Tag Archives: Google Certified Coach

About AI: a mini-series

Use this short link to access this launch page: bit.ly/kannAIabout

As the world of generative AI in education continues to rapidly unfold, it is becoming more and more clear that we must teach our students about AI, before we encourage them to use it in our classes.

To make it easier for teachers, we are creating a series of “About AI” mini-lessons. These mini-lessons can be used in your classroom as a Play & Pause format… you press the play button, we teach, and you and your class pause and/or rewind as you follow along.

Alternatively, you might find it useful to watch the video for the mini-lesson idea and then just replicate it in your own class, fitting it in when the time is right. Either way, we hope that you will take the time to teach your students (and yourself!) about AI.

Watch this quick series overview below and check out (or subscribe) to the YouTube playlist here.

Topics will include:

BONUS Episode: 10 Ways to be a Human AI Detector

More thoughts ABOUT AI. Check out this webinar with Cammie + ISTE + TakingITGlobal. (Canadian educators can complete a survey at this link (January 25th recording) for a free ISTE Membership (value of $95 USD).

Digital Portfolios 2.0 – Photo/video phone skills

A key element of adding items to a student’s digital portfolio is adding photos and videos – these are most often captured on a student’s mobile phone camera roll. At this point though, most students become stumped at how to get this media into their Google Site. (This becomes ANOTHER evidence that students need more practice with their digital skills.)

The best method is via the Google Drive app on the student’s phone. (Video coming soon). 

If you often upload media (photos and/or video) to Google Drive or other platforms, you can save yourself lots of time – and storage space on your phone – by reducing the file size of your photos and videos as you capture them. 

Watch the video for some quick tips on how to do this with both photos and video.

And, I’m pleased to add that I had to learn some new skills this week for this video and some others that I made for my Clean-up Blitz. Previously, whenever I’ve included videos from my phone, they have been just screen recordings with no commentary. I’ve just learned how to record my phone screen with a voice-over – something I should have learned a while ago. It involved Quick Time on my Mac – an app that I seldom use.

Digital Portfolios at EBHS 2.0

Digital Portfolios 2.0 will be a series of blog posts describing the carefully crafted steps and scaffolds put in place to help a high school reinstate the use of Digital Portfolios. 

7 or 8 years ago, a group of forward-thinking teachers at EBHS proposed and implemented a school-wide blog/portfolio project. Basically, students would all create their site in Edublogs.org and learn how to use it in their mandatory 10th-grade Information Processing class. That meant that the rest of the teachers on staff didn’t need to know how to use or create a website, they only had to provide an activity or content for students to post about on a web page dedicated to their class or subject area.

At the time, our school operated on a few Chromebook carts and much student digital work still happened on desktops in the computer lab. Considering this, it seemed that many bases were covered and that the project was exciting and feasible. There were many steps and considerations from the original portfolio project (1.0) that you can read about here.

Here are some of my thoughts on digital portfolios and student blogging from 2018. It’s now at least 5 years later and the reasons that students need to be able to create and operate a personal digital space are more important than ever.

The 2016 version of this project was well-thought-out, well-planned and scaffolded for success. However, by 2019, the EBHS school-wide blog/portfolio dream was scrapped, having never gained true school-wide adoption or success. There were some very successful micro or class projects where students did amazing digital work with this platform, but overall, the lack of institutional support prevented more widespread success. In this 2016 model, the school leaders allowed and tolerated the project but never championed or even supported the project.

Fast forward to 2023. Students at EBHS all have 1 to 1 Chromebooks. But otherwise, their digital skills, digital citizenship and online academic presence have not progressed much. They use Google Classroom more often than they did in 2016 and probably use Google Docs more often, but their skills at curating (and creating) their own high-quality digital content has generally been minimal.

So you can imagine my excitement last June when the new principal at EBHS, in need of a solution for an adjacent purpose (school-wide exhibitions of learning) asked if I thought school-wide digital portfolios were feasible.

Digital Portfolios 2.0 – Reboot at EBHS

My answer…Yes. And necessary. And practical. And overdue.

So since then, the planning and scaffolding to support 500 students and teachers at varying levels of “buy-in” has been thoughtful, careful and very intentional. Steps and moves and resources in this Digital Portfolio 2.0 project will follow in subsequent posts. Please explore the posts below to follow the process as it unfolds!

