Think you know about all the changes that have occurred this school year? Well, think again. Since summer, all students and teachers have had Google Accounts, whether they knew it or not.

“The Google Accounts give students 15 GB of storage that they can use anytime, anywhere, without any cost. [That way], students don’t need to carry USBs around with them anymore,” Technology Coordinator Randy Thomas explained.

Through the help of Google, the Walnut Valley Unified School District technology department created the district Google domain. All of the accounts are under the district, so the accounts include all the Google tools that the school district permits to students and teachers.

Because the traditional Blackboard accounts have been known to be confusing, the new Google Accounts were made to be easier for teachers to grade and collect assignments with all files organized in one place.

Besides being user-friendly and free, the Google Accounts are also meant to facilitate classroom productivity with an easier method of communication between teachers and students. Students and teachers can personally control what files they keep, edit, or share. They also get the opportunity to utilize all elements of Microsoft Office free of charge. Purchasing the program will no longer be necessary, as everything is available through the accounts.

All of the Google tools offered are the same for both students and teachers except for e-mail, which is only available to teachers. Diverse in usage, Google tools also include elements such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, and drawings.

In addition to the many features, the accounts also enable concurrent sharing between users, allowing multiple viewers to comment or edit the same document at the same time. Because the school-wide accounts were just created over the summer and since there have been so many other structural changes on campus, all teachers are going to be instructed on how to utilize the Google Accounts before students will be introduced to them.

“There have been so many changes here at this school, so we want to train the teachers first on using the Google tools. The teachers can then show it to the students and utilize the tools in classroom environments,” Thomas said.