Edubuzz Google Apps

eduBuzz: Google Apps From next year, all of our pupils will be using eduBuzz for email too. EduBuzz has bought into the Google Mail system to provide this service. As well as email, this system also provides chat, calendar sharing, document sharing and website creation. As you're reading this, I can safely assume that you've made it through mail and docs at least. This document aims to share a few little pointers for each of these applications. You can use these links to jump to the App you're interested in: 1. Mail As this email system is made by google, it's built around their principle of searching. The idea is you don't have to delete or organise your emails, you just search. You don't need to worry about filling up your account, you have masses of space. The exact space you have is always changing, but mine currently says:

By my quick calculations, 7328MB is enough space for around 4 million text-only emails! The following image gives you a wee quick guide to some of the basics of eduBuzz mail, but you should really explore and play to find out more. Send an email, have a look in settings and try to find someone to chat to.

The pupils are due to be on this email system next year and it is great for communicating with them. To avoid having to check both of your accounts, you can set your edubuzz.org emails to be forwarded to your ross.elcschool.org.uk account under Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP:

For more mail help, look here. 2. Calendar Your edubuzz.org account also comes with a calendar. This calendar has three great features. Firstly, you can access it online from anywhere. Secondly, you can share calendars with other edubuzz.org users. And finally, you can have more than one calendar. When you first login to your calendar, it will display in day view. I don't find this very useful compared to month view. You can change this by clicking on the month tab on the top right:

You can change this view to be your default under Settings > General:

Don't forget to press Save after making any changes to your settings! I've added you to a new calendar I've created for the good practice lunches, which you should've had an email for. Why not try creating your own calendar:

And then share it with others:

To create a new event in a Calendar, you can just click on the day you want the event, then enter the details of your event:

If you want to move your event, just drag and drop it to the new day. If you want to change your event, just click on it and then click on edit event details >>

Using this system you could create calendars with deadlines etc. and share this with your pupils...? For more Calendar help, look here. 3. Documents Your edubuzz.org account also supplies you with the Google Docs feature. This allows you to: • • •

Upload documents from your computer to the web and edit them. Create documents online and edit them. Share documents with other edubuzz.org users either as a 'viewer' or as a 'collaborator'.

What are these 'documents'? I hear you ask...They can be: • • • •

'Document' > these are 'Word' type documents (you're looking at one of these now). 'Spreadsheet' > these are 'Excel' type documents. 'Presentation' > these are 'PowerPoint' type documents. 'Forms' > These are for creating questionnaires. Could be used to create homeworks...?

•

You can also upload and share PDF files, but these can't be edited.

The first screen you see when you arrive in Docs looks like this:

Try creating a new document. You'll hopefully find that it feels very similar to Word/Excel/Powerpoint. Try sharing your document with other users:

When sharing you need to decide if the other users are going to be viewers or collaborators. Viewers can only view your document and can't edit it, whereas collaborators can edit your document.

There is huge potential for the docs system in school. Pupils could work together on documents both at school and at home. Staff could check the progress of pupils' work as their working on it and provide ongoing feedback. You can even use Tools > Revision history to see who has done what in the document. Lots of possibilities! For more docs help, look here.

4. Sites As well as using the Wordpress system to create websites, the Google Apps system allows you to create sites. These sites are quite different. They're much more like a Wiki than a Blog. You could create a site on here that the pupils can then edit. Or they can create and edit their own sites collaboratively. When you first login you'll see the sites that you have access to. You should see the test site I've created for this training.

Open this up and have a play:

Once you're happy, try creating your own site. For more sites help, look here.

This has been a whistle stop tour of Google Apps in edubuzz.org The best way to learn more is just to have a go and play around with the features. If you need some help, give me a shout.