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Google Classroom

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Re: Google Classroom

#11

Post by Already__Taken »

UK-AL wrote: post #6
buro9 wrote: post #3

I asked my partner what she thought of this as she is a tenured lecturer at a Russell Group university. Her view is that they would not only not be able to use this (politically they feel the need to have everything in the UK) but that there was a preference to support a universal framework that they had full control over. Specifically her university (Exeter) uses a version of Moodle: https://moodle.org/ That said, I…

Moodle is used everywhere in the UK, FE Colleges, Sixth Form etc. However students hate it, mainly because its not very good.

Moodle may be ok or it may suck. The problem is many of us in the UK stopped getting updates. Any software without updates is going the completely suck.

Lots of schools have been left with 1.9

Re: Google Classroom

#12

Post by jimhefferon »

aw3c2 wrote: post #2

All this could be done by a local server at the school without providing all the data and information to Google. If Google was altruistic, they would provide the software and technical guidance to do so.

Where I am (typical US place) no one at any school, elementary, middle, or high school (including the IT people), has the technical sophistication to responsibly administer local servers, or is remotely interested in gaining it.

Re: Google Classroom

#13

Post by Donzo »

Currently, this seems like more of a way to leverage Google Drive abilities for classroom use than anything else.

As an exteacher who used Google Drive in the classroom, I'm sure the extra folder and file management features will be liked by users.

Nothing clogs up your drive like receiving 100 shitty persuasive essays at a time.

Re: Google Classroom

#15

Post by ronaldx »

jimhefferon wrote: post #12
aw3c2 wrote: post #2

All this could be done by a local server at the school without providing all the data and information to Google. If Google was altruistic, they would provide the software and technical guidance to do so.

Where I am (typical US place) no one at any school, elementary, middle, or high school (including the IT people), has the technical sophistication to responsibly administer local servers, or is remotely interested in gaining it.

Generally in the UK, IT teachers are hired primarily for the ability to act as a sysadmin and tech support (for the whole school) - and are frequently called away to fix the principal's printer, as a facetious example.

The content of high school computer science courses is significantly influenced by this: the preference is for admin-heavy or Microsoft-heavy courses, which can be easily covered by non-specialist staff, and traditionally feature zero programming skills.

This is changing, but in my opinion teaching in computer science field is still impeded by teachers needing to be sysadmins first.

Re: Google Classroom

#16

Post by praptak »

DodgyEggplant wrote: post #10

Another product without support, without someone to call if things don't work, or worse: your classroom was banned (e.g., a student tried to mess with it). The model were your work, organisation and critical data relies on a no support platform can not work.

Looks like a part of Google Apps for Education, a paid product that does have phone support.

Re: Google Classroom

#17

Post by vertex-four »

UK-AL wrote: post #6
buro9 wrote: post #3

I asked my partner what she thought of this as she is a tenured lecturer at a Russell Group university. Her view is that they would not only not be able to use this (politically they feel the need to have everything in the UK) but that there was a preference to support a universal framework that they had full control over. Specifically her university (Exeter) uses a version of Moodle: https://moodle.org/ That said, I…

Moodle is used everywhere in the UK, FE Colleges, Sixth Form etc. However students hate it, mainly because its not very good.

The Open University have a ridiculously customised version of Moodle that's amazing. Other than that, both Moodle and Blackboard are awful.

Re: Google Classroom

#18

Post by elemos »

Following the Microsoft model. Give out software/hardware at low to no cost for educational purposes. Those applications become ingrained and it makes it that much easier to gain and keep market dominance in the future.

Re: Google Classroom

#19

Post by VLM »

DodgyEggplant wrote: post #10

Another product without support, without someone to call if things don't work, or worse: your classroom was banned (e.g., a student tried to mess with it). The model were your work, organisation and critical data relies on a no support platform can not work.

"critical data"

There is no critical data in a grade school, like my kids school which uses GAE, and presumably will use this workforce automation stuff that appears to live on top of GAE. Even in high school or university, there just isn't "critical data".

Also classrooms don't rely on much other than the roof and HVAC. In practice, when the internet is down, the kids just do something else.

Re: Google Classroom

#20

Post by TeMPOraL »

zarify wrote: post #8
UK-AL wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moodle is used everywhere in the UK, FE Colleges, Sixth Form etc. However students hate it, mainly because its not very good.

Really? I have used Moodle extensively both in my own courses (at a high school level) and in my own studies at university. I have had very little negative feedback from students, nor have I observed much difficulty in using it.

As a student I had to use Moodle in several courses. I, and I think most of my year, hated it with passion. Yet we had no place to send feedback to. A bunch of undergrads bitching about crappy UX - no one will listen to them. Maybe let's make the next a bit harder, so that those undergrads shut up and know their place. Damn, no one listen to our feedback about more serious issues. High-schoolers are even less likely to speak up. They deal with what they get, without a feeling things could be different.

So maybe you had very little negative feedback because there were no channels available for your students to express such feedback?

Moodle is a broken, confusing and aesthetically unpleasant piece of software, with only one upside - it's self-hosted.

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