Ben's Education & Tech Blog

     On June 22nd, 2013, my life changed a bit.  I had been waiting, anticipating, and agonizing over the moment I would walk on the grounds of the Googleplex to get my Glass.  This year has been an incredible journey thus far.  My wife andd I moved into a new home in February, and at the end of March, we went on an amazing trip to St. Louis on the spur of the moment, and it was there that I received my notification that I had been selected to take part in the Glass Explorers program. It was on April Fools Day that my Google Plus notification came.  I thought someone was messing with me at first! 

I'm a teacher and a track coach, so I haven't taken a vacation in the spring for about a decade.  This year, my wife, who is also a track coach, and I decided we needed to get out of the cold winter grip of Wisconsin and go somewhere.  After a bit of geometry and help from +Google Maps   we determined that St. Louis would be within driving distance for the 4 day trip that we had in mind.  From the moment we left and until we got back, +Google  services were not only helpful, but key in our having a successful, exciting, and fun trip.

As an educator in today's fast paced socially integrated world, I'm always looking for something that might really change the way we are able educate our students.  Social networking sites like  Facebook  and  Twitter  are what our students are using to communicate.  Don't get me wrong,  Facebook  especially can be a tremendous tool for educators to help students, parents, athletes, and community members stay up to date on what's going on in their classes and on their fields of play.  In my opinion,  Google+  can give educators, coaches, and schools even more tools and abilities to do more than  Facebook  and  Twitter  combined.   Head passed the break to learn more!