GAFE

Google is a company that has become nearly synonymous with the modern internet. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as a research project while they were at Stanford University (Google). Since then Google has branched off from just being an internet search site and now offers a multitude of products for consumer, business, and educational use. Google Apps for Education is Google’s powerful software productivity suite that is offered to schools and educational institutions for free. Googles products for consumers are free for use as well, but under the conditions that information gathered is use to provided targeted ads. Google’s has had complaints filed from the Electric Frontier Foundation and other critics due to privacy concerns but Jonathan Rochelle director of GAFE in a 2015 blog post ensures that Google is committed to keeping student information private and secure (Rochelle, 2015). Google is a signer of the Student Privacy Pledge an organization that was created to ensure educational software avoids violating student security and privacy, student’s information isn’t gathered so they are not shown the target marketing that makes up so much of Google’s other business (Rochelle, 2015). Marty Bray the chief technology and information officer for the Forsyth County Schools in Georgia brings up a valid point, “It is important to re-emphasize that it is critical for any school system contemplating adoption of any digital resource to review all agreements and ensure that any user data collected is used only to facilitate instruction and conforms with community expectations” he suggest that school site should actively monitor for collection of data even if the agreements say that data mining isn’t taking place (Bray, 2016).

            Lehmann’s and Mcleod’s praise Google Apps for Education in Chapter 13 of their book What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technology, they call Googles apps for education a powerful tool for educational leaders and point out that it is easier to set up than competitors like Microsoft’s offerings (Lehmann, Mcleod, 2011, pg 153-155). Google makes implementation of the software suite a breeze with many avenues for support and training offered online, all free of charge. Shannon McClintock Miller a librarian at Van Meter School District helped convince the school into “going Google” she says
“one of the main goals of education is to prepare young people for the future and the world that surrounds them” (Miller, 2013). She is confident that GAFE is the tool that can make achieving this goal a reality, by providing teachers with a tool box that teaches essential skills, promotes collaboration and experimentation students are better prepared for higher education and future careers.