Google Apps for Education Summit, Bahrain, Day 1

I had so much fun at the GAFE Summit today! I love learning new things, and there was much to learn. It had been a long time since I was at a tech conference, and my first ever Google Summit. This one is meeting at St. Christopher’s School in Saar, Bahrain. There are people from at least a dozen countries around the region and beyond.

Mark Garrison, Ben Friesen, Chrystal Hoe, Mark Hammons, Jeff Layman, and Lissa Layman are the team leaders for this weekend. They are all very knowledgeable, approachable, and they love to learn and share.

Here are just a few brief takeaways from my first day.

Mark Garrison had a great keynote address. I was inspired to be better, to give up some of the things in my practice that aren’t working. I will START some new things, STOP some old things, and continue to SHARE my learning. It is in making my learning visible that I learn the most. I truly am the chief among learners, and I delight in it. You can share what you are learning these days at the Start, Stop and Share Challenge that Mark shared with us. I will do that after the Summit is finished.

I also went to two other sessions with Mark. One on the 4C’s – communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. These 4C’s are in the tagline on this blog and on my classroom blog (actually 5 C’s on my class blog). I aspire to teach these always, and I loved Mark’s challenge to make these part of our lesson plans. Plan how and when we will let students practice each skill! The second session was a round table discussion about Start, Stop and Share. I heard from passionate educators from all over the region. They are here to make the world a better place, starting at their schools.

Lissa Layman had a great session, which was an overview of Google Sites, Documents, Slides, Forms, Calendar, and more. I immediately thought of something I will STOP, and that is sending home a paper form gathering email addresses and other beginning of the year information. I will have them complete a Google form so the info can come in digitally with much fewer errors than the paper versions produce. (Why didn’t I think of this before? I use Google forms!)

I got to experience BreakoutEDU! Such fun! We solved the game and “broke out.” I had heard of it before, but it didn’t make sense until I experienced it. (So true of so much of life, right?) I am looking forward to bringing a box back from the US this summer and participating with my Imagination Chapter.

I could go on and on about all of the Demo Slam segments. Three minutes each, showing a sweet app or hack or some digital nicety that makes the crowd go, WOW! Some of my favorites were My Map. (More on that later, as I tried it and failed miserably.) Another favorite was that Keep converts image text to editable text! What? I never knew. I came home and showed my husband, and he loved it so. It was an early birthday present for him!

The hour is late, and I’ll be up again to do another day tomorrow, so more tomorrow. In the meantime, there are more photos here, and my notes from today are here.

4 thoughts on “Google Apps for Education Summit, Bahrain, Day 1

  1. Wow, impressive. That’s wonderful.
    That’s my first Google summit ever, but man I’m loving it. Can’t believe how many things I have learned in one day only. I’m sure by the second I’ll jump from beginners hashtags to intermediate, hopefully.

    1. Asma,
      It was wonderful to meet you! Thank you so much for engaging with me on Twitter and even on my blog today! It was a great Day 2 at the Google Summit, wasn’t it? I loved what I learned. Now I’m ready to Start, Stop and Share!

      I will look forward to your first blog post. Make sure you let me know when you decide to do it. I’ll be your first commenter!

      Warmly,
      Denise

  2. I’m checking out your links, Denise – glad you are able to get back into the tech conference circuit! There is always more to learn! Reminds me of a line in our morning prayer: May we always learn to love and love to learn.

    1. Kris,
      Thanks so much! I love that prayer, “May we always learn to love and love to learn.” Nice. If that prayer was answered the world would be a better place. Thanks, my friend! You are a big supporter! I’m waiting to read your blog some day.

      Blessings,
      Denise

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