Submitted by Janet Thomson, Executive Director of SchoolNetSA
Just as in 2013, the Google Summit this year proved to be a huge success. It was a high intensity two days focusing squarely on the integration of technology across the curriculum and primarily on the effective use of Google Apps for Education and other Google Tools to promote learning in the classroom.
This year the event was hosted at Dainfern College in Johannesburg on July 3 & 4. A pre-conference day comprised two full-day workshops facilitated by Jay Atwood and James Sanders. The groups were determined by participants selecting beginner level or Google ninja level but by the end of the day both groups had explored most of the following: a tool kit of research tools for students and educators, including advanced search techniques, Google Books, Google Scholar, Google News, Google Alerts; Learning how Google Docs and Google Drive can facilitate collaboration and creation between students and among colleagues; Experience of online publishing with Google Sites (and Blogger). Learn to expand your own personal learning network online with Google+.
Below you can see James and Jaye at work at the pre-conference workshops:
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The main summit two-day programme was jam packed with workshops and keynotes delivered by Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, and a highly professional group of presenters from the Ed Tech Team.
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As usual the biggest challenge was trying to decide which session to attend – the sessions were divided to assist with this decision-making but even so it was not always possible to catch everything that you just HAD to see. The strands were Getting Going, Getting Geeky, Gearing up and Technical. Quite a number of delegates are responsible for their school networks and all matters technical so the technical strand was as well attended as the teaching sessions.
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The Ladies from Cofimvaba, Eastern Cape |
Selbourne Teachers Eastern Cape with James |
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| James with Fiona from SchoolNet | Carolyn, Obum and Jeminatu from Google Education |
Photos appear on Google + here: , and on the SchoolNet website Gallery here: https://picasaweb.google.com/114485521154323474375
Here is a video of James Sanders delivering his excellent keynote. You can visit our SchoolNetSA YouTube channel at http://goo.gl/aRoyvQ
We are thrilled that we were able to once again host this 2014 Summit along with Dainfern College at Dainfern College in Johannesburg; and we are very grateful to the EdTechTeam and their seven speakers for an amazing professional development event. A 2015 Google in Education Summit is on the cards…watch this space!
