Google Educator Group West Tokyo is proud to be working with the Japan Association of Language Teachers to present our Tokyo JALT Workshop Series on Google Apps for Education. The series includes an introduction of Google's Apps for Education (GAFE) program and using GAFE tools to enhance teaching, learning, and your professional networkGet to know your presenters by reading their brief biographies.
Presenter: Rab Paterson
Personal Learning Networks & Academic Community Building with SNS such as Google+ / Twitter / LInkedIn are activities most modern professionals should take an interest in. These enable continuous professional development and the building of an academic support network. Initially these started with the emergence of the Internet via linked blogs, online groups, and Nings. They then evolved with the arrival of RSS and Twitter feeds, and professional focused services such as LinkedIn and the almost ubiquitous Facebook. Now Google+Communities is also an SNS option in terms of power and convenience. This workshop session shows the power and range of Google Accounts and Google+ Communities for creating virtual PLNs for teachers and students. Google+ Circles and Communities offer many benefits over other SNSs in terms of PLN creation and usage, and this workshop will show how to leverage their many benefits by showing existing Google+ Communities and how well they integrate with Google Apps and beyond. Attendees should have a Gmail account and have signed up for Google+ before the workshop as we will create and use a PLN using Google+ Communities and use Google Apps extensively during the session. Also time permitting the session will briefly go over Twitter and LinkedIn as well.
Presenter: Dan Ferreira
In this presentation, you will be introduced to the basics of using Google Forms in your teaching practice for generating quizzes, questionnaires and other ideas for blended learning. Since the results of any Google Form generates results in Google Sheets, we will also introduce some filters, functions and formulas. Going beyond the basics, we will also introduce a Google Sheets add-on that allows you and/or those who partake in your Google Form surveys to receive an email with follow-up results.
Presenter: Rab Paterson
This session will explore how Google Sites can be used as a personal or professional homepage, and how it can be taught to students for hosting students' group multimedia project work. To start with participants will create a Google Site of their own and learn all the basic tools for adding multimedia content (including how to find and reference appropriately licensed images), types of pages, and also how to design the site. Then when the sites have a number of pages and content they will learn how to share the site with others in teams and then work on each others sites collaboratively. At the end they will learn about restricting access to certain pages and how to enable different types of access to it. The final sites should have a variety of content types on it and be appropriately designed to match the site's content theme. Participants that do this should end up with a usable site by the end of the session.
Presenters: Kaori Hakone & Makiko Ogasawara
Manage your personal and professional schedules better with Google Calendar. We first show how to change the way the calendar looks and acts to make it better suit your needs. and then moves straight into creating single or repeating events and inviting guests. Then learn how to respond to invitations and the ins and outs of pop-up reminders and email notifications. You'll also learn how to create an additional calendar and share your calendar with others.
Presenter: Nate Gildart
This session will look at advanced search tools and a wide variety of Search 'operators' that will help you find information more efficiently. You will be able to find specific kinds of documents, such as PPT slideshows, Doc or Docx, PDF. This session helps you find specific phrases and search terms. You will be able to find the kind of images you want by narrowing down your search. We'll also look at some great tricks to help find things like flights, time zone conversions, definitions, pronunciations, and more! The following slideshow will be prepared in time for the workshop!
Presenter: Rab Paterson
This session will cover Google's digital research tools like Google Scholar, Google Books, and Google Docs and a few non Google tools that interface with Google Apps like Zotero. Participants will learn how to use these tools for research in the digital age. Then the session will cover digital writing with Google Docs and a range of third party browser based apps that work with Google Apps to refine academic writing. Taken collectively this session will equip participants with a full digital age research and writing eco system that can easily be passed on to colleagues and students.
Presenters: Glenda Baker & Brendan Madden
This workshop will focus on keeping your Google docs in order, creating graphic organizers using Drawings, presentations using slides, how to create and save your own maps, and finally using Google Photos to link the photos you take on your device directly to your Google Account. If there is time we will dive into the new Google Photos App and maybe try out Google Cardboard.
Presenter: Dan Ferreira
Though the use of Chromebooks (CB) in Japanese education has yet to reach the same level of popularity it has in the U.S. teaching industry, this relatively affordable device is starting to turn a few heads. If you are one of those who have a Chromebook or are just curious about it, then this session is for you. In this workshop, I will first talk about the pros and cons of the hardware itself. We will also talk about the different models and specs to think about before your buy. You will also learn what this device can do and what it is not designed to do both online and offline. Then I will follow up with a demonstration of must-have apps and extensions that can get you started either for both personal and professional use. More importantly we look at the pedagogical benefits and learning potential this device has to offer to our students. If you have your own CB, by all means bring it along! We welcome any feedback and suggestions you have about using the hardware.
Presenters: Nate Gildart
YouTube is a powerful tool for teaching and learning. This session will teach you how to create a YouTube channel and create video playlists for your classes. You will learn how to upload and “list” videos, how to determine effective tags, and other elements of setting up your channel. We will also overview the features of YouTube editor. An overview of tools to use when making tutorials will be covered, including Quicktime, Screen Cast-o-Matic, and Chrome extensions for screen casting will be presented. Finally, we will discuss things to consider when making tutorials for your students and branding your page. (Yes, you can brand and possibly make money from your YouTube channel!) View the slideshow below.
*Branding will be covered if time permits.
Presenter: Nate Gildart
Having a web site is great, but developing lessons with Google apps via a Google Site can foster seamless collaboration and sharing between students and teachers. Why not make a video course description on your Google Site landing page? (similar to a movie or book trailer) Have students collaborate on a Google Drive Presentation embedded in your class site. Complete a class survey to determine understanding of a homework topic using a Google Form embedded in your site, or have students collaborate on a Drive doc? Put assignment exemplars from your Drive onto your site, to help students visualize their task? Have students work on a Google Drawing activity directly on your web site. How about putting your Twitter feed on the landing page, reminding students of an upcoming event in your subject area or school? This presentation will require use of your own device and collaboration with the entire group as we develop content for a Google Site via Drive apps. We’ll generate ideas to expand the use of Google Sites. We will try a variety of things in this hands-on, collaborative workshop. (and “go with the flow” when a good idea pops up!