NZ Student Summit featuring Google for Education

During last Friday's Hangout on Air, The Google Educators Group New Zealand (GEGNZ) were excited to launch the first NZ Student Summit featuring Google for Education.

This was also the first GEGNZ Hangout contributed to by students. If you missed the event the Hangout has been recorded and is definitely worth watching, especially if you're investigating the Maker Culture...lots of useful recommendations, tips and strategies for accessing the NZC.

GEG NZ Spotlight - Maker Culture

We know there are many students exploring innovative ways to create and learn and our hope is that the NZ Student Summit featuring Google for Education will enable students to not only contribute but lead the learning on the day.

Visit the NZ Student Summit site

Students are invited to pitch a proposed presentation, demo or hands on workshop by Friday 22nd May. Pitches also include an option to present via a Google Hangout on Air if located outside of Auckland.

This is a free event and to support the programme we are also planning additional activities including a keynote speaker plus a demo slam competition with prizes.

Head to the event website for more information, dates and contact details and please share with your networks. Please post to the GEGNZ Google+ Community if you have any questions, Tweet @GEG_NZ , tag #GEGNZstudent

Blogging about this event? Please share to the GEGNZ Google+ Community under the NZ Student Summit label.

So you are planning to create 100 student blogs...

“Is there a template that can be duplicated... can we push new blogs out to students through Hapara teacher dashboard?” 

The short answer is no, however whether you are creating 10 or 100 blogs there are some recommendations that will support the process and potentially save you a lot of time. 

The Effective Blogging site is a must read before you start creating student blogs, especially the Student Blog Protocols.

Familiarise yourself with the process on the Effective Blogging site and follow the steps for organising and creating individual blogs. By following the steps and recommendations a single blog can be created and set up in a few minutes.

Some additional tips...

Create a folder for your blog's .xml file template and the text doc with the html for the blog gadgets so files are easy to locate and access when you need them.

In addition to the gadget html the text doc should also include descriptions that you are going to use in your blog header and teacher emails that you will copy and paste into your blog layout. 

Multiple users in Chrome

If you’re a facilitator supporting multiple schools:

• Create a separate user in Chrome for each of your blogger admin accounts. 

• Bookmark the master spreadsheet and Blogger Dashboard for easy access

Create a text doc with the html for the blog gadgets for each school you create blogs for as the teacher information and headers will vary.

Organise them in separate folders on your computer. This will also help when the time comes to teach others in the schools to take over this responsibility.

Templates and text docs set up for individual schools are organised in folders

If you're on a Mac use Exposé or your computer’s dock to quickly move between docs and your browser as you are creating each blog. This is a lot faster than moving or minimising/maximising windows.

Initially teachers will not need to be as familiar with the processes above however there are some key messages for teachers and students when they start blogging.

The Manaiakalani Cybersmart site includes further support for getting started with Blogging