Google Apps for Education Summit Bakersfield Takeaways
I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to present at various Edtechteam Global Summits featuring Google Apps for Education and am continually impressed with the willingness of teachers to commit their weekends to learning for their students. They arrive with smiles on their faces and model what engaged learners look like. The most rewarding thing for me, though, is the opportunity to learn as well, and this reinforces my belief that learning is social. In efforts to remain social and collaborative, I am going to share my biggest takeaways from these events.
1. This was shared at the demo slam via +Jamie Greason and instantly caught my attention. Mix Max “makes email awesome.Track, automate, and enhance your emails with the essential productivity suite for Gmail and Google Inbox.”
- Track emails accurately
- Set up meetings in an instant
- Save time with email templates
- Schedule emails to be sent later
2. Trying is Winning: I finally had the chance to experience Breakout Edu, facilitated by +Mark Hammonds, which is the brainchild of +James Sanders and applies the concept of Escape rooms to education. This was the only session which was run during every session slot at the GAFE Summit Bakersfield, and every session it was full. As you can see on the @BreakoutEDU twitter feed, everyone has a blast. The collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking needed to complete the challenge is exactly what our students need to prepare them for the real world. Immediately I ordered two BreakoutEdu kits to start exploring the concept with our teachers and to start developing beta kits.
3.Community is King: Whenever a group assembles, a community is formed and in the world today these are created and dissolved almost at the same rate. What is remarkable, though, is that like-minded people can connect and learn from each other immediately. Furthermore, through social media, we can continue the conversation beyond the time we're together. Although I am aware of this, and this is not a new concept, it is quite easily lost when you are presenting and participating at a Tech Conference with educators who are interested in the next big tool which will redefine their practice.
