Skip to main content

This Week in My Google Life

 

      Last weekend, starting on the 2nd of November, I began a serious week of Google in Education Activities.  On Saturday, I presented on two topics at the RSSD Ninja Academy in Texas.  I was able to do this through one of my favorite Google Apps, Hangouts!  Both sessions went really well, and they got me prepared for presenting at and attending the Midwest Google Summit.



     Once there, I was united with many of awesome new friends and amazing GCTs from GTA Chicago!  I never sat down to write about attending GTAChi, but I'm not sure I can really describe how life changing attending GTA really was.  Not only do I have a network of extraordinary people from that experience, but it has lead me to meet even more amazing, dedicated educators.  It has further allowed me to explore my passions and feelings about changing education in a way that I was never able to do before.  I just want to take a quick second to thank Google and CUE for that opportunity, and I hope that Changing the World is something that I will be successful in doing.


     While there were many of my cohorts from GTAChi, and several more GCTs and Trainers that I have met over the past year, I really enjoyed meeting new people, and making new connections with educators just starting to get Googly. I remember last year when I first attended MWGS for the first time and how it not only lit a fire inside me to do more and be more, but also helped me realize that I wasn't alone in my thoughts and feelings about how we need to change education for the better. It also showed me that there were many other "Geeks" in education just like me!  I hope that many other of the attendees feel the same way!


     In terms of my presentations, I really enjoyed meeting so many people who are excited about what Google can bring to schools and classrooms.  I had an absolute ball at the Moosejaw where I really got to spend time talking with people.   It was certainly better than watching the Packers/Bears game after Rodger's went down.  I can't really describe the feeling I get when talking about spreading cool ideas and new ways to integrate technology to allow for a more effective and efficient way to deliver relevant engaging instruction to our students.  It just feels amazing to talk with people like Brian and Shannon who I had a super conversation with.  They asked me many questions and may have felt like the learned something from me, but I learned just as much or more from them!

     I hope that my presentations helped to get even one person to reimagine something for their classroom or school, and that everyone was able to take away something that will make them more effective, efficient, and engaging educators!  I know that I had some great takeaways in the sessions that I attended.  I found several new tools that I'm excited to explore and use in my classes!  However, I made a decision that may truly change the course of my educational life.  I decided to attend Krisa Moroder's session, The Edtech Challenge.  This session was exactly what I needed to get super recharged and excited again, like I felt after GTA this summer.  Immediately after the session, Krista and I talked leading to me helping her with Edtechchallenge.com and working to help schools develop effective, effecient, and engaging schools for our students.  I can't thank her enough for letting me help out with that!



     If being inspired, getting new, awesome tools, and meeting new friends wasn't enough, I was able to spend some quality time with those friends that I have made in the past few years as well.  I was even able to watch MWGS Co-Coordinator Stacy Behmer and fellow GCT from Chicago, Tammy Lind, completely Geek out over getting Google Glass!  I participated in my first Demo Slam of that magnitude and I held my own against some very powerful Rivals.  Yeah, I'm talking about you Magiera!



I want to thank everyone involved in making MWGS happen.  If there was no MWGS, I don't know if I would be where I am today.  It was great so see everyone and meet all the new superstars of the future!  I hope to see you all again soon!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hello Allo, I'm sorry I pressured your early release!

This week Google released their new mobile chat application called Allo . It was first announced in May at Google's annual developer conference Google I/O . Google made many promises including that Allo and it's 1 to 1 video chat app Duo , would be released this summer. I believe that this was Google's largest mistake in regard to it's messaging app Allo. It was released on the very last day of summer while Duo was released almost a month earlier. This would indicate to me that Google wasn't ready to release Allo just yet. I think that they were caught in the trap of saying when they would release something and as the summer neared it's end the pitchforks began to come out from the public wondering where Allo was. I was one of those people. From the moment it was announced I was excited, if not a bit confused, that Google was coming out with a smart messaging application. So I want to apologize to Google and all of the men and women who have worked really hard...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google Glass Part 3 Reactions and Google Glass in the Class

Part 3 Final Thoughts      Google Glass has been a pretty great experience so far, and I have generally enjoyed using it.  The past few weeks I have been doing more at home and not needing to where Glass as much.  I do have to say that getting directions has continued to be amazing.  I use directions, sending/receiving messages, and checking notifications very often while on Glass and this all works pretty well.  The software continues to update and get better. XE8 just came out and added some cool features that I think will be really big as more software and apps are developed for Glass.  
Post a Comment
Read more

My First Impression of the Google Glass Explorer Edition Part 1: Getting Glass and the Hardware

          You can read some other more  professional reviews  of Glass and even check out a  complete teardown of Glass  by clicking the links or doing a simple Google search.  I would like to focus on what the everyday user will find.        I have had Google Glass for a little over a week now, and I can say that it is certainly a revolutionary product. Glass is certainly still in it's infancy.  There are not too many apps available and we have no idea what the final product is going to look like for consumers, but in this post, I will attempt to address the different parts of Glass and the experience of getting Glass as an Explorer.  I will try to give some suggestions for using Glass in it's current state.  I will also offer some of my ideas on how the Glass team can make some improvements before they release it to everyone.  
Post a Comment
Read more