GAFE Summit 2015
Attending the two day Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit in Sydney this April was something akin to joining a religious cult. The fervent zeal of Google true-believers and converts alike spread through the hallowed lecture halls as presenters preached the benefits of all things Google to a reverent congregation.
As a teacher librarian, I embraced the opportunity to attend this conference . As a profession, TLs are constantly learning how to apply new technologies that will ultimately “build knowledge capacity, innovation, creativity, inquiry” and the multimedia literacies of their students (ALIA).
The Google suite of products provides Teacher Librarians with exciting opportunities to share, collaborate and create. As the daily ‘go-to’ technology support person in schools for both staff and students, TLs need to be the early adopters of cloud-based technologies and act as leaders in modelling a shift to a “paperless, social, ubiquitous learning environment” (Johnson, Head for the Edge: Google Apps and Librarians, 2011, p.106) where students learn by doing, not by memorizing content.
The keynote delivered by Juan de Luca on day one titled “From Consumers to Creators” provided many anecdotal examples of how technology can have a profoundly positive effect in engaging learners and converting them from consumers to creators of digital content. He also addressed the issue of misguided assessment, demonstrating how a student’s ‘best work’ often does not reveal any deep learning. He suggested that for deep learning to take place, students need to feel safe in making mistakes and that creativity should always take priority over perfection.
The ensuing sessions provided a wide range of choice. Michael Thompson’s “A One Stop Shop to Collect, Protect and Feedback”, outlined how Google Apps can be used to organise, access, edit, collate and feedback. Importantly, Thompson explained the steps his school took to securely store sensitive information in the cloud using the Google platform.
As a teacher librarian, a large part of what I do involves getting students to look at information critically. The session “Critical Thinking is Soooo 20th Century: Metaliteracy is the New Black!” was of particular interest. Presenter Brendan Brennan drew on the work of Mackey and Jacobson (Mackey & Jacobson, Reframing Information as a Metaliteracy, 2011, 62-62) to argue that traditional approaches to information literacy are inadequate. Instead, students should be taught how to use a metaliteracy framework that allows them to effectively participate in online communities and social media.
Google educator and Tech Diva Holly Clark delivered the keynote on day two and several other dynamic and interactive presentations. She was able to show that the power of technology lays in its capacity to:
- make learning visible
- give students a voice
- foster collaboration
Holly also effectively demonstrated the use of digital portfolios as a tool for assessment and as an authentic record of student reflection and metacognition. By using tools such as Google Sites and Blogger, students can curate, archive, engage and expand on their learning, creating their own digital web-presence.
The Google Summit offered much to think about as a librarian and as an educator. The potential of new and emerging technologies like Google Apps for Education are enormous and the conference confirmed that the gaps in my knowledge of such technologies are more like chasms!
Every time I build a bridge of mastery to conquer a new app or tool, further technologies are developed and the gap needs to be bridged again......Such is the nature of technology today and our role as educators of tomorrow’s digital citizens.
