Google Apps - 2014 New England Summit

This past weekend I spent at the 2nd annual New England Google Apps for Education Summit in Burlington.  It was hosted at a beautiful new middle school, Marshal Simonds Middle School, and attended by at least 250 to 300 people.  Place was PACKED!  Classroom teachers, ed tech and IT personnel, admin, superintendents, you name it - everybody was there.

I went with several specific purposes in mind. One purpose was to gather as much information as I could about various Google apps, application to instruction, what innovations were happening, and how are real high school teachers using this every day.

My other purpose was to talk and ask questions with adopters to find out how they did it - what works, what doesn't, pitfalls and danger signs, success formulas, etc.

Fortunately, I was quite successful on both counts.

Some Valuable Insights -- It's always interesting to take a step back from the details and look for the patterns.

"When you're striving for creativity, pushing for innovation, and extending yourself in learning, life is always in beta".

You have to accept that you will make frequent mistakes; your first try will be a bust; your initial idea will turn out ineffective.  That's how a beta release of a product works.  The learning is in the process.  But this often holds people back from trying, from experimenting and trying methods.

"Technology can be a pretty scary thing".

And what's probably the scariest for most teachers is that technology changes their control and authority. What technology does is put the controls in the users' hands - I can access what information I want, when I want, the way I want.  The flipped classroom and project based learning are just the beginning of how technology will transform the education landscape.

Highlights from a few Breakout Sessions

Become a Chrome Ninja - lots of tips and tricks for time and labor saving apps, extensions and ways to use chrome very efficiently.  Of particular interest was PicMonkey (app and extension) which is a free photo editor; Kaizena is a free app to insert audio notes into Google Docs; SnagIt will save a screenshot directly to your Google Drive.  Here's a link to lots of resources.

Using Google Sites - for creating student portfolios, for creating digital textbooks, for curating courseware.  Google Sites is a feature rich web tool.  Here's a link to more resources.

Google Hangouts - make yours a global classroom.  This was a particularly exciting workshop hosted by a physics teacher in rural Maine (at Rural School District #19 about half way between Skowhegan and Bangor).  They use Hangouts to connect with scientists all over the US as well as physics classes at other schools.  Hangouts also keeps absent students up to date and a source for individual help for struggling students.  Check out the resource page.

Google Docs in the Classroom - there were at least a dozen or more workshops on various ways teachers are using Docs, Forms, and Google Drive.  Applications relating to flipping the classroom or blended learning, gaining efficiency, creating more engaging lesson material and assignments.

Implementing Google Apps for Education (GAFE) - lots of good insights from those who have traveled this road: focus on the details, plan carefully, PD is a must!, engage with all stakeholders, there are lots of supports available from Google.