No brainer

This is why we* do what we do, why we believe what we do is the way to go, why we trust, amongst others, the Key Competencies, Learning to Learn, Assessment for Learning,  to empower learners to think critically, to be curious and articulate, flexible and adaptable, to act independently and make their own free choices, in their context, in their culture.
Because we** don't want that. Anymore.

* You, me, and so many other teachers
 ** You, me, teachers, lecturers, employers, parents, friends...

Favourite Google title

I couldn't resist posting one of my favourite Google titles by Edward Gorey

Google here Google there

My week appears to have been dominated by all things Google! Me and million others!
More this week than any other? I did receive lots of messages about googledoc use and discussed them at the NZALT meeting where I presented the NZQA info about online submissions for moderation.
And this level of "Google activity" got me thinking...
Every day several times a day I typically search, email, use calendars, create and share docs, presentations, forms, upload images, follow and participate in groups, watch Youtube clips, use Maps as GPS... I have used googlesites to document or communicate information. I embed elements from my Drive in other online spaces. My Android phone is surgically attached to my hand, the Android tablet is central to our living area.  I have even started to use Chrome and added a range of apps, including Lucidchart, Pocket. Still my default browser is Firefox, firmly, but who knows? I own a macbook air which has virtually no storage place as most of my stuff is cloud based, mostly in Drive and some in Dropbox.
And that is only my personal use..

http://mashable.com/2011/08/03/google-doodles/

The teaching and learning world is taken by storm by GoogleApps for Education: docs, control panel, apps... Excellent teachers are selected to attend the Google Academy, forward thinking and successful schools showcase how the Apps combined with Teacher Dashboard transform teaching and learning, amazing stories of implementation to develop a digital age approach to learning for all students are widely disseminated, whole countries like Malaysia not only adapt the cloud services but also the hardware, Chromebooks are featured prominently, GAFECommunity conferences worldwide are extremely well attended by innovative teachers looking to empower their students to own their learning. Resources to get started, presentations to implement, tips from any of these events are shared widely through social media.
And that is only what I am aware off...

I have actually not set out to learn about Google stuff, it just has grown as part of my daily routine,
it feels as whenever I need to do something there is a Google way, and that it makes my many aspects of my daily life easier:
- googledrive for all NZAFT business
- collaboration on documents with colleagues
- eportfolio publishing
- blog posts
- googledrive to share and organise shared documents
- hangout to allow for those online meetings and record them
- presentations with speakernotes shared
- everything viewable and editable at my fingertips anywhere anytime on phone

Google is omnipresent in my online activities. I can't quite trace back how this has come to be. It all started with a Gmail address and playing with the tabs in iGoogle I think.
What surprises me is that some people I work with can't access googledocs from their place of work: no need sharing a doc with them at their institution address, no need asking them to quickly join a hangout. Others are still under the impression that if you don't send a form or document on paper or attachment to an email, then it won't be replied to, that the link to the form or the doco won't be followed. That only if you have a google account you can fill in a form! And others can't quite get what it means that it is on the cloud.

I can't say I am a Google enthusiast any more than I am a car enthusiast:
- both equally take me from A to B when I need (although I admit that going from A to B with google is far less of a straight road, as often one thing leads to another! ;-))
- both I drive with caution but also with the comfort associated with familiarity and a good dose of safety ( I have googled my name on a range of browsers and devices and different locations and I am yet to see in the first 10 pages of the search any of the documents I have published to the web from Drive),
- both I enjoy the reliability of and the feeling of ownership derived from a certain element of mastery Oh that feeling of freedom when the tool does exactly what you want (eg: I don't think about "How" I drive to B) and that frees you to concentrate on the next step!
So I know what Google enables me to do. I know it now as it is born of need.  I know some know heaps more and use much more Google things and make it work for them and their institutions, schools etc. so I continue looking as something will resonate and it ll get used. (Like the DocStory builder!)

I felt I needed to look at some of these applications in a school context, with learning outcomes firmly in mind, with students experience at the heart, to see what they look like in a context where the freedom of use can be restricted due to the constraints (age limitations, digital competence, infrastructure, access, data ownership etc.) and to see what users make of them (like this or that!), where they can embed, how they can communicate with parents, communities... What makes GoogleApps different so that they seem to be so widely implemented (if not widely and judiciously used)? Is it because their use, contrarily to LMS for instance, revolves around a personal user ID, namely an email address and a user owned product such as a doc? Hum...

Upon receiving info about the GoogleTools for Learning course coming up,  I suggested to the NZAFT exec ATeam that we went on a learning outing together: I have been doing "the Google evangelist" with the team for over a year now, but I'm limited by my own experience. And I am ready to listen to expert advice in the education field. Our team has steadily grown their use and started to see some massive changes in the way we work and relate to others for planning and communication purposes. This is timely for all of us, and the opportunity to work together to share experience and freshly acquired knowledge to our community of practice at the upcoming Fransème is too good to miss!

