EdTechTeam New Zealand North GAFE Summit

#gafesummit Albany, Auckland, NZ has been my life last few days. With tweachers tweeting up a storm sharing all the valuable learning and amazing presenters, if you have any teachers on twitter or Google+  who have attended I'm sure it's been hard to miss.

Day One - Blast off
We picked up our presenter badges, I was disappointed to learn the GAFE badges were not coming and that we wouldn't be using them as presenters. I was really looking forward to seeing how adults (esp. teachers) react to the physical and virtual badge system. Our day started with the keynote and Waveney winning Andy the enormous Android plush toy. Then we all filed off to our first breakouts.

Google and The iPad: A Friendship Made in the Cloud - Holly Clark
Holly talked a lot about the connections that can be made between an iPad and cloud based tools. Most apps will let you save your pictures/videos/creations to some form of cloud, be it dropbox/drive/icloud etc. She believes Google Docs on the iPad is key to collaboration. Google is only any use to you if you are collaborating though (and remember that they are constantly updating things, twice a day). The top 5 apps she recommends are Explain Everything, Socrative, Book Creator, Google Classroom and Drive. Everything you create on an iPad can be sent to Drive using the add or sharowarrow hieroglyphics.

The Open in button is perfect for App Smashing - taking two apps and making them work together. The suggestion she had for classroom teachers about noise I absolutely loved. She said take photo copy paper boxes and line them with foam and you get a sound proof studio. It's like a mini recording studio the kids can stick their iPad and head into. She also talked about how she uses 'App Captains' those children then become the King of that app. One App Captain per app means students don't ask the teacher for help etc. they see the App Captain first if they have problems.(You can find her on twitter: @hollyclarkedu)

Connecting the dots: Using Hapara - Teacher Dashboard - Anna Spier
A fascinating look into Hapara which is a dashboard for teachers to oversee Google Docs being used by their students in Google Apps for Education accounts. She explained how she started out with her digital classroom and introduced how she got her class started with Google Drive. I was interested mainly in what Hapara is and how she was using it. I really enjoyed the student/teacher feedback aspect. Highly recommend that anyone who is keen to know more gets in touch her her via her blog or twitter (@missspeir).

Getting Down to Earth With Google Earth and Maps - Wes Warner
Google Earth is not currently working on Chromebooks at the moment. What an amazing session this one was. Wes shared a few different things that you can do using Google Earth/Maps. He showed us how to bring up the Apollo Space Missions to share with students, the bring up all kinds of film/photos and information. You can explore the whole moon on your own if you want. He showed us ways to track climate change, and even a whole lot of historical places you can visit and view photos of. You can add different layers and 2D becomes 3D with layers. You can even create Google Tours https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/. Highly recommend checking out Wes Warners work and the amazing things he does with Google Earth/Maps (@I_teach_ict).

Day Two off with a Bang
Yesterday I filled in a form for NewEraIT, I was told they would be giving out two chromebooks this morning. I told everyone I was pretty excited to get a new chromebook for my new GAFE Summit chrome bag, I even called out to my flatmate as I left in the morning that I would see her in the evening with my new chrome book. Never in a million years did I actually think I would win one! I was a little nervous about the keynote running late and having enough time to get set up for my session so my mind was preoccupied but when NewEraIT appeared at the front I was still in full jest mode about it being mine. When my name was called I was so excited! A brand new chromebook and it was all mine! It will be put to good use.

Gearing your staff up for working with Google Apps - Natasha Walden
I was really happy with my session and how it ran. I managed to get round to almost everyone before the session started to see where they were at with GAFE in their schools and what they were hoping to get out of the session. I got some fantastic feed back on how helpful the session was and the resources that I shared. I was happy with the session because I managed to get it finished in under 40mins so that we had time for questions and the badge challenge. That meant that people had time to digest what I had said and run through what they might have questions about. Thanks so much to Waves/Anna/Sonya for supporting me and for everyone who attended. I'm so happy that there were no hiccups and that resources created can be resources shared. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions @missnwalden.

Visible Learning using Badges - Waveney Bryant
I love the idea of badges as learning pathways. Waveney shared her journey with the Newmarket Primary School leadership programme. She shared the leadership passport she created and explained how it worked. Then she shared the digital badges she had created to go along side the passport. She shared some student examples and showed how she created her badges, the highs and the lows. I loved the digital pad I got for attending her session. I highly recommend that anyone who is keen to know more gets in touch her her via her blog or twitter (@wavesbryant).

Using HTML on your Google Site - Karen Belt and Matt Goodwin
These two amazing PRTs shared various ways you can change your google site using HTML without having any prior knowledge of it. They talked about how you need to plan our your site first so that you know where you are heading. When using HTML you come across Tags - these occur within the brackets - the closing tag always has a slash - there are exceptions - e.g. br (line break) doesn't have a closing tag. If you want to learn more about HTML you can check out a site they created: https://sites.google.com/a/ptengland.school.nz/htmlexamples/home

Video is the new text, a Q & A session with Sonya. - Sonya Van Schaijik
A fantastic session about YouTube with the wonderful Sonya. It was a very hands on session which I loved, we looked at how to get our custom URL and how important it is to get to your 500 subscribers. After claiming custom URLs we also looked at creating channel art and how to add a subscribe button. I highly recommend that anyone who is keen to know more gets in touch her her via her blog or twitter (@vanschaijik).

Overall it was a fantastic summit and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Allanah King Fun Day

A month ago I was lucky enough to participate in a day Allanah King prepared for the Tuawhitu o Akarana (Cluster 7) RTLBs. What a fantastic day it was. As always it was a pleasure to review and reflect on the mash up of old and new learning.

