You are part of a rebel alliance...

I valued the opportunity to connect with educators from across Asia Pacific at the Google Educator Groups Summit last week. GEGNZ is unique. As New Zealand's only Google Educator Group its strength is an awesome nationwide community supporting both our GEGNZ events and GEGNZ Study Groups.

Most APAC countries have locally based GEGs with Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines including upwards of 30-40 groups in each country. I especially admired the determination of the GEG leaders in these countries who are championing professional learning in their communities. 

Many face challenges of geography, access and bureaucracy however,  this has not been a barrier to them connecting, learning and importantly challenging the status quo. 

The force has definitely been awakened by educators like +Steven Sutantro and +Gusman Adi. Check out their blog post ... inspiring stuff!

Keynote and GEG program founder, +Carolyn Wendell advocating professional learning choices based on what you want versus what you should do.

My GEG APAC Summit presentation also includes links to additional resources in the speaker notes. 

Shout out to +Philip Tanpoco #GEGAPAC and all the GEG Leaders who contributed to the success of the summit. He aha te mea nui o te ao? What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata...It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

We are the FORCE !! @Nyssa76Jones @FionaGrant #GEGAPAC pic.twitter.com/jk2Jwp4b8z

— Steven Sutantro (@Steven_Sutantro) June 8, 2016

a.k.a. anything not Google

This term I am contributing to the Manaiakalani Digital Teacher Academy (MDTA) Digital Immersion PLG every Friday. Our focus for this term is 'create' via a different digital medium each week. I am enjoying supporting our Beginning Teachers plus appreciating the opportunity to learn and create via media I don't use everyday... a.k.a. anything not Google ;-)

Last week's challenge... create a short film to share learning during the past week, edited in iMovie. Each day we filmed short snippets to provide us with the raw video to edit on Friday.

I have used many iterations of iMovie over the past 10 years and valued this time to edit and explore some of the features I was not familiar with. Bonus... learnt lots from my MDTA colleagues in the process e.g. split screen thanks  +Georgia Dougherty 

Check out the MDTA blogs - linked from this photo.
Thanks also to the learners in the schools I spend my week with Stonefields, Ruapotaka, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Puau Te Moananui A Kiwa, Sommerville Special School. Bring on this year's Manaiakalani Film Festival.

Our shared doc of iMove Tips

If anyone can tell me how to stop my playhead skipping back to the beginning of my timeline when editing, I'd appreciate a comment below. Thanks

Learn. Share. Inspire. Empower.

Great to connect with the #GEGNZ  community today at #gafesummit Auckland with +Justine Driver and +Rob Clarke

Lots of korero around Google Certification and Study Groups, plus sharing ideas about how educators can support events locally.

We're excited about the #SparkshopAKL event at Ormiston Primary School on Saturday 28th and the possibilities for similar events in other locations. Thanks to participants who shared their learning in the GEGNZ G+ Community today.

#GEGNZ  will also be at the Wellington and Christchurch events too!  Check out the slide deck for event information and recources.

#gafesummit Auckland 2016: So you're planning to create 100 student blogs...

Any questions or feedback please use comments or contact me.

"Are they learning or playing?" *

Shout out to everyone who participated and contributed to #educamprotovegas and #educampwelly today. 

Travelled from Auckland this morning with +Justine Driver  and +Karen Ferguson - bonus car korero extending the learning (and we did not travel the furthest!) 

Inspiring stories from passionate educators at Rotorua Girls' High (+Steve Katene ) punctuated by connected conversations and tempting tweets flooding a trending stream via #educampwelly.    

Great to connect with +Shona Poppe who also fixed the date for #educampBOP on the wiki calendar! 

Huge thanks to our hosts +Annemarie Hyde +Marnel van der Spuy +Alex Le Long + the awesome +Philippa Nicoll Antipas and the #WellyED team... ka mau te wehi!

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

Bits and bots #educamprotovegas are they learning or playing? @DianaWilkes @digitallearnin pic.twitter.com/Y5v4twQMTr

— Caroline Bush (@CaroBush) February 27, 2016

* +Caroline Bush  EducampNZ wiki

Chrome Multiple Users - Update

View on Mac OS - click 'People' to add person
or switch between accounts. 

Shared previously the benefits of creating multiple users in chrome especially in my role across a community of schools.

Multiple users enables me to personalise Chrome for each of the school accounts I am using, including blogging admin accounts, and saves a lot of time when switching between different Google accounts.

Even if you are accessing two accounts e.g. GAFE account and a gmail.com account, creating another user is recommended rather than adding an account.




Adding accounts can result in conflicts when using other applications that need to be signed into with your Google Account e.g. Hapara Teacher Dashboard.

Recommend alerting your learners to this as well. Remind them to add a new user rather than signing into another account from within their existing account on their Chromebook. I have noticed this can also display as an issue when viewing student accounts via Hapara Teacher Dashboard.




Kasey Bell has created an awesome video with step by step instructions, including removing accounts and adding new users. Recommend you add +Kasey Bell on Google+ and follow @ShakeUpLearning on Twitter too! 

GEGNZ at #ulearn15

What's the value of three minutes?

