Google – Page 4 – Chris Betcher

May 31, 2017

Learning in Sydney

Sydney is a great city. As well as being visually stunning, there is always something interesting going on. The Vivid Sydney Festival launched last week, which is definitely worth checking out.

With my work at EdTechTeam I love being part of the crew that runs Summits all over the world, but as a proud Sydneysider I get especially excited when we bring the Summit to Sydney. And this year I’m especially excited about the Summit because of a few extras it brings with it, which I wanted to tell you about.

First, the actual Summit itself is being held in a NSW public school for the first time. We’ve run the event in private and Catholic schools in the past with some wonderful host schools. But I’ve always wanted the public sector to be able to share the Summit experience too, so I am thrilled that this year EdTechTeam is able to partner with the NSW Department of Education and Anzac Park Public School to host the 2017 EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education. The NSW DET has made Google GSuite available to every public school across NSW via the DET Portal, so there are a lot of teachers and students in these schools who will soon discover just how amazing these tools are and how they can change the way our schools operate. I think that’s exciting!

Anzac Park Public School is a brand new DET school in North Sydney. It features modern learning spaces and an open design, and the DET was especially keen to showcase it as a great example of their future schools. I know it will be a great place to host the 2017 Sydney Summit and I’m sure those who attend will enjoy spending time there.

Of course, whiel I’m excited that more public schools can join us for the Summit this year, the event is open to ALL teachers in every sector – public, Catholic and independent.

Find out more about the 2017 EdTechTeam Sydney Summit here

In addition to the actual Summit on July 4 and 5, there are also two more awesome events on either side of it.

The first is a PreSummit workshop for anyone wanting to prepare for their Google Level 2 Certification exam. It’s being run the day before the Sydney Summit on July 3, also at Anzac Park, you can take part in a full day bootcamp workshop that will not only be a great hands-on deep dive into the GSuite tools, but also get you ready to sit the Level 2 exam and get certified in them. If you’re after the certification and would like some support in getting it, this is for you.

Find out more about the Level 2 Certification Bootcamp Presummit here

Then following the Summit on July 6 (at a venue still to be announced), EdTechTeam Press will be offering a full day masterclass with the authors of three amazing books about educational change – Trevor Mackenzie from Canada, author of Dive into Inquiry, Lisa Highfill from the USA, coauthor of The HyperDoc Handbook, and Holly Clark, the coauthor of The Google Infused Classroom. These three authors will take you on deep dive into the concepts discussed in the books, and help you apply the principles in your classroom/ It’s like a book club on steroids! There is also the opportunity to extend that learning with some pre and post discussion group activities online, and I think this is a great opportunity to try something different for your PD needs.

Find out more about the EdTechTeam Press Masterclass Booktour here

Three great PD opportunities for one great city! Hope to see some of you there!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons via Destination NSW CC BY-SA

May 9, 2017

Announcing the 2017 Sydney Google Innovator Academy

Back in April 2011 I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Google Teacher Academy held in Sydney, Australia. As part of this first Australian cohort, I was so excited to be part of this amazing team of educators from around the world and we spent two days deeply immersed in all sorts of Google nerdiness mixed with teaching inspiration. It was at this event that I saw a Chromebook for the first time, played with Android for the first time, learned about a bunch of new Google tools that I wasn’t really aware of, and most importantly, met an astoundingly talented group of educators who shared brilliant ideas about pushing education forward. To say that this event had an impact on my life would be a huge understatement. Becoming a Google Certified Teacher (now know as a Google Certified Innovator) was not only highly relevant to my work at school, it also opened up opportunities to do work with EdTechTeam, travel the world presenting at Summits and workshops, and eventually lead to my current role as their Director of Professional Learning. So when I say that the Google Teacher Academy changed my life, I’m not exaggerating at all.

So I’m excited to let you know that the Google Innovator Academy (what was previously called the Google Teacher Academy) has just been announced again for Sydney! The program has morphed and changed over the years, becoming far less about just the tools and much more about developing moonshot thinking about some of education’s biggest challenges. The program asks you to consider ways in which you can truly impact your own educational context, to think big about it, and to work on a project to make a 10x difference. In the process, you get connected to a simply amazing group of innovative educators that can, and probably will, change your life too.

If you love what you do, if you want to push education forward, if you think you can make a difference, if you want to be challenged and inspired, if you want to connect some powerful tools with some powerful pedagogy, then you should think about applying for the Google Innovator Academy.

It’s an application process and there is some work to do in applying. You need to fill out an application, make a video and do some work. There are limited places. Many apply, and only some are selected. But if that’s you, trust me, it can change your life.

Find out more, and apply, at https://edutrainingcenter.withgoogle.com/certification_innovator

May 9 – Applications open
June 26 – Application Deadline
August 16, 17, 18 – Innovator Academy held at Google Sydney

And good luck! Be awesome!

January 24, 2017

OK Google

You probably realise that when you search for something on your computer that your browser keeps a history of those searches (and page visits). You can of course clear that browser history at any time. (For those of you with paranoid tendencies, perhaps you should be using Incognito Mode?)

You might also realise that a full history of your search and web browsing activity is kept by your search provider. In my case, that’s Google. This search history is not kept on your own computer, but rather on the search engine’s servers. You can also visit your web history page online to review (and delete if you wish) your search history or the pages you’ve visited.

But what I think is not very well known is that you can also see the full history of all the voice searches you’ve ever made using your phone. Yes, every time you pick up your phone and say “Ok Google”, then ask a question, that search is recorded. And by recorded, I mean the actual recording of your voice asking the question. Naturally you can have full access to these recordings and listen to, or delete them if you wish. Personally, I find them fascinating to go back and listen to.

I recently visited my voice search history and then used Audio Hijack to record them to a file, and Audacity to tidy them up a bit. I removed the gaps, tightened them up and placed them all back to back. I was struck by not only the number of searches but the variety of what I was asking for. I remember asking most of them, and funnily enough I remember getting reasonably useful answers to most of them too. I often get told I’m a fairly curious person, and when these voice searches are all compiled in one stream like this, it becomes fairly obvious.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/304249181″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

If it’s possible to ask – and I mean literally ask – your “curiosity questions” about basic facts and get quick answers, then we really do have to rethink the nature of what we ask our students to do in schools. When “fact recall” is simply the low hanging fruit of knowledge, we can (and must) change the way we think about information and knowledge building. I’m not saying that “knowing stuff” doesn’t matter. Of course it does. And a well rounded, knowledgable person should “know stuff”. But when our ability to find a basic fact quickly becomes so simple, surely we need to think about asking better, more interesting questions.

And it makes you wonder, to whom did we direct our many daily “curiosity questions” before Google came along?

Header image: Curiosity by Mohammad Abdullah CC BY-NC