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You can receive free text messages on your Android tablet by installing the Google Voice app on your device, and by setting up a Google voice number on your Google Apps account.

• Begin by setting up a Google Voice account if you do not already have one. Here’s a easy-to-follow set of instructions from ehow.com: Instructions to Set Up Google Voice.
• Download the Google Voice app to your Android tablet and set it up. Here’s some instructions from GottaBe Mobile to help you with that: Instructions for Setting Up Google Voice for Android.

Once your Google Voice app is set up, you can do any of the following with this application.

• Receive and send free text messages from your Android tablet.
• Access your text messages from your PC with your Google Voice inbox. This also means you can send text messages through your Google Voice number from your PC.
• Use the Google Voice mail to channel your voice mail to your inbox.
• Set up Google Voice so that when someone text messages you, you get the message in your email inbox too.
• Consolidate your phone numbers so that all your calls go through your Google Voice.

Google Voice is a powerful free app from Google and offers school administrators quite few features they may wish to explore.

Would your school district like to save money and cut down on technology-related and technology support costs? Think about what a school district IT department could get accomplished if they never had to worry about administering or troubleshooting your district email server again. Or, what if there were no need to purchase all those office suite PC licenses again? There are a growing number of cloud-based “Online Tool Suites” available to school districts, and "going-to-cloud" makes a great deal of sense for school leaders looking to save money, increase the number of online tools available to staff, and to bolster security.

There are quite of few reasons for moving to a cloud-based “Online Tools Suite” as opposed to using locally installed and maintained applications. Here's three good reasons to move to a cloud-based online tool suite from my perspective since our district moved to Google Apps well-over a year ago.

• Cost savings can be enormous. When a school district moves to the cloud for email alone, there's savings in maintenance and hardware costs for such things as email servers and network infrastructure. Such a move also eliminates the need for maintaining and troubleshooting these services too. With a service like Google Apps, backup of email is also less problematic, and as applications like Google Docs continue to improve, there may be even less need to pay for software licenses for office suites as well, not to mention no need to worry about updates and troubleshooting for these applications.
• Using cloud-based online tool suites allows for more streamlined collaboration and sharing. Online tool suites offer a variety of collaboration tools within their applications and the ability to easily share projects. Our district's use of Google Docs has meant using the online tools to share things like meeting agendas, schedules, and address lists. Also, it has meant being able to collaborate online in the creation of other documents like school improvement plans and handbooks. Sharing documents without attachments has also been greatly simplified. Online tool suites like Google Apps adds an entirely new dimension to collaborating as professionals.
• Online tool suites like Google Apps offer users an increasingly wide variety of tools highly suited for education organizations. Email, Google Talk, Google Sites, among many others that make up the Google Apps suite make communication within and without the organization more seamless. Google calendar with its sharing feature makes scheduling school and district events much easier. Google Docs is perfectly suited for the education organization where collaboration and team work have become even more important. More importantly, as Google refines and introduces more and more apps, our district is in a perfect position to take advantage of them.

Of course, one of the biggest concerns many have with a move to a cloud-based online tool suite is security. One reason for this is that once someone starts talking about moving data out of the physical proximity of the central office servers, a sense of panic begins to rise up. There's some kind of comfort in having the actual storage of data on your own real estate. Then, questions begin to arise like this one: “What do we do if someone gets our data, especially data that would place our district in violation of FERPA?” That is a legitimate concern of course. However, if the truth be known, companies like Google have much better resources for maintaining the security of data than school districts. Their resources for maintaining cloud security are almost unlimited, whereas in times of declining budgets, school districts do well just to maintain what they have. Maintaining security is ongoing and requires both ongoing monetary and physical resource costs to keep data systems secure and current. It just makes sense to allow a larger company who make it their business to keep data secure and store it. Besides companies like Google can’t afford massive data breaches and violations of data security so you can count on the fact that they consider security of the utmost importance.


I am not necessarily promoting Google Apps over other online tool suites. There are others available such as Zoho and Microsoft Office 365. Since I am most familiar with Google Apps I refer most often to its features, and offer the list of resources about Google Apps below.

Google Apps for Education Web Site
Google Apps for Education Community
Google Apps for Education Training Center

Perhaps others can suggest or express their experiences with other cloud-based online tool suites. How have  these solutions worked in your district or organization?


In the 21st century moving to cloud-based online tool suites just makes sense. In the age of declining budgets and limited resources, it is the very thing a 21st century leader will do.

My school district just passed it's one year anniversary using Google Apps. We have saved a considerable sum of money while enjoying the robustness of Google's Gmail, Google Docs, and other Google apps such as Google Sites and Google Reader. During the transition there were the usual bumps and frustrations that occur with any transition to something new, but by emphasizing the positive new features, and by showing our district users how to accomplish many of the same things they could with the old platform, Gmail and Google apps have become a part of our everyday life.

