Week #2: Go Google?

For the first time in nearly 70 years, classrooms are undergoing a significant transformation. School districts across the country are moving towards a 1:1 learning environment, in which every student has a device. The range of 1:1 devices is increasing and taking on many forms -- the most common being a tablet. In a webinar moderated by the Google Education Team, the uses of the Chromebook were outlined in a session entitled Google Web Tools for Teaching and Learning. The webinar also featured Chin Song, the Director of Technology in the Milpitas School District (CA), who is heading the implementation of a plan to provide more than 10,000 students and 700 staff members with a Chromebook.

The Google Education Team states that "60% of students will have jobs that don't exist today." Many, if not all, of these jobs will require research and communication skills that can be taught through technology and school districts, colleges, and universities are looking to Google for support. In fact, according to Google, "74 of the top 100 universities in the country have gone Google." What does it mean to go Google?  Check out the video below. 

Go Google is based on the pillars of empowerment, choice, teamwork, and scalability (which Google describes as affordability and easy management). Google Drive has a variety of tools including Google documents that allow for students to work together on an assignment at the same time as researchers, writers, and editors. The idea of going Google reinforces recent shifts in education that are based on student-centered learning and teachers as facilitators.

Chin Song, the Director of Technology at Milpitas, shared the experience of his school district going Google with the Chromebook. The school district adopted a strategy based on personalized learning and mastery of course competencies through blended learning, a hybrid of classroom and online learning. One of the districts main goals was to reduce friction, or wait time to log-in. According to Song, "it use to take five minutes to log-in to the network at Milpitas." Now it takes only 8 seconds with the Chromebook and the school district estimates that it gets back 18 days of learning. Song says the primary uses of the Chromebook at Milpitas include research, presentations, and feedback (with exit tickets or brief surveys). Students at Milpitas are also "owing work and customizing it." Song noted one particular student who went to the Khan Academy website, learned how to code, and wrote his own program. 

In the school district that I teach in, we went 1:1 with iPads in the 2012-2013 school year. I am not exactly clear how the iPads and IOS fit with Google Applications for Education but all students have a Google email address and access to Google Drive. The sharing and storage capacity of Google Drive has proven to be an excellent resource for students and staff. It has allowed for groups of students and teachers to collaborate outside of the classroom and share information with one another. Students are also creating digital portfolios on Google Drive, which include essays, presentations, and photographs.

After watching the webinar, I thought back to how our school district went about the process of researching sustainability. Several vendors (Google wasn't one of them) shared presentations with IT personnel, teachers, and administration. I remember one of the key reasons we went with the iPad was it would be exciting and students would be engaged with the device. Although the device is supporting collaboration, communication, and critical thinking, we have a lot to take away from Milpitas in the area of planning for sustainability. One of the areas that stood out was Milpitas approach to professional development. Song said the district philosophy is, "if you can't operate a web browser, you can't operate a Chromebook." They offer only a few professional development opportunities, one every other month and a few others in the summer, related to the Chromebook and ultimately empower the teachers to learn along with the students. Professional development around the iPad has been a a challenge for us and, in turn, it has limited use in some classrooms.

The Google Web Tools for Teaching and Learning webinar connected primarily with two of the outcomes related to our course

• Outcome #2: Learn ways to promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding.

• Outcome #6: Evaluate and reflect on emerging tools and trends by reviewing current research and professional literature.

Go Google does not only support teaching and learning in the classroom it supports states that are shifting to the Smarter Balance assessment and/or the Common Core standards. The gains for students and educators are evident with going Google. I am interested in learning more about it's possibilities and what, if any, limitations it has with the iPad and IOS.

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