Your March ICE Newsletter: Google Apps for Education

Many of you have heard of school districts who have "gone Google." Some of you may even work in a district that has done so. Google Apps for Education (GAFE) is a powerful suite of web-based tools that allow students and staff to both collaborate in real time and work entirely from the cloud. Utilizing Google's cloud services allow the collaboration to take place anywhere, effectively freeing you from traditional classroom walls. Implementing Google Apps for Education, like many things, goes more smoothly with a solid plan. Lockport School District 205, where I work as an Instructional Technology Specialist, began implementing Google Apps during the 2012-2013 school year. Since then, we have also gone 1:1 with Chromebooks. I will discuss our approach and lessons learned from both an instructional technologist and a teacher point of view.

Get key stakeholders on board.

From your school board to your administration to your teachers, students and community, it is important to involve key stakeholders in the planning process. Committees, that could include students, will allow a district to truly understand how GAFE will impact everyday learning in the classroom.

Digging Deeper into GAFE

There's more to GAFE than just Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drawing. A little extra digging with open up a whole world of tricks, tweaks, and customization.

Google Extensions are programs that add features to you browser or an existing digital resource. Check out the Extensions section of the Chrome Web Store to browse the hundreds of extensions available.

Add-ons are similar to extensions, except they are custom built for Google Docs, Slides, Forms, and Sheets. They add unbelievably useful new features for students and teachers to use withing GAFE documents. You can add these Add-ons to any of these by opening a new doc and clicking on the "Add-ons" menu, and selecting "Get Add-ons".

Google also offers GAFE-related professional development. This May, they're offering Education On Air, an online conference on May 8th & 9th. The free online conference is built to support educators and administrators in GAFE districts.

ICE Leader You Should Know: Butch Wilson

Butch has been working in Illinois education for fifteen years. Before that he was the Director of Communications for the Great American Race, a Public Affairs Officer in the United States Navy, and a broadcast journalist.

These days he is a Network Specialist with Illinois Learning Technology Center Six, Google Education Trainer, Microsoft Certified-MCSE/MCSA/Security+, Author, Storyteller, and continues to seek epiphanies.

"I've been an ICE Red Shirt for seven years now! Every year is inspiring -- solving problems surrounded by passionate educators who are dedicated to a vocation of lifelong learning. Every year the goal is the same. [It's] something Christine Tomasino so eloquently called 'Majestic Service,' and every year the effort pays itself back in abundance - new ideas, new solutions, new ways to enhance learning in our schools."

You can find Butch online here:
Twitter: @Williebee
Google+: +Butch
Writing, as "Eldon Hughes": ifoundaknife.com

At work: ltcillinois.org

Just One Thing...

Margaret Johnson

Ed.D., ICE Executive Director

Each year I leave the ICE Conference exhausted yet energized, sad that it flew by so fast yet relieved it was a success. I also leave with what seems like a zillion ideas yet understand that unless I commit to one or two, all the awesomeness will escape. So the real challenge is to actually DO something with what we learn at an event like ICE - even doing just one thing is a win.

My one thing from ICE 2015 did not come from a session but from attendees' tweets sharing "Sketchnotes" of what they were learning. Sketchnotes are doodles with a purpose, to capture and share ideas and content using both images and text. Here's Carrie Baughcum's Sketchnote from Ramsey Mussalam's Wednesday keynote.

Finding more Sketchnotes about ICE from Carrie and a bunch from Dana Ladenburger showed me the potential of these visual representations of ideas. So here's how I am acting upon my one thing from ICE 2015:

Collecting Sketchnotes related to ICE and ICE Chapter events moving forward.
Creating a page on the ICE website under professional learning to share collected Sketchnotes and to post some resources for aspiring Sketchnote contributors. Check them out here.
Inviting everyone attending ICE 2015 and future ICE events to send links to Sketchnotes they create or send to mjohnson@iceberg.org to be included in our Sketchnotes collection - heck, maybe this will turn into a contest - stay tuned to future ICE e-blasts. If you're not getting the e-blasts, you can sign up here.
Creating my own Sketchnote - at least one to try this cool way to record learning.

So, what's your one thing from ICE 2015? We'd love to hear about it. Please share by submitting to our ONE THING form. Many thanks to Carrie Baughcum and Dana Ladenburger for their inspirational Sketchnotes from ICE 2015!

Major kudos and unending gratitude go to Phil Lacey and Maureen Chertow-Miller and their seriously awesome ICE 2015 Conference Committee for a wonderful event and truly inspiring learning experience. I could write many words - or create my first Sketchnote - to say...

info@iceberg.org

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