Maine Google Apps Summit

For the second year I attended and presented at the Maine Google in Education Summit, this year it was held at Hampden Academy on August 8 & 9. This gives me an opportunity to share with others and meet educators who are also using Google Apps in their districts. 

This year my sessions were:

• Blogger for the Classroom
• 1:1 Nexus 7s and Google Drive with 4th graders
• Using Picasa Web Albums and YouTube channels as part of Google Apps for Ed

Getting started with a new Nexus 7 Tablet

This past summer I was a presenter and participant at the first Maine Google Apps Summit held here in Yarmouth, ME. The days were information filled and I learned from every presentation and conversation. This is a great model of professional development is being offered in locations all over the world by EdTechTeam in collaboration with Google Apps for Education.

At the end of the three days Mark Wagner invited participants to submit applications for implementing classroom set of Google Nexus 7 Tablets into a K-12 setting. I wrote a statement of purpose for their use in a fourth grade classroom and was asked to write in more detail as a finalist. In September I was notified that we would be receiving a set of 25 devices to pursue the goals I had outlined.

The delivery of the devices has been delayed by supply issues, but last week I purchased my own so that I could begin to become familiar with the options it will offer in the classroom when they arrive. I was pleased to find that most of the productivity apps are free from the Google Play store. I currently have the following apps (some of which were pre-installed):

• 50 States
• Adobe Reader
• Amazon Kindle
• Audioboo
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Chrome
• Clock
• Cloud Print
• ColorNote
• Countries of the World
• Currents
• Dropbox
• Earth
• Edmodo
• Email
• Evernote
• Gallery
• Gmail
• Google 
• Local
• Maps
• Math Bingo (pd)
• Math Mate
• Messenger
• Milion Moments
• Navigation
• OneNote
• People
• Play Books
• Play Magazines
• Play Movies & TV
• Play Music
• Play Store
• Pocket
• PowerVocab
• Puffin Free
• Settings
• Skitch
• Socrative
• Talk
• TED Talks
• Voice Search
• Voice Search Advanced
• Wallet
• Words Words Words
• YouTube

I am looking for more educational apps that can be used to develop Math, Writing and Reading skills with fourth graders, but my biggest focus will be on the productivity apps of searching, notetaking, recording voices and the various ways we can access ebooks. Richard Byrne's Android for Schools blog is a good resource and I appreciate that he is out there checking out apps and learning options

I will be purchasing cases for the Nexus 7s as we have a practice of providing cases for any student 1:1 devices. One question we will need to resolve is setting up individual accounts for students that allow for some form of institutional purchases of apps if we determine that we want some for all students that are not free.

I was looking for apps that would read books aloud and I have found Blio and a voice for the text to speech. The app is free and the voice is $2.99. I downloaded a few books and this has potential for guided reading books for students to use at home and in the classroom.

The fourth grade classroom has been selected and I have been meeting with the teacher to plan for the tablets, but the students and parents do not yet know about this exciting opportunity.

Maine Google Apps Summit August 2012

This was our first year hosting the first Maine Google Apps Summit. Alice Barr is a Google Certified Teacher and she facilitated this event. We had an inspirational keynote by Jaime Casat, Chief Education Evangelist at Google, Inc. and sessions offered by regional educators as well as international members of the EdTech Team.

I taught these sessions:

• Blogger for the Classroom
• From Video to Youtube   
• Using Forms for Surveys of Parents and Students
• Using Picasa Web Albums with Google Sites and Blogger Blogs

Google Apps OnAir Tutorials

This summer one of my goals is to review these tutorials for possible use in our Yarmouth course and future faculty meetings.

• EducationOnAir
  tags: GoogleApps Tutorials GoogleEducator

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Google Docs for Teachers eBook

Many thanks to Richard Byrne: Free Technology for Teachers

Open publication - Free publishing - More google

Learning at edcampme 2012

Saturday was the first Maine "edcamp" sponsored by vendors and held at Waynflete School in Portland. This was a great day of connecting and sharing with other educators whose focus is using technology to support learning. I attended a session on iPads in the Elementary classroom and learned a few new apps and some management tips. The session on Digital Portfolios didn't apply directly to what we want to do in Yarmouth, but some of their methods could be useful. Alice, Mike and I presented a session on Google Apps in the Classroom with Kern Kelly from Nokomis High School. Kern has developed comprehensive digital portfolios of their older students and each graduating senior receives a gift of their name as a web domain so that they can carry their portfolio on beyond their K12 years. He also shared a great strategy for collecting student assignments when a teacher has many students in various classes. The sessions, photos and reflections of the day are archived at http://edcampme.posterous.com/ and the twitter hashtag for the day was #edcampme.

Tech Tip: Creating a Student Contact Group for Sharing Docs

It is possible to set all the students in your class up as a group in your Contacts and then you can share a document with the whole class at a time. If you want to do this you add your students to your Contacts (you need to put in both their name and their full google login), make them a group and then you can share with that contact group. Most likely you want to give them "View" access so they don't edit the original document. If students are going to edit the document, ask them to go to File>Make a Copy and then change the title of the document to include their name.

Picasa Slideshows on Sites and Blogs

I have updated the Picasa Slideshow directions on the Yarmouth Google Tools site. It's great to see so many of you using these to display photos of student learning on your sites and blogs.

Yarmouth Goes Google

On March 18th the K12 Technology Team planned and carried out a professional development day at YHS for all faculty and staff. The process of moving from Google Docs and FirstClass Mail to all Google Apps is accelerating as we plan to be using all Google Apps as of April 25th (after April Vacation). Google Education provides numerous tutorials and transition aids to all districts moving to Google Education Domains. Using those materials, and others from colleagues and Google Certified Teachers, we put together a Conference style day that is posted at this site: http://ytechday.yarmouthschools.org.


The reaction has been very positive as to the differentiation that was offered for learners at different points in the transition. We offered 20+ sessions in strands that ranged from Novice to Experienced. We were fortunate to have colleagues from neighboring schools and districts as well as our own faculty offer sessions and twelve YHS students spent all or half of the day assisting presenters and offering help to faculty members. Photos uploaded during the day are posted online.


These were some comments on the Exit slips:

I was a little nervous about the Google inservice day at first, but you all did such a great job explaining everything. It was so nice to have time to work on what we learned that day when we had others there to answer any questions we may have. 

I really enjoyed working with others...we helped and supported each other in a safe environment.  

This was phenomenal. I really didn't realize how much these tools can do. Now I know more about what I don't know. This day helps me to continue with my own learning.   

A very professional day with all of the amenities that one would expect from a conference that we paid lots of money to attend. 

I thought the day was very well planned. I enjoyed learning new things and working with colleagues I don't normally get an opportunity to work with. 

I love the variety of sessions and all the extra help. Lots of energy around this transition! 

A wonderful learning experience!

I appreciated that I could leave a session anytime that I felt that it wasn't what I needed.  

I really enjoyed working with others...we helped and supported each other in a safe environment.  

After much apprehension, I am so excited about creating a website.

 I love the way you always include students - they are such an amazing resource and it's wonderful for them to see us learning, learning, learning.   

We will continue to offer informal and formal learning opportunities for faculty and staff as we move through the coming months. Over 30 Yarmouth faculty will participate in the “Teaching & Learning with Google Tools” course posted at https://sites.google.com/a/yarmouthschools.org/spring-2011-tech/.