You may have recently received an error message when trying to access Google Maps while logged into your Augsburg account. It appears that while it may have been previously available, Augsburg did not have Google Maps turned “On” as a non-core app available for Augsburg.edu accounts.  A likely change by Google seems to have corrected what they would see as unintentional access. During our investigation, we have kept the service “Off.”
This change by Google also affected other Educational institutions that use Google Workplace services, and not just Augsburg. 

Now we’ve turned it “On.” This is a good time to remind you that Google Maps does not fall under our Education terms of service so the privacy protections are the same as the consumer Google tools. Our Core Apps (Gmail, Calendar, Drive) fall under an education terms of service that includes FERPA protections. We have a web page that explains all of this.

In other words, non-core apps like Google Maps will collect data like the consumer Google products so be aware of that. And we recommend not requiring students to use any non-core apps for coursework since there aren’t FERPA protections like those that exist for core Google Workspace Apps.

Where’s my apps menu?

Last week your menu looked something like above and now it looks something like below.  The apps menu (Search, Images, Mail, Drive, Calendar etc.) has been replaced with a new apps icon.

The apps icon is over on the right and is a menu of the apps available to you.  Click on the icon to see your apps and select the one you want.

Why did the menu change?

Google will be rolling out new features continually.  This is the new world we are working in.  The google platform of products will always be changing.  This change first came to gmail.com users (you might have seen this already on your personal gmail) and the education customers like ourselves soon follow.  Seeing a change in your gmail.com account is a good heads-up that it will be coming soon to your Augsburg gmail account as well.

To learn about why this changed you can read google’s help document here.  You can also read google’s official blog for news on upcoming google changes.

With the pilot long over the first wave (the early birds!) have moved to google apps for education (GAE) almost 2 weeks ago.  We now have over 100 faculty and staff in GAE as well as about 300 students.  In less than a month everyone will be switched.

This is a good opportunity to point out some links to what’s coming in google apps.  One of the main new realities with GAE is that it will always be changing as google adds more features.  We won’t have control over when the new features appear.  They will just appear.  Get ready!

Google publishes its calendar of new features at http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/. For example, in the near future you’ll see

• 30 GB of storage shared between Mail and Drive
• Tabs in Gmail for organizing your views

The information technology department has started to convert over to google as part of our pilot phase of the Google project.  I’ve been using Gmail for my Augsburg mail now for two days (I’ve used gmail.com for my personal email for a few years).  So far I’m really enjoying it.  I’m finding all of my mail tasks faster than in GroupWise and I find I can file messages away by using labels much much faster than I could in GroupWise with folders.  This will help me keep my inbox smaller which I really need to do!  I’ll see how I’m doing one week from now.

The next step is getting four pilot departments going:

• Library
• Math
• Residence Life
• TRiO/SSS

Those departments will be switching over in the next week.  We will use feedback from those departments to help inform the IT Advisory Group when they meet in April to decide on the move.  So far all the feedback from the brown bag sessions in December and January has been positive and many good questions were raised and added to the FAQ.

If you have any questions feel free to ask your LFC or the Techdesk.