Gaggle

What a surprise it is to find that the dreaded productivity tool of High Point Central’s eLearning environment has received an CODiE Award for “Best Instructional Solution in Other Curriculum Areas” in 2011 (Reuters, 2011)! Somewhere after Guilford County Schools (GCS) rolled out Gaggle.net as the premier resource for student productivity and the platform for future student online web-interfacing, faculty and students alike got the impression that together we were bound with a 1996 version of Hotmail. Today, the student email provider has grown by adding popular features for communication and collaboration, all within their safe, filtered, and controlled environment. Gaggle was presented as a no-bulling and no unprofessionalism big brother system. Apparently Gaggle’s collection of tools has grown to include Digital Lockers, Message Boards, Chat Rooms, Blogs, Profile Pages, Homework Drop Boxes, Calendars, a Social Wall, GaggleTube, Zoho Docs, and filtered texting. How did this happen?

When Gaggle was originally rolled out to our school three years ago, teachers were given a 45 minute presentation that each student had a Gaggle account and that teachers needed to use their account to communicate to students by this software. Much time was spent showing how disciple would be handled and how key words are used to spot troubling online messages. A small chunk of time was given to show how teachers could post assignments, keep a calendar and collect work in a paperless manner. After some teachers tried the software and glitches were discovered, it has become a brick or software that is underutilized.

What can Gaggle do for GCS teachers? With faster and more streamlined features, teachers can provide a safe environment to provide online resources, contact parents, and allow students who were out sick a way to make-up work. Students will also have an experience similar to Blackboard which is used in the colleges. Teachers a safe place to store student work away from personal files and have a filtering system that tracks what was said and when. I’m looking forward to relearning how to use this productivity tool.

Source

Shifftlet, Rena, & Toledo, Cheri. (2008). Extreme makeover: updating class. International Society for Technology in Education, Retrieved from http://www.gsgis.k12.va.us/TSIP/Extreme%20Makeoverf.pdf

Gaggle, Initials. (2011). Gaggle selected as 2011 Codie™ awards finalist. Reuters, Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/13/idUS222468+13-Apr-2011+PRN20110413