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Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

nytimes.com

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Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#151

Post by johnsmith21006 »

tchaffee wrote: post #110
misingnoglic wrote: post #71

Honestly, this isn't a big issue for two reasons: 1. The Google stuff works. I would have loved for that kind of organization and management in my elementary school classes. Google docs is also great and means I don't have to beg my not so wealthy parents for a Microsoft word license (or learn in the 4th grade how to pirate it). 2. Let's not kid ourselves, everyone is going to make a Google account anyway. As long as…

Your 2nd point and obedient acceptance of the inevitability highlights just how much of a monopoly it is and how desperately we need alternatives. Or to just break up the monopoly.

You are free to use something else. Google does some things better so people use. Gmail Google solved spam and unlimited storage and won. We should encourage companies to do things better.

Look at Google Photos now being far better so winning. This is how it is suppose to work.

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#152

Post by johnsmith21006 »

patja wrote: post #87
xbmcuser wrote: post #48

Google I feel has broken Microsoft Office monopoly the difference will be felt 10 years from now though. Earlier everyone had grown up using Microsoft office now most children will grow up using Google Office suite. Though I still think Google sheets is still way behind Microsoft Excel. The day Google can build a convertor that can convert all excel files and macros etc I would shift to Google sheets currently I have…

Isn't proficiency with Microsoft Office still expected in most workplace environments? Google docs, sheets, slides all fall short of the capabilities of their equivalent applications in Office. The Google apps are good enough for many tasks, but really don't cut the mustard if you are accustomed to the depth of capabilities in Office. Are we doing students a disservice by sending them out into the world without profi…

Totally agree in consumer space. School docs, team roosters, anything was MS forever and basically overnight I only get personal stuff in Google Apps. But work stuff still dominated by MS but some slight cracks.

Personally prefer Google Apps now.

Btw, kids school they have to use Google as workflow including plagiarism check all based on Google Apps. Pretty amazing and had thought MS Office monopoly unbreakable.

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#153

Post by rustynails »

After reading this article, I have no idea about how Google Chrome gives any advantages over paper and pencils. The gist of the article is that it allows students to collaborate.

What I don't understand is how the technology is actually being used to extend education.

For example, Wikipedia is a dynamic encyclopaedia. Dictionary.com is an online dictionary/thesaurus. I can obtain photos through a Google search. I can find articles by searching for them... so, what does Google Chrome actually provide?

I often think back to Alexander the Great. He was taught by Aristotle. What was his teaching technique? It was about a way of thinking, not the vehicle for teaching. Mac/PC/Chromebook. They all offer the same basic opportunities to online resources. The difference (superficially) is cost and admin.

My children still generate real world artefacts (eg. Paintings/posters/models). These can't be marked or submitted electronically. This means that it can't be about aggregating student work, unless you only allow electronic work, which would be crazy.

We use a tool called seesaw. As a parent, it gives me warm and fuzzies seeing my kids sitting with other kids in a classroom (it's being used as Facebook for classrooms). I never get copies of homework sheets or a good idea of the actual work being done. This is an example of how technology can be used in all of the wrong ways (technology for technology's sake).

So I'm back to my original question. Other than cheap cost and simple integration of basic office tools, how does this product actually help students?

Disclaimer: I spent several years developing an electronic education system. I asked myself this same question often!

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#154

Post by johnsmith21006 »

thrillerson wrote: post #54

Chromebooks are much better than iPads for this kind of a task for sure, but I wouldn't want everything my child wrote and looked up throughout his development sent to a major advertising corp. This data should still be maintained by the school or by a company the school partners with with a zero internal or external sharing policy.

Classroom is paid for and not ad driven.

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#155

Post by johnsmith21006 »

_m8fo wrote: post #3

I'm still on the fence to whether or not the ability for big companies to give away free software is a net good or not. On one hand, schools theoretically have more money now to spend on mission critical things. On the other hand, the theoretically best possible product will in all likelihood will not be free. Such a product could give exponential gains in productivity to teachers, easily offsetting whatever cost is…

Classroom is NOT free for schools.

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#156

Post by walterbell »

chicob wrote: post #94

I teach high school kids as a part time. I have around 15 students, and afaik all of them use Android. Most of them are 13-14 years old. They have absolutely no understanding of how advertising-based businesses work, a poor knowledge of privacy settings or the workings of data deletion, nor do they have any remotely adult conception of why they should worry about those things. They share everything. Sometimes they ev…

Zuboff's surveillance capitalism is instructive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism

video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0QwPHinDdOc

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#157

Post by bamboozled »

johnsmith21006 wrote: post #148
bamboozled wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't pay for the product, you are the product. That's how these services are funded, by selling your personal information at scale, which you generate. Now, your kids are the next product.

Tim Cook is that you? Really this line is rather ridiculous. Google charges per month per child for the software.

Google declined to provide a breakdown of the exact details the company collects from student use of its services. Bram Bout, director of Google’s education unit, pointed to a Google privacy notice listing the categories of information that the company’s education services collect, like location data and “details of how a user used our service.

Mr. Rochelle, the Google executive, said that it was important for the company to have large, diverse sets of educational users giving feedback — otherwise it might develop products that worked for only a few of them.

Why would they fail to provide that breakdown?

Because then they would have to admit they're building a profile of that child from the minute they start early school, and how strange that would be.

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#158

Post by bamboozled »

johnsmith21006 wrote: post #149
dkarapetyan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not in Google's best interest to have people that think independently of Google. The more woven Google is into the daily fabric of our lives the more profitable it becomes. I don't understand why more alarm bells aren't ringing. A for-profit corporation should not be subsidizing public education. They're not a non-profit. Their motives are always going to be at odds with creating a free-thinking populace. Googl…

What? Google provided a far better solution to our schools that is more efficient in every aspect. They listened and stepped up. Not a good thing?

A narrow focus on efficiency, which does not always equal the best solution overall.

Take a read of the 350+ comments on the NYTimes article to see how thrilled actual parents and teachers are about all of this.

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#159

Post by omash »

Jabbles wrote: post #111
tchaffee wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> say they aren't doing this. Well, problem solved! Neither the government nor Google have ever lied to us. ;-)

Without an example that shows that Google has a habit of lying your comment just wastes people's time. Do your research and make your comment useful.

Street View wifi data.

Re: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

#160

Post by peder541 »

johnsmith21006 wrote: post #155
_m8fo wrote: post #3

I'm still on the fence to whether or not the ability for big companies to give away free software is a net good or not. On one hand, schools theoretically have more money now to spend on mission critical things. On the other hand, the theoretically best possible product will in all likelihood will not be free. Such a product could give exponential gains in productivity to teachers, easily offsetting whatever cost is…

Classroom is NOT free for schools.

Do you have a source for this? Their support documentation says otherwise.

"Classroom is a free web service for schools, non-profits, and anyone with a personal Google Account." https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020279

"Classroom is free for all users." https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6025224

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