So I am going back on my word: I am going to a "how to" workshop! LOL!  I' ll soon write what I got out of it!

Ta Da !!

Educamp Dunners

Here we are on a moist Saturday evening in Dunners, reflecting on my first experience of an Educamp. It was, as I expected, a complete contrast to the traditional 'expert', 'key-note' sort of affair where one tends to drift off even if the wisdom being imparted is relatively interesting.

What did I take away from it? Well, for the first time in my life I made notes in a word doc instead of in a notebook. That's quite a shift for an old paper addict. But as I type much faster than I can write it makes good sense and I'm not sure why it's taken me so long. I'm likely to do much more with my electronic notes as I know where they're stored, for a start, and can copy and paste sections of them as required. I can also upload them onto MyPortfolio in some form as part of my record of professional learning (no doubt ticking some RTC box or other, but that's the least of my reasons for doing so!!) Leaving a timely trail of reflection as one goes (while the trail is still warm) is eminently sensible (as we're doing now), compared to doing massive, window-dressed, probably fictitious, template-filling reports for purposes of compliance, which no-one, least of all the author, will ever read.

So what did we do?
Several campers shared interesting stuff during the Smackdown. Here are some of the things that I'm likely to revisit some time, or which I found particularly interesting:

•  'The 100 Days Project' seen at TedX Auckland, which consists of signing up to do and share one thing for 100 days (share some magic). The example used was of someone undertaking to paint 100 canvasses. I wonder what I'd choose to do?
•  Breaking the classroom bubble - power of the # was preaching to the converted about the power of connectivity for taking learning and sharing beyond the classroom.
• App crayons (not available in NZ but under $20 US for a box of 6, for writing on ipads
• 10 ways  to use a cellphone in class - kids taking snaps instead of notes, screenshotting everything to save time and effort and to make it instantly available for sharing.
• I liked the Gliff to attach an iphone to a tripod. $30US
• bluetooth mouse and keyboard 90% of functionality of interactive whiteboard
   bluetooth headphones / not tethered to your laptop
  
  
  (and now for some reason the bullet points are having a spazz as I try to cut and paste and edit and they won't go back to the right place despite repeated efforts so I'll put that one in the not-important-enough-to-waste-time-on box)
  
  
  •  http://www.sparkol.com/home.php
    (used for RSA animates) $6 on ipad
    a bit fiddly on the ipad but much cheaper than for laptop)
    
    
    SESSIONS - SOMETHING YOU CAN SHARE AND SOMETHING YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT
    As we put up post-its of the above it reminded me very much of the Réseaux d'Echange Réciproque des Savoirs which some of my French PLN are exponents of and which dates from the early 70s. You may remember I took part virtually in a RERS conference in Paris from the comfort of my own office in 2009 (I think it was).
    
    I was eager to crack the nitty-gritty of creating Google Docs and that was the largest session. It consisted mainly of two people showing how they used Google Docs to enhance their students' learning. I found it mildly frustrating as I already knew how I wanted to use them but lacked the practical expertise. Fortunately as a follow-on from this session we had another chance to choose what to do next and I opted for an impromptu how-to-do-it session with David Fitzgerald from Cromwell. I like the way the sessions grow organically from the needs identified on the day rather than being set in concrete in advance by the boffins. It is, as you say, teachers being responsible for their own professional development and going and getting it rather than going along expecting things to be handed to them already packaged. It's a mirror image of what I've encountered with some of my students. They take a while to get used to being the drivers of their own learning.  So (revenons à nos moutons) we had a chance to negotiate our way around the Google Drive page and collaborate on a document. It was just what I was looking for, so that was an added bonus to an already satisfying day. I've come away with something concrete that I'd already identified the need for, so it was TIMELY. I was able to reciprocate on a very small scale by showing David how I used MyPortfolio. I was all set to come home and try a Google Doc between my two laptops using different addresses but I've ascertained that my school address isn't recognised by Google so either we rectify that school-wide or I get my students to create a gmail account for collaborative work.
    
    
    In addition to the above it was good to have a chance to meet Greg Carroll and see Anne Kennelly again. They carried us through the proceedings with flair and enthusiasm without in any way dominating them. It was all very horizontal. I look forward to further developments at Columba vis a vis the E-Learning Plan of Attack, or whatever its official title is. 
    We rounded off with a convivial lunch at No7, where we'd dined on Monday evening. It was packed to the rafters so it's just as well we had plenty to say to each other.
    
    

    

    
    
    Bonne nuit!!
    ^. .^
    =+=