Usually it goes like this:
In-house solutions -> Centralized commercial offering -> Open source installed on premises
Google Classroom
101–110 of 148 posts
Re: Google Classroom
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does that bother you?
It costs more and introduces additional complexity. It would be far useful to allow any arbitrary Google Account to join any arbitrary classroom, and trust that Teachers can do a decent job figuring out who is in their classes.
Why do you feel it would cost more or add a significant amount of new complexity?
Re: Google Classroom
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does that bother you?
I will post for my kids who suffer under the same restriction, that it's yet another email address they don't/won't use, but the admin types will only use it for CYA purposes. So risk adverse administrator sends email to the unused address that its "dress like a hippie day" on thursday and 99% of the students don't check an unused addrs so they never know. "Obviously" they just need an email forward feature, but of c…
If the student account does support forwarding, would that put to rest all of your concerns?
I think it's a false comparison to say it's like your cable address; a school has a multitude of good reasons for wanting to send email to its students. A cable company has mostly terrible reasons.
Re: Google Classroom
#104If you want to use open source software for this, Google has released Course Builder[1] a while back. Caveat: It uses App Engine, as far as I know.
Re: Google Classroom
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work at a medium US university and I can say that the thick java stacks and waterfall is a huge part of the sources of headaches in my job. I've got my team quite agile for a Uni development team but we still face lots and lots of problems with FERPA(US student privacy rules), and trying to work with much less agile internal teams. Most of the rest of the local developers are 40-60 and very resistant to any kind of…
Could you or the parent express what you dislike about backends written in Java? I think there tends to be a pretty negative stigma associated with it, but I haven't really seen why. Personally, I've worked with both C# .Net and Java backends, and it's really a horse a piece. Is performance the issue? Security? What is the general dislike of Java about?
I was just saying it off the cuff as sort of a comment on giant waterfall departments that never create anything great or effective. I don't really have any hate for Java and there is a lot of great software created with it (J2EE was my intro to IS development), just the kind of culture and staff it attracts in this sector. Everyone is in their cubical doing java never innovating anything with no care in the world to ever break out of the status-quo. When they do hire new staff it is usually someone who has been doing that Java at banks or for the government, for 5-8 years and it just continues. Then these people move up into the more senior positions and help cement the culture. Being on more of the web-side it is just frustrating.
Re: Google Classroom
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
google voice. google browser sync. google send to phone. google wave. then there's a list of things that are STILL around but have stifled competition anyways: gmail (hopefully people might get behind mailpile but i doubt it), gtalk (again, we have to wait another decade at least before a sensible IM standard is used), G+ (how many in the tech community have moved from one company (facebook) to another (google Plus).…
Except for wave, all those things are still around aren't they? Send to phone got rolled into browser sync, but the functionality is still there.
And Wave did not drive out any competitors. It tried and failed to open up a new market (perhaps competing with email).
Re: Google Classroom
#107Why tie yourself to the current state of technology (keyboard, pc, printer), which may be defunct in 8-15 years? Let the kids learn to use computers but limit it specifically to that. In the classroom emphasis should be on teaching the subject (and let them use pencil, pen and paper). And I'm appalled that public schools now teach computer skills but have abandoned cursive writing.
Why should schools spend time on cursive? Does it add value for the students? The last time I used cursive for something other than a signature was in elementary school.
Re: Google Classroom
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Schools don't buy software based on privacy" They should do in my opinion. I find it depressing that so many people overlook or dismiss privacy concerns, particularly where kids are concerned. The kids who are asked to use Google classroom have no choice in the matter since the decision is made by the school. That means they must sign up for a Google Account regardless of whether they want one. It's the responsibili…
Since I volunteer in school science and computer lab, I have observed first hand how schools simply do not have the bandwidth to run any kind of IT. Even something as simple as installing a single new application on all of the lab computers is beyond the teachers of the classroom. That means most schools pretty much have to adopt some kind of cloud based solution that allows network administration of all of the compu…
"...if you say "we don't track activities of school students", what does that mean?"
It means whatever Google explains it to mean. Google can either be vague about it, or they can be clear and informative. Google is the one collecting the data. Only they know what is captured and for what purpose. It's their responsibility to explain clearly what they track and record. All of the questions you pose are ones that Google can answer.
I disagree that strict wording prevents the evolution of the software. It might prevent Google from mining user data in order to build a profile of user likes and behaviour. But I consider this type of data capture and analysis to be extend beyond the boundaries of simply improving a piece of software.
Re: Google Classroom
#109I think the public educational IT system should not be outsourced to the private sector, where schools completely lose control of the data and depend more or less on the good will of the company. University courses should not be organized by Facebook and pupils should not be forced to use IT systems of non-trustworthy companies like Google, which earn money by profiling their customers. Maybe my view is too German, b…
If Google offers the sort of export tools that they've offered for other services, then I can feel a bit better about their creating critical tools for public education.
I think of Google's place here like I thoughts of Apple's in the world of smartphones -- they are in the position to normalize a new way of learning, which is the largest hurdle that perhaps only a powerful private company can accomplish these days. We can worry about the need to depose them with better tools if/when the need arises :)
Re: Google Classroom
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work at a medium US university and I can say that the thick java stacks and waterfall is a huge part of the sources of headaches in my job. I've got my team quite agile for a Uni development team but we still face lots and lots of problems with FERPA(US student privacy rules), and trying to work with much less agile internal teams. Most of the rest of the local developers are 40-60 and very resistant to any kind of…
Could you or the parent express what you dislike about backends written in Java? I think there tends to be a pretty negative stigma associated with it, but I haven't really seen why. Personally, I've worked with both C# .Net and Java backends, and it's really a horse a piece. Is performance the issue? Security? What is the general dislike of Java about?
In my experience .Net has a very similar set of problems and cultural issues, so if those are the two you're comparing, I'm not surprised you don't see much difference...