

Google Apps for Education includes Gmail, Docs, Sites, Calendar, Video, Google Talk, and Groups, all within your school’s domain. You may use as many or as few of the apps as your district decides.

25GB of gmail storage.

I don’t want to use the Calendar feature, do I have to use it?

You can “turn off” features that you don’t need or want.

Our school already uses Google Apps. Do we need to do anything?

No. You may take advantage of any of the training opportunities as additional support to your users.

What is the cost?  Aren’t they going to charge us in the future?

Google Apps for Education is free. They plan to keep the core offering of Google Apps Education Edition free.

Nothing is for free…what about ads?

Google Apps for Education is completely ad-free — which means your school’s content is not processed by Google’s advertising systems.

I’m a private school, can I become a Google school through this agreement with Iowa?

Yes, Google Apps are available to public or private schools.

What about privacy?  Who is looking at our “stuff”?  Does Google support FERPA and CIPA?

It’s your content, not Google’s. Your Apps content belongs to your school, or individual users at your school. Not Google.

They don’t look at your content. Google employees will only access content that you store on Apps when an administrator from your domain grants Google employees explicit permission to do so for troubleshooting.

They don’t share your content. Google does not share personal information with advertisers or other 3rd parties without your consent.

Google sometimes scans content. And for very good reasons, like spam filtering, anti-virus protection, or malware detection. Google scans content to make Apps work better for users, enabling unique functionality like powerful search in Gmail and Google Docs. This is completely automated and involves no humans.

As in the Google Apps for Education Agreement “Google will be considered a “School Official” (as that term is used in FERPA and its implementing regulations) and will comply with FERPA.”

The school district will make all reasonable efforts to ensure that all Google Apps users (staff and students) are made aware of the district’s acceptable use guidelines. Students who will have Google Apps accounts created must not only agree to the “Google Apps terms of service” (presented to them the first time they log in, see below), but they, along with their parent or legal guardian, should also initial and sign the District’s Acceptable Use Policy

What about email filtering?

Google Apps for Education includes the option to utilize Postini for filtering services.

What about archiving?  Don’t we have to archive emails?

Google Apps for Education agreement doesn’t include archiving of email, but districts can purchase their product at a discount. You don’t not have to use their archiving services.

Do I have to buy any software and updates?

No software to update or install, no licenses to buy. Updates are automatic.

What are the other benefits?

Google Apps is web based so allows for anytime, anywhere access to documents, email, calendars, etc.

24 hour/7 day a week access to support from Google team.