Having a uniform set of platforms across a school or district helps everyone learn how to best use what is available. Making a drastic change to that can be a jarring and unwanted move for most, even when it is considered a necessary step forward.
Here we talk to Kathi Kersznowski, an educational technology specialist for Washington Township Public Schools in New Jersey, about how she helped her district make the switch from Microsoft to Google, some of the steps she took to ensure a smooth transition, and what they should do. do other schools and districts. Find out if they are also looking to make a change.
Kathi was recently recognized as Best Example of Professional Development in a tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit with a Innovative Leader Award.
One small step for a district
The idea of moving from one technological ecosystem to another does not arise lightly, but every great change begins with a spark. Even if the change is small, it can have huge ramifications if everyone is not on the same page.
“Last year we hired a new superintendent, and the new superintendent came from a Google district,” Kersznowski says. “He wanted us to also be a Google district. So we knew it was coming. We had a year to make a change. I have a team of three other people who work with me, it's just the four of us. “We were tasked with making this happen.”
WTPS is a district of nearly 8,000 students with six elementary schools, three middle schools, one large high school and two preschools, so the transition seemed daunting at first.
“There are so many people to train, so many people to teach,” Kersznowski recalls. “It's new for teachers, it's new for students. Then we realized it was new for secretaries and administrative assistants, too. We had many people to pass on this knowledge to. It's a big change when you go from Microsoft to Google. Word translates to Docs and Excel translates to Sheets, so there is compatibility with many products, but it works very differently in many ways.”
Celebrating “Google Day”
Switching to another technology ecosystem is not uncommon. However, some districts may be deterred from making the change because of the overall headache it can cause. So how did Kersznowski and his team overcome the typical challenges associated with a district-wide technological change?
“I'll tell you what other districts could do best if they wanted to replicate this,” Kersznowski says. “We activated Google last year. The official switch date wasn't until mid-summer, but Google was activated on February 16 of last year, which was a full day of service for the entire district. As a technical team, we asked permission to have that day, then we commandeered it and called it Google Day. We wore t-shirts that had Google Day on them. We spent months planning what this would look like, but the fact that we had it activated last February gave us a sandbox where we could play with it. The only things we didn't activate were Gmail and Calendar because they were still running in Microsoft Outlook.”
What was the benefit of having additional time to work with the Google ecosystem?
“With Google Day, we wanted to find out what were the fundamental things that every person will need to know to survive at Google,” says Kersznowski. “We identify those things as Google Drive, Chrome OS, Google Calendar and Gmail, and the overall suite of applications. Those were the main things everyone had to address in a session. We offered live sessions and recorded sessions. Everyone had to do at least two live sessions. “We wanted people in person to interact and discuss.”
And how do you deal with rejection?
“Change is difficult,” says Kersznowski. “So it would have been the same rejection if we had gone from Google to Microsoft or anything else. People resist (change). But the fact that we gave them professional development, training and support so early, and gave them a place to play, work and learn (that was helpful for the transition).”
Making such a big change for a school, let alone an entire district, can be a daunting task. But, as Kersznowski and his team have shown, with proper planning and plenty of time to learn the technology, you too can set your district up for success.
