Future Learning Blog

                                                        Leaving Poverty Bay It has been a couple of weeks since I returned from the second 2014 e-fellow experience of the year.  Christchurch was our destination, a place I’ve not visited for 15 years since I toured around the country in a 1981 Mitsubishi Mirage with surfboards on the roof, a tent in the back and not a care in the world.  Plenty has changed since then and I was astonished by the level of disruption, hardship and destruction still felt by the earthquakes back in 2010 and 2011.  However I was really amazed by the level of good old kiwi ingenuity and positive outlook that allowed the residents of Christchurch to continue on and rebuild their city.  Learning communities like the GCSN have really supported the rebuild in the educational sector by connecting sch...

I have been thinking about a way to successfully introduce, and integrate Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in schools since I first started using it in about 2008. It seemed as if there were some aspects that people found difficult to grasp, but were essential to understand in order to know how to use the tools to their full potential.  Below you will see what i have come up with (there will be discussions over which area's different aspects lie in, and I welcome comments and suggestions - this could be a good discussion starter with staff?). T/A/P (Technical/Administrative/Pedagogical) into Google Apps model (click on the image and it will take you to the live document) This model is intended to be a flexible, interactive, one page visual document that is easy for staff to digest, without getting bogged down with too much pedagogical theory and lingo.  It aims to be personalised, authentic and collaborative - with the emphasis on the individual teacher and the

I have started using Google+ communities this year to extend what is done in the classroom and to connect learners in a way that works for them.  I have attempted to develop a learning community in my senior classes as I can see the benefits through their interactions already, McLoughlin & Lee write that by using online communities " rich possibilities for students to create and share ideas, connect, and participate in broader learning communities that are not confined to the spaces in which formal teaching and learning activities take place ." (2008 p.15)  As a school we use Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and one of the benefits of using this cloud based platform is that it is ubiquitous in that it can be used on any device, and anywhere - the social learning aspect of it 'google+' has a very interactive mobile interface which allows users to receive notifications and post updates from phones and mobile devices, as well as sharing photo's video and giving ...

When you start using drive more frequently you will get used to the functionality of the tools with regards to collaboration and sharing.  It will be likely that you will need to start uploading more of your documents to the drive so they are available to you from any device and any location.  As a department we used to use our staff drive based at school to host all of our curriculum documents, but it was difficult to access when not in school, and there were multiple copies of several documents due to older versions and different people editing them.  We now use Google drive to store our curriculum documents and it allows everyone to access them from anywhere as well as collaborate on plans and resources.  This video will guide you through the processes to move your documents to the cloud!  One thing I didn't mention in the video is the fact that some formatting is occasionally lost when converting a word document to Google drive - In my experience tables can ...

This video goes through some of the simple features of gmail.  Perhaps one of the most important things to note is the use of the Bcc option - you will probably have been sent or forwarded emails from large institutions and you can see all of the email addresses of everyone that has received the email, therefore exposing the confidentiality of the other recipients.  In this case the Bcc option should have been used.  To read more about when to use Bcc have a look at this link .

This short video demonstrates how to change a student password in Google Apps for Education.  You will need your administrator to enable you to change passwords before you have the option to do this.

This is a quick guide of how to create a google+ circle, and then share to that particular circle. From there you can look at creating a community and engage with the students through the power of social media, this is brilliant because they can easily access it on their phones and mobile devices.