Google Apps for Education Seminar Review

A few weeks back I attended a virtual seminar put on by the good people at Google. How wonderful it was to be able to listen to gifted speakers and teachers discuss technology in education. I learned a whole lot and was encouraged by the move that education is making toward incorporating technology into the classroom and school.


It has always been a difficult line to walk advocating online participation with the popularity of social media and privacy issues. I remember as a child practicing my typing skills at home as I created birthday cards for friends. A few times I played online games, mostly Solitaire and Mine keeper, but for the most part stayed out of chat rooms due to their "potential" of danger.

I find now as a parent the hard line of incorporating technology skills into her learning, but also minimizing the addition portion of it. I've been reading several books that link hours of technology use to decline in student's performance and ability to attain to tasks.

I felt that this seminar did a great job of showing educators and others, how to positively set up classrooms that use different modalities of learning and encourage students to have idenpendent learning. I enjoyed a concept where students have shared tablets, but have their own passwords which allow them to have their own 'playlist' of activities that is tailored to their learning style and needs. I find this to be especially beneficial because creating a community where students are all working on different things allows there to be more acceptance in the classroom.

I'm also really excited about the new Reading Rainbow program that is put on by Skybrary.

 

 

 

There are so many exciting things that educators are now able to do and parents as well when blending learning with technology.

 

 

What educational apps do you find to be the best (We love Endless Alphabet)?