If your district is thinking of converting to Google apps, or some other cloud-based applications to replace current services, it is extremely vital to select the services that best fits your needs and train your users in how to make the most of the new apps.  A good introduction to the idea behind this concept of using the cloud as a application platform is the "Cloud Computing Explained" video.



I feel confident that choosing the right cloud provider and training our staff have made our transition to Google Apps successful. In order to really understand the capabilities of Google apps and especially Google Docs, I might suggest showing the "Google Docs in Plain English" video as a starting point.


What makes this video effective is that it explains in simple terms how Google Docs can transform the way we carry out our tasks as administrators and educators.

Transitioning to the cloud is clearly accelerating for school districts around the country. With technology budgets tight, educational institutions have no choice but find the savings where possible. Google Apps specifically, and cloud-based apps generally are a definite way to stretch the technology budget.

Two Must-Have Apps for Those Using Google Apps


Gmail Backup: This freeware (with requested donations) application allows you to backup your Gmail account locally. It is an excellent way to ensure that you have access to your past email activity. For more information, check out the developers site:  http://www.gmail-backup.com/ .

Syndocs: This freeware app allows you to backup your Google Docs locally. It automatically pulls your Google Docs files to your desktop upon computer start up. It is an excellent way to make sure you always have an accessible copy of your documents with or without Internet access. For more information, check out the developer's site:  http://www.syncdocs.com/

Every once in a while I stumble across one of those software tools, that I just can't wait to share with others. GMail Backup is one of the applications. I have two Gmail accounts, a personal and my district account, and even though I'm not quite near the storage limit, I have often wondered how I was going to be able to keep accessible copies of my emails in a location where I can access them and manage my storage as it got closer to the limit. GMail Backup is an application that gives me that option.

The software interface itself is simple to use. You do have the option to specific a certain period of time that your email backup covers. I ran the application to back up my district account, which has a substantial number of emails, and it took just about an hour. Now I have copies of my email located on my hard drive and on my portable hard drive. The software also has a restore option, which I haven't yet tried. The software is free to download, but the developer asks for a donation. Check it out here: http://www.gmail-backup.com/ .

Gmail Backup's Simple-to-Use Interface

In a time of tight budgets and few resources, administrators need to find as many ways to save money as possible. In an earlier post, I suggest Google Docs as an alternative to purchasing Microsoft Office as an office suite. Google Docs does provide users many useful features that extend far beyond what can be obtained from a locally installed office suite like Open Office or Microsoft Office. Here's four things that set Google Docs apart from an installed office suite.

Google Reader is a powerful application that permits users to wade through all the information available on the Web, and collect only that which is of interest, or use. It provides users with a goldmine of ideas to share with others, and it keeps them well-informed on current events. I once read the newspaper faithfully each morning; now I read my RSS subscriptions. It is an application every administrator and educator can use to remain well-informed and current on any topics of interest. What is it administrators and educators need to be able to do with Google Reader to take advantage of its capabilities? Here’s my short list of Google Reader  tips.


Set Up Subscription Folders: This feature allows Google Reader users to organize their RSS feed subscriptions into folders. For example, I have arranged my Web site news feeds into a single folder. By having my subscriptions organized into folders, I can better access them, and I can keep my highest interest feeds in a single location. Using folders makes it easy for me to sort items for easy access. Setting up folders will help users get the most out of Google Reader, and customize it to their specific needs.

Review Reader Trends: This feature allows users to review the statistics that capture their RSS reading habits over the past 30 days. For example, my own Google Reader trends tells me I’ve read a total of 300,000+ items since September 27, 2010.  The Trends feature also provides statistics about which feeds get read the most, which items you've clicked on the most, which items you've starred the most, and which items you've shared and emailed the most. You also can review which RSS Feeds are the most inactive and most obscure. This information is useful because it allows users to pare those RSS subscriptions that aren't providing useful information, or are not being read very often. The Reader Trends feature is an excellent tool for getting an overall picture of where a user is getting most of his or her information.

Share and Star RSS Items Read: Google Reader also allows users to share items from their RSS subscriptions too. For example, I recently stumbled on an article about the North Carolina state budget that had some details I thought a colleague might find interesting. Google Reader allowed me to send that article to that person with comments through email. The "Star" feature of Google Reader allows users to mark items for further reading later. By putting a star on them, users can simply click on the star folder and access the items individually. The share feature allows administrators to share resources found in the RSS subscriptions with others, and the star feature provides them with a tool to keep those items available for quick access.

Taking advantage of any RSS reader's capabilities makes the task of being well-informed much easier. There are certainly other RSS readers out there with more features, but Google Reader's power lies in a combination of simplicity, and features that help readers be organized and informed.