The challenge... encapsulate over three years of thinking and learning in under three minutes. At the same time recognise the contributions of my peers and learners in the Manaiakalani cluster who have contributed so extensively to this programme of learning? It can be achieved... with help from an awesome group of +TeachMeetNZ  educators led by +Sonya Van Schaijik

This was my first +TeachMeetNZ event with an added bonus... collaborating with +Matthew Esterman and #TMSydney as part of Connected Educator Month in New Zealand #CENZ15

If you are considering participating in a Teachmeet, go for it! If not for the opportunity to Hangout with inspiring educators, for the professional learning via connected educators, all engaged in reflecting critically on the things we are doing and the impact on learners.

In reality for me, this three minute +TeachMeetNZ presentation has been the equivalent of three days+ of valuable thinking, dialogue, refining ideas and in some cases revelations that continue to challenge assumptions about my practice.

‘He aha te mea nui o te Ao?’ Māku e kī atu, ‘He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.’
+Monika Kern +Ros MacEachern +Isaac Crandell-Tanner +Hannah Dodds +Rachel Chisnall +Marnel van der Spuy 

The images and content in my presentation are linked to the blogs of teachers and learners in our cluster, if you are keen to connect and leave a comment it will be appreciated.

Related Links:
Being Cybersmart - blog posts
TeachmeetNZ wiki
TeachMeetNZ meets TMSydney - live blog (via +Monika Kern)
Hangout On Air

The First Post

This year Room 10 @ Ruapotaka School have been sharing via their class blog however, we were all very excited to be able to launch individual learner blogs this week. To prepare, our cybersmart learning during the past term has focussed on Smart Footprint, specifically learning to make smart decisions about what personal information we share about ourselves online.

The first post shares individual blogger profiles, an opportunity for learners to introduce themselves. Having already created their profile in Google Drive as part of our Smart Footprint learning, this is ready to share on the day, enabling learners to focus on the actual steps required to post and publish to their new blog.

In addition to their blog profile, learners have also created a series of digital learning objects in their Google Drive that are also ready to share. As beginner bloggers the opportunity to initially repeat the process, within short intervals, helps to reinforce the individual steps required to post successfully to their blog.

For our learners who use Chromebooks* the process of accepting the blog invitation and logging in for the first time is also valuable cybersmart learning. An opportunity for learners to put their cybersmart learning into practice. Browse the Google Slides below for further details.



Once learners have shared their first post add a link to their profile post in the sidebar of their blog so it is easily accessible by visitors. Also, update the class blog with the Blog List gadget and feeds to learners' blogs to improve findability.
Thanks to Room 10 @ Ruapotaka and +Jackie Buchanan for all their contributions to this blog post.

Additional Reading
Room 9 @ Ruapotaka School and +Kate Ginders Smart Relationships: Learning how to create quality blog comments
Blogging Tips for Digital Immersion
So you are planning to create 100 student blogs...
Effective Blogging Site

*recommend that individual blogs for younger learners (1:1 with iPads) are logged in prior to learners posting.

“Your digital footprint is not just for school, it is for life”

Being cybersmart empowers our learners as connected citizens, and their learning as visible and accessible, anytime, any place, at any pace.  Cybersmart young people learn to make smart decisions in digital learning environments and understand that every time  they connect, collaborate and share online it combines to create their digital footprint.

Our cluster has developed protocols for digital learning not only to meet our care of duty to parents, whānau and Boards of Trustees but also to empower our young people as cybersmart learners.

I recently posted about the value of blogging to support cybersmart learning and the importance of our blog protocols. These protocols also guide our use of Google Apps for Education (GAfE) and YouTube as an additional service.

A Google account comes with the option to create a YouTube channel. For teachers, YouTube channels are useful for subscribing to and organising content via the Google Site and YouTube playlists.

Note: Before embedding a YouTube video change settings so recommended videos do not display. Video can only be embedded in a Google Slide from YouTube at this time.

Google Drive to store and share media has become the preferred default ...

Since the rollout of free, unlimited Drive storage to all GAfE schools last year, using Google Drive to store and share media has become the preferred default, especially for learners. Video can be embedded in a blog from Google Drive, where learners connect with their audience via blog comments. As administrators of these blogs teachers are able to monitor content and interactions through their email and Hapara Teacher Dashboard.

For our learners, especially those under 13, creating a YouTube channel with their GAfE account needs to be approached with consideration.  What is the purpose?

If a learner needs to embed a YouTube video in a Google Slide would using the teacher’s channel or a class channel monitored by the teacher suffice?

YouTube is an additional service to GAfE and monitoring an individual learner's channel, including the comments is potentially more challenging and time consuming than monitoring interactions via a blog.
The blog is the default for our learners to share and connect with their audience. Consequently our preference is that all video content is shared publicly via class and individual blogs.

To support our cluster goals, pedagogy and care of duty we have identified the following recommended defaults for YouTube Channels in our GAfE accounts for both teachers and learners:

• Upload defaults for video are set to unlisted
• Commenting is turned off
• Videos are shared via class/individual blogs or class sites
• Channel name for students - first name and initial (same as the label on their class blog)

Where individual YouTube channels are deemed necessary for children, setting the defaults with them for their YouTube channel is also a valuable cybersmart learning opportunity - learning to create a positive digital footprint. I have also encouraged learners to share this learning with their parents and to consider settings on any of their non-school accounts set up at home.

“Your digital footprint is not just for school, it is for life”