Professional Learning Goals

Learning Goals:

The digital portfolio is an important eLearning tool for students and teachers alike. Our project transitioned from D2L to G Suite as, at the time, the ePortfolio app was not child-friendly on iPads. We found it easier to share artefacts through G Suite with parents, peers, mentors and current/future teachers.

The digital portfolio allowed us to:

• demonstrate a student’s personal interests, strengths and needs; providing a window into student learning
• showcase student achievement over time
• differentiate learning needs based on student interests, needs and strengths
• plan for gradual release of responsibility
• increase student engagement
• focus on student self-reflection
• develop inquiry-based learning

Activities and Resources

Our group met in a collaborative setting to encourage each other through Level 1 and possibly Level 2 training in order to become certified as Google Educators. We planned on quickly achieving Level 1 status in the fall of 2016, followed by Level 2 at a one-day Bootcamp at the Google Applications for Education (GAFE) conference. The Boot Camp was twice cancelled and, as such, we hosted the event in our own backyard close to the project due date. We hosted the event on May 12, wrote the exam on May 15 and the final project was due on May 19.

Unexpected Challenges

• Devices and network issues
• Students moving between each other’s drives
• Adding to the teacher’s drive
• Limited functionality on iPad for Google Slides
• Instructional time for students
• Student’s username and password issues (board changed over the summer to postal codes, which students don’t know)
• Co-ordinating team schedules
• Some areas of content not applicable
• Areas of G Suite locked down by the board so they were not accessible
• We signed up two separate times for a Google Bootcamp and each time it was cancelled
• We eventually hosted our own Bootcamp with the support of Emily from EdTechTeam

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

Benefits of our project:

• This website!
• The opportunty to collaborate and build our own capacity at the GAFE Summit
• Share our learning (challenges, too!) with our colleagues
• To expand our own knowedge
• To (hopefully) achieve a Level 1 Google Certification
• Process development for assessment
• The team worked well together for this project and task assignment or division of responsibilities was not required
• 21st century learning is promoted
• There is high student engagement with this learning
• The incorporation of the SAMR model in Minds On, Action and Consolidation activities
• Parents and guardians can access information/products which provides a high level of authenticity
• There is minimal risk of losing work using Google products
• All products are on the same platform
• Students can access work at home and school on any device
• Staff and students have the ability to share and collaborate with anyone in the school board
• All documents are housed in one location, teachers/staff/students can see growth and progress

Sharing

Creating a full-day introductory session on G Suite for Education to share with colleagues. This day incorporated teaching and practice time with many of the G Suite tools. Assessment for Learning was initiated through a Google Form asking general questions related to usage of various Google products. Assessment for Learning feedback was provided by learners through a Google Form.

Project Evaluation

Our Certifiably Googled team hosted the Certification Level 1 with the support of Emily Fitzpatrick from the EdTech Team on May 12 and wrote the certifcation exam on May 15. Our final project submission was on May 19. Final timelines were tight at an especially busy time of year for classroom teachers.

Results:

• The learning was rich and rewarding
• The GAFE Summit provided us with valuable contacts in the Google community who helped us to host our own Google Bootcamp
• At times during our journey, we felt knowledge saturated (the Summit and the Bootcamp) and needed to stop and take a breather
• We discovered it was okay to say “no” and deepen our learning independently of the group
• The success of the program came from the learning – we didn’t gauge it on whether we received our certification or not
• Despite the original Bootcamps being cancelled at the beginning of the school year, the process all worked out as we unexpectedly hosted  a Bootcamp for 15 individuals from various school boards
• We are now comfortably Google knowledgeable and what we don’t know we know where to locate