We started the day with the first block on iPads. We engaged in a game of Allanah bingo to get the ball rolling, I highly recommend checking out both her template for you to use with your students and also her iPad bingo which has all the weird and wonderful things you can do with iPads as well as the links to show you how to do them. It’s perfect for anyone wanting to learn how to use all the awesome features on their iPad or for people just wanting to refresh one or two things like me. I realised that although I knew I could do 95% of the things on the list, some I hadn't done for a while and couldn't remember where to find them. Guided Access is a classic example because I use it so rarely. It was great to have a refresher and it’s a fantastic chance for people who aren't so confident with their skills to show off something they can do.

I also, finally, learned a useful tablet term. For those not in the know, like me: Surface tablets are windows tablets (I thought they were Android tablets as well… useful (useless?!) information I did not know!). Android tablets are Google tablets and iPads are Apple tablets.

My Pic Collage example

We reviewed some awesome apps that I adore using and had a practice with some. Pic Collage, Book Creator, Write about this (NZ), Popplet and Drive. What caught my eye was Flick. I have used the now nonexistent app bump and I currently use dropbox/drive etc but Flick was new to me and it instantly snagged my attention. You don’t have to muck around with logging in and creating an account. Flick shares files using WiFi or Bluetooth. You can open it on your phone and desktop and then you just flick the file/photo/contact/game etc from your phone to the chosen device (i.e. your computer) and it will appear on it. You can set them to save after flick or self destruct etc. It’s quite ingenious! So simple that I instantly fell in love it!. It’s all about utilising the app/device for the right purpose.

Our middle block focused on the Virtual Learning Network. I highly recommend all New Zealand teachers at least create an account with the VLN, even if you just use it for lurking it will be well worth your while. We started the session with a video by Tessa Gray. I loved the description of the VLN as a big virtual staffroom because that’s exactly what it’s like. You can listen to conversations, start them, add to them. Allanah had us look at a variety of different VLN groups and we wrote down ones we thought we would join because they interested us. We all then spent time navigating around the VLN and personalising our pages.

My Google Drawing example

Our third and final block focused on Google. I learned that you can put a document into two different folders. This news was almost on par with when I found out about the new cell merges in docs late last year. If you use the folder icon in the document you can hold ctrl and you can select two folders to access the document from - Hallelujah! We practiced creating and sharing docs but my favorite part was a bit of a play with Google Drawing. I've used Google Drawings a fair bit but not for fun, was good to experiment with clear png’s and have a bit of fun. The highlight was going over some Chrome Extensions and Chrome Web Apps that Allanah recommended we have a look at. I’m hesitant to dabble in them because of the access to information you need to allow to third parties but my next step is to find some that interest me and give them a go.

All in all a fantastic day, with lots learned by many. I highly recommend Allanah King if you are lucky enough to acquire her, Teaching & Core Education commitments keep her fairly busy I’m sure. She has two fabulous sites Getting Good with Google and Initial iPad Setup but nothing beats a session with her in person.

eTime's Inclusive Learning with iPads Course - Reflection

I had a really good day at eTime’s Inclusive Learning with iPads course last week. Although there was content I knew and had been through before there was still plenty I could feed back about to the cluster and that I could learn about for myself. I had my first experience with an iPad in June last year. Although I had an iPhone I had never used a tablet before. I spent many hours in the second half of Term 2 taking my iPad home and having a play. One of the things I’m really pleased about is that I got to work with Book Creator. Looking at some of the different apps available today really made Book Creator shine through. As a class teacher I’ve had it drilled into me to always be looking for apps where students can create original content. Book Creator provides a blank canvas which is very important in regards to copyright and creation. The students can then add their own designs, pictures, photos, ideas, voices etc.

Before the course even started I was talking to an RTLB about an app she is using in a digital classroom that contains several students with challenging behaviours. The app Class Dojo is a free behaviour management app and it is available in both stores. She showed me briefly how it worked. You can make comments and award badges for behaviours. She doesn't recommend commenting on the bad but just encouraging the good. Parents can log on at home too and see how successful the day has been for their child. The reason I liked it was because it’s aimed at primary but she has made it work for secondary. Even though it has the awards etc which highschoolers wouldn't usually buy into she has managed to get buy-in based on the simple fact that the teacher can do it in silence. She doesn't have to make a big deal out of the behaviour the way a primary school teacher would, she simply adds the achievement and it pops up on the students screen. Positive reinforcement such as ‘Jarred I really like the way you are working quietly with Jasmine’ doesn't always work with older children but this teacher is having huge successes with this app. You can award points too, to the whole class or individuals if you wanted to have table points with prize boxes or auctions etc.

Although I’m not currently in a classroom and don’t own a tablet personally I now have a list of apps for further investigation. If you have an iPad and are looking for something new to have a play with, I would suggest the following:

• Write about this - Writing App - Teachers can provide a prompt, children can record themselves and then write, replaying their pre-recorded story back when they get stuck.
• ican count money - Maths App - Using NZ money! - from identifying coins all the way to giving out correct change.
• Game Press - Coding app - Much like Scratch
• Bits Board - Skill and drill app - you can create boards or use other peoples and then there are 18 mini games for you to run them through.
• MoE NZ Apps - The NZ MOE has created some iPad apps too, mostly basic readers but some are in Maori and some have NZ Sign Language incorporated. Search for apps created by The Ministry of Education New Zealand and they should come up. Otherwise try searching for the RR book I want to fly and then click on app designer to get a list of all the apps designed by them.

You can check out my notes from the day if you want to know more details.