Phase 1: Convincing the Adults

Phase 2: The “Template Site”

Phase 3: The “Creation” process

Phase 4: No Student Left Behind

Phase 5: Adding Course Content

Phase 6: Collecting Portfolio links in Google Classroom

Phase 7: Midyear Check in & Tune Up

Tips for Google Level 1&2 Exam -No Practical Questions!

If you have previously done some Google for Educator training, but just never got around to taking the test…. do it now! If you “trained” before September 2021 in particular, you will still be adequately prepared to take the test with only minimal review – that’s how much easier it now is.

The Google Certified Educator Level 1 and 2 exams drastically changed on September 1, 2021 – the scenario based questions were removed and the exam now consists of 35 multiple choice/drag and drop questions. These are the most recent materials (Fall 2022) supplied to Google Trainers by Google for Education to in turn share with those who wish to achieve their “Google Educator” certification.

Why you should take one of these exams NOW!

  • The Level 1 and 2 Exams, without the previous hands-on practical section, are considerably more simple.
    • In my estimation, if the previous version of the Level 1 and 2 exams were a 5/5 for rigor, I would now rate them a 2/5 for comparative rigor. Note that this is a fully unofficial, personal gauge.
  • You still have 3 hours to take the exam. Previously, many candidates used most of that time. Since the new exam format, I do not know of anyone who has taken more than an hour to complete the exam.
  • The Google for Education “Teacher Center” website offers free and effective training courses for both the Fundamental (Level 1) and Advanced (Level 2) courses. This is a great way to do the training, or a refresher, at your own time and own pace.
    • The quizzes at the end of each module offer VERY effective preparation for the exams.

Some skills to review

One Word 2023: Engage

This year my one word is #Engage. It didn’t fall into place as easily this year, and it is similar in many way to my #OneWord2022 which was “Amplify”.

I had moderate success with a guiding word last year, so I figure it can’t hurt to try again.

What does #Engage mean for me in 2023? In a nutshell, it encompasses both being interested in others and brave enough to step in and be involved in new things.

  • To be a useful member to the communities that I am part of; to be part of the conversation and engage as an active participant. For example, I’m excited to be part of another group of some of the most noteable Instructional Coaches in North America as we work on crowd sourcing an Instructional Coach Playbook. Lots of folks sign up to be involved in these initiatives, but never show up to do the work or discuss in the Zoom conversations. Coming to the table in these spaces can make a difference in all sorts of future opportunities.
  • To reply to and comment on posts with my Twitter PLN and the schools that I support via Facebook; it’s amazing how much this “engagement” can open up opportunities. I think that’s how I ended up hosting a Google Certified Coach bookstudy last spring with @TeamFrances28 from the UK, and Kim Brown @library_nrhs from Massachusetts.
  • To make a point of checking in and saying “Hi” to as many teachers and leaders as possible when I am at one of our schools in my role as District Instructional Lead. This is one of the most lucrative ways to connect with instructional coaching opportunities! My “Hi”, is usually responded to with, “Hey, I’ve been meaning to email you about….”
  • To be brave enough to promote the work that I am doing and the resources that I am making. The tough part here is that my Twitter friends and colleagues produce and share such great work (@EmmaCottier @MrsHowell24 @gret etc) that I wonder, “Why bother?” But then again, if the materials (videos, blog posts, choiceboards, etc) aren’t useful they’ll just get passed over – no harm done.
  • If Google Innovator applications open up for North Americans, to engage in the process and put in the work to apply!
  • To engage more directly with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. So few of the teachers in my district know about the SDGs – I feel that this is a personal failure so far. As a Social Studies teacher this was such an important topic for me, but I’ve not promoted them very well as a Coach.

If you are reading this, I would love for you to share your #oneword in the comments!

Fresh Tips for Google Level 2 Exam

Google for Education Certified Educator Level 2 Badge

Just do it! Take your Google for Education Certified Educator Level 2 exam NOW! It has become much less rigorous and can be passed with much less preparation.

The Google Certified Educator Level 1 and 2 exams drastically changed on September 1, 2021 – the scenario-based questions were removed and the exam now consists of 35 multiple choice/drag and drop questions. You still have 3 hours to do these questions AND can use your Google search engine on another device. So ultimately, if you are stumped on a question, you have time to Google the answer or work it out on the side. In fact, when I recently wrote the test and was puzzled by some more obscure questions, I was shocked by the similarity to the related Google Support pages!

