Google Docs, Google Chrome, Google Slides—what’s next? As Google continues to develop new applications, software and devices to improve education and teaching, it’s become common to see Google at work in nearly every classroom. The question is, how dependent have we become on Google, and how much of our information is protected when we hand over so much of our schoolwork to it?

As a school community, we have embraced Google as a tool for student collaboration and a way for teachers to give direct feedback to students throughout all stages of the writing process. WHS Principal Dr. Derrick Nelson said, “When you go home, teachers can create papers or give comments to something right then and there in real time, so you can get that information right away.”
Google has been focusing a lot of its efforts into bettering the art of teaching with convenient apps like Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides, and with school-issued Google accounts.
With the implementation of our Westfield Google accounts, we have access to many features of Google such as Google Drive and Google Classroom. Many teachers are taking advantage of this tool, implementing it into students’ daily schedules. “All of my classes have Google Classroom accounts,” said junior Ava Maurillo. “You walk in the room, open your Chromebooks and start typing.”
Social Studies Teacher Mr. Daniel Farabaugh said the constant presence of Google can bring possible dangers if students rely on Google to do the work for them. “We need to be careful and pay attention to what we’re doing so we don’t let Google shape what we’re teaching and we keep it as a tool,” said Farabaugh.
It is up to teachers to decide how the tool is being used inside and outside the classroom in order to avoid total dependence on it. Instructional Technology Teacher Mr. Adam Pizzi said, “You want to strike a balance; you don’t want to use technology just to use technology. You want to use it in a way that it elevates education.”
We tend to turn to Google because of the many beneficial features that come with it. One feature that attracts teachers working within 43-minute periods is convenience.
“The one thing right now that technology does better than anything else is in some respect getting rid of mindless paperwork time,” Farabaugh said.
But there are costs. Ms. Jeanine Gottko, master technology teacher for grades K-8, said: “We can sometimes get too encompassed in technology and it can take over our lives so we forget about doing other things. If we’re working on a group project in Google Slides we’re sitting down and working, but we don’t talk together and plan out things verbally.”
As students and teachers learn to balance technology, we need to consider the information that Google has about each person who uses its products. How much is too much? Is our privacy protected?
“Google has great privacy policies,” Gottko said, referring to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). “They’re two different types of laws that are out there to protect you guys, and every Google product with the exception of Gmail, which we don’t use, is in compliance with that.”
COPPA was introduced in 1998 and it sets up certain requirements for operators of websites and other online formats that are directed to children under the age of 13. FERPA was introduced in 1974 to protect students and the work they produce or their records.
The goal of Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in our school is to balance education online with education in classrooms. Google has laws that ensure our protection, but it is up to us as students to find the perfect balance for our school.
Nelson said, “One thing I hope is that we’re not becoming too dependent. We’ve always been a great school before technology and we’ll be a great school after technology, hopefully even better.”