Central Massachusetts Summit

Ever want to tour the Smithsonian or Abbey Road but can’t afford the ticket, or travel?  Now you can bring some of these places to your school. From Google Expeditions to StorySpheres to Google Street View, there are many options to show students something they have never seen before. Learn about all of the different types of virtual field trips that the web has to offer. Virtual Field Trips Guide

What does it look like to fuse technology into writing in the classroom? Do you want to help students use the collaborative and supporting features in Google Docs but aren't sure yourself? How can you create the link between the face-to-face practices and digital practices while maintaining pedagogy?

In this session, we will explore the collaborative features in Google Docs such as commenting, suggested edits and sharing. You will learn to use & embrace these features as a part of the writing process in your classroom. This will be hands-on as we will draft, share, and collaborate on writing so you can gain experience with the tools you want your students to use. 

In this 'off topic' session we take a look at entrepreneurship in the new economy, and how both teachers and students can get involved. Dan Taylor is the founder and Director of AppsEvents, a Google for Education partner and organizer of summits and training worldwide. 

AppsEvents is is a completely virtual organisation with no offices and no full time employees that runs events most weeks quite literally across the globe. We look at this example and others of how people are building a new kind of business, often in their spare time using web-based tools. 

In particular we look at: 
1. Teacher entrepreneurs - many teachers who are building businesses in their spare time and the types of things they are doing 
2.The philosophy from the book 'The four hour work week' by Tim Ferriss and how we use the 80/20 rule and Tim's 'DEAL - Definition, Elimination, Automation and Liberation' to run things 
2. The tools to do it: How you can manage a business and promote yourself completely online - Almost entirely using Google Drive, Sites, Hangouts, Plus and YouTube 
3. The network: How to build a business with a team centric approach ....plus a lot more

At the end of an inspiring and tiring two days use this session to order your thoughts and ideas and outline a project, idea, task or lesson based on your experiences.

I often find I need an hour to process the summit so using design thinking we will process the vast array of tools you have learnt about and identify key problems you would like to address in your school, classroom or role then formulate ideas you can act upon. A series of design thinking activities (which you can use in your school or classroom) will lead you towards a strategy, objective and tactics to put in place next week to make the most impact on learning in your organisation.

Link to Slides