GAFE mini-conference

Google Apps for Education Day
Saturday 18 May 2013 @Bucklands Beach Intermediate School

Links to notes from the day

Key note speaker Adam from Google

Workshop 1: 10 tips for Google Apps

Workshop 2: How schols are using Google Apps in the classroom

Workshop 3: How Point England are using Google Apps (management)

Workshop 4: Using Teacher dashboard

Reflection of the day:

*Very motivating.
*Interesting to hear from someone from Google, the company's point of view, where they envisage schools going with Google Apps, how "approachable" they are; ie giving out email address, Russell Burt talking about how they worked with Google to create Teacher Dashboard.
*Was very interesting seeing how other teachers and schools are utilising Google Apps in the classroom.  The use of Google sites to create e-portfolios for each child, classroom sites etc.  The sites are used similarly to wikis.
*Are the Google sites available only through GAFE?
*Would like to develop a small group of children (Kaleb, Quinn, Luana-Nan, Robin,...) who could use Google Apps - particularly Google Docs and Presentations.  I'd like to try them on a collaborative presentation - could be during reading time?  Novel study?  Roald Dahl?
*With more students being able to access internet at home through tablets and smart phones, it would be a good way to develop some home-school partnerships, sharing their work with whānau.

I think that the middle and senior school would benefit from using Google Apps, however we would have to look at investing in more ICT so that it would be more readily available to the students.