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Google Classroom

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Re: Google Classroom

#81

Post by dragonwriter »

Balgair wrote: post #76
GeneralMayhem wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a pretty standard and necessary clause; it's not assigning "moral" right to Google, it's asserting that you have the right to be controlling the content's licensing in the first place.

It wasn't to Google, it was to another company: Canvas. Also, what the hell is a moral right anyway? How is it different than any other? It just seems really scammy to me.

> Also, what the hell is a moral right anyway?

In the context at issue (copyright law): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights

Re: Google Classroom

#82

Post by judk »

stephenr wrote: post #64
ceras wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an example of that sequence happening (other than Google Reader)?

I use as few of Google's services as possible so I don't have a list of the top of my head no, but the extensive list[1] of products they've shutdown should give you a hint. One article[2] I found has analysis of service shutdowns and states that 1 in 3 things Google buys or creates gets shutdown. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products#Discont... [2] http://bgr.com/2013/05/07/google-services-shut-do…

7/10 businesses fail in a few years. Google's record is pretty good. Especially for paid products

Re: Google Classroom

#83

Post by giardini »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #51
giardini wrote: post #48

Why 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.

This reads like "technology will change, so don't let kids use modern technology in the classroom". Why not just keep up with the changes?

If I were selling computers/computer technology then I would want to sell them to millions of children over and over endlessly and make billions of $$. With each new gadget, I'd want to sell all over again. Schools and the current malfunctioning education systems are an infinitely deep money pit for computer vendors/technologists to dip into: parents will toss $$ into the pit so that their children can "keep up with the Joneses'". The only worse set of predators on society are politicians and childrens' cancer research institutes (and, in the latter case, your child will die anyway).

Schools obviously can't keep up with the changes: they've dropped cursive writing so that your child can play tic-tac-toe on a computer. Your son or daughter likely signs his/her name with block letters. If so, your child is, IMO, illiterate and here is your child in 15 years:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

(this used to be funny but under the current political administration it has become a clear probability).

Current technology will be defunct in 5-10 years. Children are taught skills that will be as useful as navigating the Commodore 64 operating system. Instead they should learn current technology outside the classroom.

My pet peeve: cursive writing, tied to higher-level cognitive functioning in the brain, is no longer taught:

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/04/30/should-schoo...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-hand...

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201303/why-...

Signed,

X

Re: Google Classroom

#84

Post by judk »

Grazester wrote: post #23

Damn it Google. Over the summer I approached the government of my country to build a simple learning management system since they were about to start using tablets at the secondary schools here. Nothing has been finalised yet but I have a working model. If they go with what I am working on for them they would be able to run analytics across all secondary schools and they would own their data.

Send a resume to Google.

That's life in business.

Re: Google Classroom

#85

Post by cognivore »

Well, I can't even take it seriously, because I fully suspect that 3 to 5 years down the road Google loses interest in the product and decides to drop it. Then all the investment the schools and teachers have made is lost.

If Google didn't have a habit of killing their own products I'd maybe take the time to actually think about their products.

Re: Google Classroom

#86

Post by yincrash »

icantthinkofone wrote: post #73
scourge wrote: post #57

Earlier 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).…

Google Voice is still around. Browser sync is built in. Send to phone, I don't recall what that was. Wave is built into the browser, too, iirc.

I believe the GP meant Chrome to Phone which was one of Google's first examples of using push messaging. It's still around and usable. [1]

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

Re: Google Classroom

#87

Post by ticviking »

nacho2sweet wrote: post #55
sagischwarz wrote: post #14

I 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…

I work in IT at a major Canadian University. I hear what you are saying, but the solutions provided by universities IT departments are usually sub-par to completely not useful. There have been attempts in the past to partner with other schools and develop solutions jointly but are often cost over run disasters. It is really hard to attract any top development talent, or even try and convince current employees to stay…

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 change. (seriously using .net instead of java was hugely controversial)

Re: Google Classroom

#88

Post by ticviking »

JackdawX wrote: post #65
jrells wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My University uses Moodle, which is also TERRIBLE. I do all my grades and such in Google Docs, since Moodle is a UX nightmare. Something as simple as entering grades in Moodle requires a lot of clicking around for each grade. We have multi-page documents describing how to perform even the most basic tasks, they require constantly clicking and going to new pages of indiscernible icons. Menus are impossible to navigate…

> I do all my grades and such in Google Docs You upload all your students grade information to an external private company? Which university do you work for where this is allowed?

It's probably not allowed, but I think apps for education actually includes a promise from google to obey FERPA.

Re: Google Classroom

#89

Post by wsxcde »

sosuke wrote: post #56
wsxcde wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a teacher worry about something that might happen 3 years down the line? You only need this to work for a particular term or semester.

Because learning new products each semester or term is a PITA? Just imagine how long books last in a curriculum, there is nothing that iterates quickly in education. A question though is do all teachers use the same software in a school or is it all ad-hoc?

It's not really new products very semester, is it? We're talking about an unlikely event that might happen sometime in future after a few years.

A lot of professors have adopted Piazza is a relatively short time because it offers real benefits. And you could make the exact same argument about the longevity of Piazza.

I think we ought to applaud anything that makes life easier for educators because the reality is that most academic software, or at least blackboard which seems to terribly popular and is what I've used extensively, is a terrible mess. I'm not dismissing the concerns about privacy and longevity but they seem to putting potential future problems ahead of real present benefits.

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