Reading Writing Responding

Image via Suan Yeo taken on 24 Sep 2014 Over last few days I attended Google Teachers Academy in Sydney. There has been a change to proceedings this year with +No Tosh  taking control, bringing a Design Thinking approach to the table. The focus has moved away from creating a group Google ninjas to supporting change and reform in education.  At the heart of it all is the notion of moonshots. Heralding from John F. Kennedy's declaration that ' we will land on the moon ', a moonshot is an idea both with its feet on the ground, but its heads in the clouds. That is both practical and ideal. One of those dreams that people say are too hard, which we however choose to be bothered by. Inspired by +Daniel Donahoo 's  keynote at ICTEV13 , the challenge I arrived with was how do we engage the school community in meaningful dialogue in order  to transform our practises to build a better tomorrow. However, I was also mindful of holding onto my idea l...

In today's day and age it seems strange to be talking about the ownership of ideas. That's not yours, that's mine. Really, can one person hold an idea and what is actually achieved by that? For example, if someone comes up with a similar idea, aren't we benefited by having a conversation with that person or group about how we could make both ideas awesome, rather than deciding which idea is more valid? Although some love the glitz and glory that comes with being the one behind the great idea, to give an idea life sometimes we need to relinquish some of that control, we need to hold it lightly, allow for different perspectives and provide others a meaningful voice in the discussion. A lone nut who keeps an idea to themselves is oddly enough still a lone nut. For in the end, it takes a village and sometimes the most important thing we can do is let it go.

When I found out that I was accepted into Google Teacher Academy to be held in Sydney in September, I went and shared with a few staff members in the next office. One staff member asked whether that meant I would come back and get everyone going Google. I was startled, that has never been my intention. I have always pushed for encouraging communication and collaboration in and out of the classroom. Something that +Steve Brophy  and I spoke about at the recent DLTV2014 conference . Sadly, many staff who I have worked with often see Google Drive as just a tool and not much more . I was then left wondering, why did I want to be a part of the Google Teacher Academy and what do I hope to get out of the experience? I think that there is a misconception, and maybe that misconception is my own, that Google Teachers Academy is all about getting a whole lot of teachers using more Google products and somehow becoming inadvertent ambassadors for the corperation. Let me state c...