Teacher Dashboard

Teacher Dashboard is the "key" to success with Google Apps.  

You start with a Google Apps for Education account for the school.  This puts everything "in one box" so to speak, and lets the school manage every user and every app.  Some schools are using various Google apps on an ad hoc basis.  The problem is that single-user Google Apps can't practically be migrated later into a school-wide Google Apps for Education platform, and much good work may be lost.

Then, you add Teacher Dashboard.

It's a commercial application (i.e. not free) from a NZ-based company building specialised extensions for Google. Teacher Dashboard gives a teacher a “birds eye view” of all the students in their class.  As one Principal says, Teacher Dashboard "... eliminates the confusion and massive time drain in managing classroom online content."

Teachers now have an overview of what students are doing - what documents they’re working on, who they’re collaborating with, and what’s happening with their email account, their blogs, e-portfolio, photo albums and so on. 

Take a look at this video clip to see how Teacher Dashboard is being used in a NZ school: