Yesterday, I had the privilege of joining Lucie deLabruere and many other Vermont educators as we "Kicked Off" the new Google Educator Group Vermont (GEG Vermont). The focus of the session was a fun demo slam (sharing really) of Google Apps, Chrome Web Apps, and Add-ons. Our kick off was just one of the many inspiring sessions and workshops at the Vita-Learn VermontFest 2014 technology conference where hundreds of educators came to share ideas, resources and empower each other to become digital age teachers and learners.
The following presentation contains several links, including the new GEG Vermont G+ Community and G+ Page, and the sign up sheet where presenters provided links to their demos/resources. Our goal is to make the Vermont Google Educator Group an active learning network where Vermont educators embrace the goals of the new Google Groups, which is to...
We are into Week#3 of Multimedia Apps & Tools, a course I am teaching for Community College of Vermont. Like any course, the first few weeks are spent setting up systems, clarifying expectations, finding our way around and getting to know each other. As an instructor for an online course, my primary goal is to create a learning community where students aren't just working in isolation and interacting with just the material. Using Google Apps allows me to approximate a face to face classroom where real life connections and social engagement are possible in real time, as well as asynchronously. While I am tied to Moodle, the college’s LMS for our home room so to speak for grading and posting weekly lessons, we are able to leave that box by using tools like Google+ Communities and HangOuts for online sharing, collaborating and live discussions, or Blogger for reflective journaling, as well as many of the other creative & collaborative tools Google offers. Below is a presentation I prepared which highlights using Google Apps for building an online learning community.
One thing that is constant in today's world is change and keeping up with technology tools for teaching and learning is a skill in itself. I have often found myself trying to maintain websites as resources for up-to-date information with all of the best tools and tips for teachers and students but I am realizing that it's not as efficient nor valuable as teaching them how to stay current and informed by developing their own Personal Learning Networks (PLN). Recently, I've been exploring the use of Google Plus for my own PLN and find it's the best networking system for connecting, collaborating and sharing ideas about education. It's less cluttered with my family and friends posts in Facebook, has more room for posting links, images, videos and writing than Twitter, and has dynamic collaborative tools like Google HangOut and Communities for working online with others. I'll be posting more information and video tutorials on using our school's Google Plus accounts as a collaborative platform for professional development and connecting with colleagues.
For now, I'm sharing our district's WCSU Google Apps for Education resource site with links to Google's most recent tutorials and links on all of the Google Apps for education.
I've recently been working with a few of our teachers in finding technologies that will support their student's specific learning needs within our school's Google Apps domain. We have found that many of the Chrome Extensions and Apps allow for Universal Design where all students can work and be productive in our Google Apps for Education learning environment. Some of our first choice apps are ...Read&Write for Google Docs, SpeakIt and Split Screen. In addition, mobile devices such as Nexus 7, Android phones, iPads provide additional supports for quality speech to text in Google Docs with easy built in speech control (mic) within the virtual keyboards.
A presentation I made to the Vermont Curriculum Leaders Association. I think the idea of understanding GAE as a learning system that offers opportunities for creativity and collaboration is important as we address Common Core and it's implied and embedded use of technology.
Gooru once again provides us with a clear and useful tip on using a Google Tools. In this video they highlight the many new features in Google Spreadsheets, particularly in the ability to quickly edit charts. For those of you use use Google Charts its an update and for those that don't, maybe it will provide incentive to do so.
Finally, Google has made changes to improve tablet and mobile device computing. With the Google Drive App things have moved from simply being able to read a Google document on an iOS or Android device (iPad/iPod/iPhone or Android tablet or phones) to having enough functionality to actually create and edit documents. You can also create new folders and organize your documents from a mobile device. While it's not the full editor that you have on a computer, it's a lot closer than it was and enough to make it worth using as a collaborative writing tool.
The functionality on the Android devices is a little better as it has the "commenting" feature while on the iOS tablets/mobile devices commenting is not there. But like on a computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made which takes collaborative writing to another level of cloud computing. You can now also watch Google Presentations on a mobile device.
This upgrade makes me think that using Google Apps in a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) learning environment is much more feasible and affordable for schools. Or, setting up a classroom as blended environment using a combination of devices for students to allow both full functionality/creative tools to handheld mobile devices~ with some full suite laptops or desktops in the room that are priced in the $500-$600 range combined with Nexus 7 tablets at $199 (you could use iPads but at $500 each the Nexus 7 is more affordable). In addition, in the blended classroom students could use their own smartphones or hand held devices for the less intense creative work as well. Things like; document editing, reading, Internet searches, watching videos, recording short video/audio, managing their calendars, checking email, and leveraging some of the many mobile device apps for learning.
I completed my application and one minute video for this years application to the Google Teacher Academy just before the midnight deadline on Sunday. While I realize the odds are slim, they only take 50 educators from all over the world, each time I apply I have hopes of attending this intensive training with Google experts and other educators who get excited as much as I do about using Google for teaching and learning. I wish I had had more time to edit the video, I missed a few point I wanted to make about online learning and the flipped classroom. Oh well, wish me luck.
I wanted to share a Google learning opportunity with you all. I'm currently taking a free online course called Power Searching with Google http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/
There are six classes where you watch a video, practice the searches, take a quiz and discussion your findings in a forum. You take a mid-class assessment and final assessment and if you pass you get a Google Power Searcher certificate (I have an image everyone who passes wearing Power Ranger like uniforms with Google logos but that's just the Google Geek in me;) There will also be a couple of Google Hangouts (video conferences...here is one that was held this week (http://youtu.be/ZhhiXxiAVtM). I believe the classes will be available until the end of July. Each class takes about 40 minutes to complete and contains a lot of useful information on using Google searches. So, if you have time and inclination it's a good opportunity to learn more about Google Search. I am finding that I thought I knew enough to use Google Search effectively but there are subtle terms/operators and techniques to use for being a "Power Searcher."
Today we introduced our new Google Docs management tool, Teacher Dashboard created by a company called Hapara in New Zealand. It's a great way for teachers to quickly see and access all their student documents even if students haven't shared them. The TD is flexible in how you can setup categories to organize documents, we went with traditional folders for Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and Inquiry. This will hopefully, make it easier for students to organize their documents in addition to teachers. In a few weeks we will add the ePortfolio template that teacher have been working on and where students will be using to showcase their work.
Yesterday's U-32 Google Apps miniWorkshops were quite successful; Intro to Google Apps, Google Mail/Contacts and Google Forms were all offered as options. We plan on continuing with these after the holiday break, stay tuned for more information.
Google is continually adding and improving on their many applications, here are a few which you may find useful in your classroom or for your own personal productivity.
With today’s Stable channel release, you can now add new users to Chrome. Adding new users lets you each have your own personal Chrome experience, and lets you each sign in to Chrome to sync your stuff. To add a new user to Chrome, go to Options (Preferences on a Mac), click “Personal Stuff,” and click “Add new user.” Check out our latest Beta blog post for a few quick tips. (from Google Chrome Blog)
Google Stock Photos Google has added an option for
"Stock Photos" and made it available for Google Docs, Presentations (the new version) and Google Spreadsheets. A handy way to quickly get clip art type images. As a person who generally dislikes most clip art, the images here are not bad. I find the choice to select images from Picasa a better option as it allows classrooms/schools to create and share their own "stock photos." Why not have students draw, scan, photograph their own artwork as stock photos and upload them to a Picasa Album and share with the school or district?
I've been living in two words for the past few years as we have both Exchange/Microsoft products and Google Apps for Education. While I'm very happy just living in the clouds with Google schools in our district aren't ready to go there. I have been constantly trying to keep two calendars going but often find that I either double book with teachers or just lose them in the space between the cloud and the school's server room. Now I found a nice fix which will sync my two worlds.
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