These are the most recent materials supplied to Google Trainers by Google for Edu. USE THESE!!!!

The best place to practice and do some training?

Previously I would have suggested taking a course to review for the practical part of the exam (from a Google Trainer like myself!). But – and it pains me to say this – I don’t think that is even necessary if you are fairly Google proficient. Here are some good review options:

I would HIGHLY recommend that you physically work through all of the steps in this Google Educator Level 1 Tasks Document. The Workspace tools questions on this exam are very specific; as a regular and high-level user of all Workspace tools, I found the “tool” questions challenging. DO the steps. CLICK links and READ the content. The training challenges have been specifically curated! The same thing applies for Level 2: Google Educator Level 2 Tasks Document.

Another solid avenue for reviewing or learning the content is the Advanced Training Course offered through Google’s Skillshop. Tips:

  • Be sure to log in so that it saves your progress.
  • You may not need to do the 15 hours of course content, but BE SURE to do the quizzes at the end of every section; retry until you have the correct answers. (When I get an answer wrong, I take a picture with my phone of the “key” showing my wrong answer and the correct answer. I then scroll through these pictures as a super-fast way to review.

What should I know?

Although the Level 2 exam includes the core educational tools (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Classroom, Drive, Forms, Calendar, Gmail), it wants to test your knowledge about more obscure features within these core tools, and it asks about several other tools that you may not have used as much. Be sure to check out the review materials listed above to brush up on Google Sites, Translate, the “Explore” tool, Google Scholar, Google Books, Trends, Google Chat, and the geo tools (Google Earth, My Maps, Streetview).

Be prepared for some comparative questions, such as, “In the case of….., should you use this or that?” Google Docs or Google Keep? Google Slides or Jamboard? Google Earth or My Maps? Sites or Blogger?

The test is for educators, so there is an expectation that you are current in modern pedagogy. Again, I would refer you to the Advanced Training Course which really frames your training around pedagogical practice and classroom considerations. Several questions are still “scenario” in nature and you can imagine that the “drag and drop” questions might be used to ask you to put steps or skills in an order that they would be used.

Other considerations

  • Once you receive your exam registration you have 8 days to complete the test.
  • You have 3 hours to complete the 35 multiple-choice questions. This is now AMPLE time since there are no longer any scenario questions..
  • If you have any doubt, flag the question so that you can come back to it – you will have AMPLE time to do so.
  • You don’t need 100% to pass. When I wrote the test to recert most recently in November 2021, there were a few, shall we say “quirky” questions. For example, there was at least one question (about Forms, which I use proficiently) that didn’t seem to have all of the parts that it needed in order to make sense. Do your best and move on.

You’re ready for this!

Something else to consider – creating a bibliography in Google Docs.

Looking for Google Educator Level 1 advice?

Voxer for Bookstudy: Final Reflections

For several years now I have wanted to try using Voxer as a book study platform. Around Christmas 2021, we wrapped up a 10-week book study that Google Certified Coaches could join. Our topic was the new book called The Edtech Coaching Primer by Dr. Ashley McBride. I enjoyed the book and am glad to have had this experience, and as I am compelled to do after most book studies, I have reflected upon some challenges and opportunities with this platform. (Initial musings? Read here.)

Some basic, and unofficial statistics:

  • About 55 people are listed as members of our book study channel
  • At the midweek point (~week 4-5), there were approximately 20 people who had posted more than once. Click here for my mid-way musing blog about Voxer as a book study platform.
  • By weeks 9 and 10, there were just over a dozen people who had read most of the posts with about seven or eight of those people commenting and engaged in the discussion
  • After about week seven, hardly any participants used Voxer‘s voice note feature; the posts are almost exclusively typed.
  • For the few voice posts that were posted, they were listen to by less than a quarter of the folks who read the typed posts

In my experience with many different book studies on many different platforms, I would say that although these statistics are on the low side, the statistics aren’t far from normal. Virtual book studies in particular tend to wane in participation, especially if the participants haven’t met in person or at least virtually in person.

