Thoughts from the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators

Cloudy, but warm (for me) morning

For starters, this is the 9th session of Google Teacher Academy (referred to as GTA from here on).

There are 51 administrators here from all over the country, evenly split by gender, who are directly responsible for 738,081 students.

The goal is to improve teaching and learning by leveraging innovative tools.

What's the best innovation in education you can think of that does not involve any technology?

• the school that starts its day with a Great Expectations ceremony
• the district that includes students in the after-school professional development side-by-side with teachers
• the school that includes intervention during its school day with flexibility
• a design company partnered with an elementary school to get teacher thinking about user-center design and prototyping.
• the district that incorporates service learning in English classes to enhance unique voice, authentic audiences, community service, and prevent plagiarism
• the school that uses cookies to lure teachers to a 20-minute lunchtime Tech20 weekly sharing session

Search

• Alerts - You can setup an alert to search news for anytime your organization is mentioned in the media. You can setup an alert for your own name.
• Real-Time Search - live updates
• Squared - Helpful for evaluating purchasing decisions and getting snapshots of product overview, brands, & comparisons. Searches can be saved.
• Wonder Wheel - Visual way of searching and diving into details
• Timeline - chronological view to see when search results appeared
• Image Advanced Search - can select "label for reuse" to find images freely available. Can also find Similar Images.
• Books - Full-view copies of out-of-copyright books
• Scholar - Query on reputable, credible sources and not blogs, popular sites, etc

Google Apps Education Edition

• If the attitude is "come save me," then they will always go as slow as the slowest possible
• Don't get stuck on an escalator.
• GoogleEd Apps allows for access control plus custom domain and video
• There are several things that are in gmail accounts but not google accounts (maps, calendar, etc)
• Maine # 19 uses domain account for grades K through 8, then transition to a full account. HS buys student's a domain name for 1 year to link to the portfolio they've built over the years.
• Free for educators, with only exception for email archiving
• One login for many services and open authentication to connect to others services
• Automatic backup
• Domain follows students to simplify migration

Google Sites

• Google's version of a wiki
• Can be private or public (add up to 50 collaborators a day)
• 4 page types - web page, announcements, file cabinet and list.
• 52 themes to choose from and also templates
• Sites seems pretty simple. I'm so used to making my own web pages on the fly in 5 minutes that I don't see it as useful as other features. I think I'm going to try it out though. I've been using wikispaces more often recently and it's pretty much the exact same thing.
• Can be used as a learning community
• Can embed GoogleGroups as the social component

Docs

• Ability to work offline via Gears

Calendar

• Can embed calendar entries to Twitter and RSS feed. Notifications, filters, custom settings.

Spreadsheets

• MagicFill find similar items using Atlt on MAC or Cntl on PC
• LookUp - can use formulas to import data. Can also import HTML and table data
• Gadgets are powerful - Motion Charts, Word Clouds, etc

Inspiring Ideas

• To Go Google, don't talk about Google. Some folks tune out when they hear you want them to be innovative.

Gmail

• Archive and Searching
• Filtering and Labeling
• Tip : only leave what is important in your inbox (or skip it)
• Instructional Uses for Gmail: Communication, Learning the Tool - Hyperlinked Text, Cooperative learning, Asynchronous learning, Data Collection, Journaling, Opens the door to other "Web 2.0" tools, Interviewing
  

Inspiring Ideas

• Student behavior linked to an online store
• Transparency is the new accountability

Google Forms

• Students are the problem and the solution
• You can watch live feed as data is entered
• You can customize the cell colors for entered data. Makes a multiple-choice test super easy to grade. The time saved from grading should be used to do something else of value.
• Students ho are building forms (6th graders) are also learning Algebra
• Form spreadsheet can automatically be customized and manipulated (word cloud, map generated from zip codes)
• Example: You can use a form to enter student test data and use Motion Graph to track progress
• Create spreadsheet first and then create form (depends on user preference)
• Great formative assessment tool because you can see trends in student answers by simply using summer of responses

Groups, Talk, Chat, Moderator

• Moderator - crowdsourcing, Series & Topics
• Can use for town hall-style meetings to poll people
• http://tinyurl.com/ybenlpu
• Talk/Chat - democratic, teaches students best practices and online etiquette, video chat, etc
• Groups - collaborative tool (asynchronous learning), manage permissions
• Video - information, entertainment, skill-building (Earl Anthony bowling, tie a bow-tie, shoelaces)

Google Apps Dashboard

• Can detect system health
• Back-end management settings
• Postini - message security and spam detection (message discovery & archiving is separate feature and cost)
• Apps for Ed has a template for a Start Page
• Questions for Discussion

Apps Year in Review

• Lesson Plan Resources - google.com/apps/eduresources
• Community site - edu.googleapps.com
• Training Tiers - professional deveopment program for moving to Google Apps
• Option to write Canned Responses

Chrome Browser & Chromium OS

• Browser has 40 million users in less than 1.2 years
• HTML5 to push new web applications that can be used offline
• Google Chrome OS = Speed, Simplicity, Security
• Chromium OS will have extra, external features built-in without the need to download plug-in

Google Voice

• Visual voicemail and transcripts
• Teachers can give out different number than their personal number
• Allows for conference call with up to four lines
• Educational Uses: Math Homework Text Hotline, Science Data Gathering

Inspiring Ideas - Google Apps to Close Communication Gap

• Using DOCS for faculty meetings
• Using FORMS to gather feedback for schoolwide surveys

Even More

• Questions - What is it? How does it work? What's special about it? How might it be useful for educators and students? What else do you want to learn about it?
• MailMerge in Spreadsheets via Scripts
• GoogleEarth- students can map out travel routes in novels or follow along show (Amazing Race) and then create video of journey with screen capture software
• FeedBurner - RSS feed with multiple options
• Reader - can bring in local news from other countries for authentic sources and varied perspectives (Gaza Strip research from newspapers in both Israel and Palestine)
• Analytics - track users and visitors
• Buzz - more open than Moderator

Reflection

• Ah Ha Moment - Mine was Voice and the potential for it to be used in classrooms and by teachers and schools
• There is a need for differentiated instruction for teachers
• Don't wait for someone, own it
• How is this going to help students learn better?
• By June 2010, as a Google Certified Teacher, I need to lead at least 3 professional development activities on ways that Google tools can be effectively used in the classroom or school. For example: Hands-on Workshops, Peer Coaching Programs, Large Group Presentations, Online Learning Events & Modules, Weekly Podcasts, Weekly Blog Posts, Curriculum Development Workshops, Google Apps Lesson Plan (Required)

In conclusion, whew. This was an overwhelming day full of information overload. Yet, it was one of the most informative, enlightening, and productive days of learning in which I have ever participated. I'm going to have to review and mull over some of the material again to refersh my mind on those elements that I think would fit well with some of the things we are doing in Boston (as well as some of things we could be doing better). The possibility for several economies of scale is enormous.