What is Google Apps?

Google Apps for Education is comprised of a suite of applications hosted by Google including Drive, Calendar, and Sites. These services are collaborative tools that enhance a student’s work as an individual and in collaboration with other students.

The Holliston Public Schools manages a closed Google domain for use by students in grades 3-12 and faculty. This allows these applications to be used at home and school for school-related projects with enhanced security, privacy, and supervision of content. G-mail is enabled within the district for middle school (grades 7-8) and high school students only within Holliston’s closed educational domain. G-mail is disabled for Placentino and Miller students.

Benefits for Students/Parents:

The interactive and collaborative features of Google Apps make them an ideal platform for students to gain essential 21st century skills. Among the features of the Google platform include:

• Access to the most advanced technology
• Anytime, anywhere access
• Complete and constant back up
• Promotes student-centered learning
• Free and robust productivity tools including word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools
• Tools to support student organization such as Google Drive, Calendar, Google Classroom
• Integrated accessibility features including text to speech, speech to text, and magnified text
• Greater engagement and collaboration in class assignments
• Access to digital content means no more papers lost in the shuffle
• Promotes skills central to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
• Parents can use the student’s Google account to view classwork and review assignment
• Google docs and calendar can be used to help organize students’ family life

Safety and Security:

Students are allowed to communicate with students and teachers who are members of the Holliston Public Schools network and will not be allowed to send and receive emails from the outside world through Google Apps. HPS also has tools in place to ensure the appropriate use of Google Apps and to help prevent cyberbullying.

All students are expected to adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy.

How does Google protect student data?

Google Apps for Education is currently used by more than 40 million students, teachers, and administrators around the world. We maintain ownership of our student data and Google will not sell any data to third parties and we do not share personal information placed in our systems with third parties except when required by law.

In addition, there are no ads in any Google Apps for Education spaces and Google search is ad-free when a student is logged into his or her Holliston account.