Some benefits to Voxer as a book study platform:

  • The asynchronous nature is great for a global group; Frances in the UK did not have to stay up late or get up early to participate like she would have if we were meeting in a Google meet!
  • The asynchronous feature also allows you to go back and check out weeks that you missed. In contrast, had this been a purely synchronous Google Meet study, if you missed the meeting you’re out of luck.
  • Voxer allows you to add images and links

Some drawbacks to Voxer as a book study platform:

Evidence of the frustration of getting behind on Voxer: comment by Melissa Shields (@MShieldsETC) at the end of the study
  • If you fall behind, it is very difficult to get back into the conversation. If someone has a comment about chapter 5 that I want to respond to but the study is now on chapter 7, there is no way to connect my comment to the earlier chapter 5 ideas – instead they get lost in the new content. This prevents ideas from sprouting and growing organically like they might in say, a Twitter chat, where a single post can spawn a whole important conversation thread….Voxer needs a “thread” feature!
  • For some reason, in this particular book study, most participants did not take time to listen to the audio comments. Perhaps because it’s also more difficult to respond to a comment that was posted in audio form? I am interested to hear other theories about this!
  • Perhaps our participant list was too large to be effective as a Voxer book study? I think it’s possible that a smaller group who already knew each other at least somewhat in real life might have had better sustained participation?
  • If you missed several days or even a week or two, it was difficult to get very far back in the timeline; I believe in the free version that I had there is also a limit of how far back I could go?
  • It’s possible that some people were turned off as new users of Voxer – those accidental blank posts because your thumb is in the wrong place on the screen – and you can’t delete or edit because you have the free version! For most of us as coaches, I believe that that would cause us to just giggle and identify those blunders as of the learning curve of a new technology. For others, the blunders might have been a turn off – literally!

In the end, I’m so thankful to my comrades who stayed connected and continued to post and comment. As a result, I gained lots of insights into coaching experiences around the globe. So obviously, Voxer wasn’t a total bust, but it was less user-friendly than I hoped it would be for our book study.

Check out other book study musings: Padlet book study; Flipgird book study; “book-like” study; in person book study

Book study via Voxer: mid-way musings

We are into week 4 of our #ECOpenChat Book study featuring the book The Edtech Coaching Primer by Dr. Ashley McBride. This is a book study gathering with Google Certified Coaches.

As I have hosted so many different book study formats, I’m compelled to do “action research” on each new platform that I am book-studying with. Each platform from Flipgrid to Padlet, to Slides, to Google Meet and beyond, seems to have its strengths and challenges. Check out my initial Voxer book study musing from a few weeks ago here.

By week four, of the over fifty people who have joined the Voxer #ECOpenChat book study chat space, there are only about a dozen who have actively commented in the past ten days. Week one participation was higher but has dropped off quickly as we approach week four.

This percentage of active involvement is pretty typical for book studies with folks we don’t really know, as we often sign up with the best of intentions, and then life happens. I know that for myself, the first book study that I signed up for with this group was one that I only really participated in for a single week, as I was waiting and waiting for my book to arrive. That was a Google Meet-based study, and the week I did finally join, I felt a little out of place.

So far, this Voxer study feels a lot more anonymous. Even though our names are beside each post, and people can even hear the expression in our recorded comments, it would seem that it would be easy to pop a comment into the stream, as it is hard to keep track of who has even been posting.

What I am finding interesting is how folks are engaging – or not – with different kinds of content. When you post your own content, you get some “engagement” stats, so to test this, I recorded a post using the audio feature, and then right below it, I added some text comments.

  • For the text comment, I imagine that it “counts” a view any time that someone scrolls by slowly enough to read it
  • For the audio comments, it counts when someone actually clicks the “play” button on your comment
  • The result of my highly unscientific action research?
    • For the number of people who scroll by and read a typed comment, a quarter to a half press the play button to listen to a comment
  • You can see the number of ❤️ for a text or audio comment posted by anyone

A Voxer book study makes it easy to just lurk and read through the comments without ever feeling like you have to jump in and engage. Maybe this is a safe starting place for those who are new to the #ECOpenChat group

I still am finding the Voxer timeline to be a bit challenging to get a “conversation” going about any specific post. As Voxer doesn’t have any type of “thread” feature, when you listen to a post and want to respond to the post’s author, your response might be after five or six other posts in between. A few folks have thought to use the @symbol – like in Google Docs comment – to respond to a post; this works nicely for a text response, but not so great for an audio comment. But maybe this? (see Voxer Tip image)

I’ll add this “Voxer Tip” to our study and see if it makes a difference! I am the official “moderator” and question-poser for week four of our study so this is the week that it makes the most sense for me to throw in a tip.

