Google for Education Case Study – Secondary school PGS in Kahl

How the PGS middle school in Kahl prepares its students for the digital world with Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education (formerly G Suite for Education)

As one of the first schools in Bavaria, the middle school of the Paul-Gerhardt-Schulen in Kahl uses Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education in the classroom. The flexible and easy-to-administer devices enable the educational institution to educate students with modern methods and at the same time teach them how to use digital media. In addition, Workspace for Education tools keep the school highly organized and connected, especially during Corona. Cloudwürdig assists the school with everything from ordering devices to implementation to support issues with device management.

The challenge

The secondary school in Kahl is part of the Paul-Gerhardt-Schools, which also includes a primary school and a business school. The Christian private school accompanies 500 pupils on their educational path. In addition to small classes and a familiar learning atmosphere, the institution is characterized by modern equipment and teaching methods. As part of the Bavarian funding program “Digitales Klassenzimmer”, it received the necessary funds for the acquisition of new digital end devices. The goal was to find an uncomplicated, flexible and inexpensive solution that is optimally suited for use in the classroom.

Vanessa Wissel, the school’s vice-principal and lead on the project, on the requirements: “It was important to us that students could take their assignments and documents home with them if needed.” She also attached importance to the devices having a low administration overhead: “We didn’t want to have to constantly carry out updates. Unfortunately, that was a bit complicated with our previous devices.”

When introducing the digital solution, it was also important to get the less tech-savvy teachers on board. Accordingly, the prerequisite for communication and productivity applications was simple and intuitive usability.

Solution

Themiddle school PGS in Kahl decided touse Chromebooksafter a test phase of several weeks. Initially, the facility ordered 17 devices, and after additional funding was approved, another 15 were added. For both sets of classes, the school uses a mobile media cart in which the devices can not only be stored safely and transported flexibly, but can also be charged.

Vanessa Wissel is enthusiastic about the central administration, for example to block unwanted pages, as well as the speed of the devices: “The Chromebooks are easy to manage and start up in less than 10 seconds. That’s especially practical since we have timed lessons.”

To organize the loan of individual Chromebooks, the school uses Google Calendar, which is part of Google Workspace for Education, along with other tools. Especially in times of Corona, digital teaching events or teacher conferences are planned here, which are then carried out with the video conferencing tool Google Meet. Also included in Workspace for Education are applications for collaboratively creating presentations and text files in a real-time document. PGS middle school students use these for their project exams, for example.

Cloudwürdig supported the school with the procurement of the devices as well as with a workshop on the setting options in the admin console. In addition, Cloudwürdig acts as a point of contact for all support issues.

Result

The Chromebooks are used in class for research purposes on the one hand, and on the other, students benefit from learning apps such as GeoGebra, which teachers can use to make lessons more interactive and vivid. This not only increases the joy of learning but also contributes to learning success and at the same time promotes the use of media. Furthermore, students can build up programming skills in the newly introduced compulsory subject of computer science – a great advantage in today’s digital world. Vanessa Wissel is more than happy with the new solution and wants to contribute to the other PGS schools benefiting from Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education in the future.

Further information

More info on why PGS Middle School is using Chromebooks is also available on the school’s own website.

• To the article “New Chromebooks” of the PGS

Educational institutions and Cloudwürdig? A success-story. We would also be happy to support you with the introduction of Chrome devices or Google for Education. So that you too can make your lessons more interactive and prepare your students for the digital world.

• Go to the Google Workspace for Education Quickstart