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Google Apps for Education UK summit [HELP REQUIRED]

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

By way of background, I’m a Google Certified Teacher and was a Lead Learner at the first Google Teacher Academy UK in 2010. I use and like Google’s products and they’re often a great fit for what schools want to do beyond a VLE. And finally, I’m doing this for love, not money. It’s kind of tangential to my role with Mozilla.

 

Google Apps

 

Mark Wagner got in touch with me recently asking for some help in setting up a Google Apps for Education UK summit in (11-12?) May 2013.

I, in turn, am asking for your help. 🙂

The summit will be produced by Mark’s organisation, EdTechTeam, in partnership with the Google in Education team. You can see the other summits on the tour here.

What they’re looking for:

  • A large space (theatre or auditorium) for 300 or more people.
  • Two large rooms for 50 or more people (optional).
  • Ten or more small rooms (classrooms) for 25-30 people.
  • A high-bandwidth internet connection (at least 100 Mbps) and wifi for up to 500 or more devices on simultaneously.
  • A beautiful facility and/or campus.
  • Easy access to catering, hotels, public transportation, and airports.
  • A region rich in tourist attractions.

So that sounds to me a whole lot like a sizeable educational institution in a large city.

Answers on a postcard, to me via ‘Email me’ at dougbelshaw.com, or in the comments below please!

Google Sites – wikis for Google Apps users!

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Google Sites

It’s taken a while, but Google have finally integrated wikis into the Google Apps suite. So far it looks as if it’s only for those who have Google Apps for Domains or Google Apps for Education, but that’s what I’m going to be using it for mainly so that’s fine.

Google bought JotSpot, an enterprise-focused wiki solution 16 months ago and, presumably, have been working since then to get it integrated. The result is simple, although some have criticised it as being too simplistic. I’m not going into huge amount of detail in this post, but suffice to say you need to login as admin to your Google Apps for Domains/Education account and enable it before it goes ‘live’. You have the option of restricting access to users within your domain or making it accessible to the wider world. 🙂
What follows are some screenshots whilst I’m getting used to the setup. I’m almost certainly going to be using this with at least one class next week!

Edit: I’ve had a bit more of a chance to play with Google Sites now and have set up a Year 11 GCSE History revision site here.

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