Google Teacher Academy UK
26th July 2010
As my Newly Qualified Teacher year draws to a close I have been fortunate enough to be invited to Google’s HQ in London to participate in their first ‘Google Teacher Academy‘ outside of the US. This involves a 2 day training event, after which participants will become ‘Google Certified Teachers’.
Telling people about this has caused some confusion, and many questions asking if that means I will specialise in teaching children to search. Whilst teaching children to search may be more involved and interesting than it first sounds, in reality Google’s potential for education is far broader than that. They provide a myriad range of tools which can benefit children’s learning, from the ubiquitous ‘Maps’ site, to 3D modelling in ‘Sketchup’, web site creation in the form of ‘Sites’, and remarkable real time collaboration with ‘Wave’ and ‘Docs’. Through the Academy I will have the opportunity to work with some of the most forward thinking teachers in the country in developing ideas for using these tools in schools, and empowering children to make use of the vast array of free tools at their disposal on the internet.
As well as learning about the tools, the Academy is going to be a great opportunity to meet and network with other teachers and education professionals who are looking to technology as a core part of enabling 21st century learning. It has been billed as an international event, and I am looking forward to meeting attendees from across Europe and as far afield as Israel and Egypt. If there is one thing I have learned in my first year of teaching it is that whilst technology is useful, it is ideas and communication that is more valuable, and I think this networking element has the potential to be the most exciting aspect of the event.
Once qualified as ‘Google certified teachers’ we will be drawing up an action plan to put our ideas and contacts to work in our local areas, and I am really looking forward to the opportunity for working with other schools and teachers on pushing forward the use of new technologies to empower and enhance the learning of children in our area.
Links:
My Blog: http://www.oliverquinlan.co.uk/blog
My class blog: http://class40q.wordpress.com
Video application for GTA- ‘Simultaneous collaboration with Google Docs’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kiBheg-43o
Oliver Quinlan is a teacher at Robin Hood Primary School. He has agreed to write some blog posts for Digital Birmingham about his experiences at the Google Teaching Academy, for which we are most grateful. It looks like a great and well deserved opportunity for Oliver and we’re looking forward to hearing more. ^SW
[...] things seem to be ramping up. For those interested in the event I have written a guest post for the Digital Birmingham Blog, explaining what the event is and what I hope to get out of [...]
There is also a live blog from participants at the event at http://gtauk.posterous.com .