#ECOpenChat book study comrades…. if you are reading this, I’d love to hear your reactions to my reactions in the comments below!

Trying Something New: Bookstudy via Voxer

Back in the 2015-2016 range I tried to get my school colleagues to add their ideas to a PLN bookstudy when they were absent from our book study meeting by using Voxer. I convinced a few to download the Voxer app, I modeled some responses, but alas, no one was interested or brave enough. I suggested it again for our next book study, but interest was almost non-existent.

At that time, Voxer was a fairly “new” method of communicating with a PLN and Twitter’s educational communities were talking about it lots. Many of my school colleagues, however, were not connected to a more global PLN through social media such as Twitter or Facebook. I’m sure they brushed it off as another one of my “Hey, do you want to help me learn about….” experiments.

And so my first attempt at Voxer + Book Study ended over 5 years ago.

I’ve tried many different book study models since then, with varying levels of success. From Flipgrid, to Padlet, to a “Book-Like” study via Google Meet to the most recent “Slow-Slides + Google Meet” model with my Google Certified Coach PLN. When this Google Certified Coach PLN was eager to do another book study together, we ended up agreeing to try Voxer when Becky Lim (@TechWithBecky ) suggested it.

And so last week, I finally got to join a Voxer book study. We are virtually-voxerly discussing Dr. Ashley McBride’s new ISTE book release Edtech Coaching Primer. For many of us, it seems that we “brushed off” our Voxer accounts that have sat inactive for several years. Others have created a Voxer account for the first time. You can’t delete your “oopsies” with a free Voxer account, so there are plenty of 3 or 4 second dead-air entries, but it is lovely that we are all learning – or relearning- Voxer together.

Things I’m loving about a Voxer Book Study:

  • hearning everyone’s actual voice – the accents, the expressions, the passion; these things don’t come through the same way with text
  • Voxer plays clips automatically one after the other, so it is quick and easy to catch up and listen to a series of posts

As a collective, it is interesting to see how we are getting into the rhythm of Voxer.

  • One strategy seems to be that if you want to respond to a person’s post directly, that you type your response because you can name/tag that individual; I think that this is helping create a more “response” oriented format. In our previous group book study, we typed our responses in a slide deck, and while several people participated with their own answers, few folks ever seemed to have time to come back to “comment” on others’ responses (except for our fearless leader, Frances Cottam @TeamFrances28). Fortunately, we met weekly via Google Meet to discuss and build a wonderful community.

Things that I’m finding tricky about a Voxer Book Study:

  • when you come back to Voxer and listen to a string of 3 or 4 people, you can’t stop after an individual’s post and respond to THAT post – like in a thread
  • your post posts in chronological order; when I want to respond to someone 3 or 4 posts ago, I forget what I wanted to say by the time I’ve listened to the other posts. Perhaps the answer is to stop after the post I want to respond to and do my response before listening to the rest!
  • I’d love a delete button – but I’m too cheap to acquire a premium Voxer account
  • of the 50+ folks who’ve been added to the Voxer book study chat – by request – it seems that maybe about half of those have interacted with a voice or text response. In my experience with PD and book studies, especially global PLN types, this is not highly unusual. But, I do wonder if the Voxer format of all of those little audio “play” buttons staring at you seems to make it too overwhelming or intimidating to dig into the discussion. We are just ending week 2 of about 10 weeks, so it will be interesting to see if we have a wide range of participants, or if the discussion settles into a small group of ‘regulars’.

So Google Certified Coach PLN – please leave a comment and muse along with me about Voxer as a book study tool.

Google Certified Coach – It’s Official!

Sweet relief! Last Friday, I was checking out Twitter in the aftermath of the USA Capital Building debacle and I noticed that half a day earlier, some other Google Certified Coach candidates had posted their celebratory certificates. I will admit that I was dismayed that I had not received a similar email message, but upon a double check, realized that it had ended up in one of those obscure email locations that you never think to check. Thus, I’m happy to share that I am officially a Google For Education Certified Coach!

The application process for Google Certified Coach is one that has to be completed over a length of time; it involves 6 hurdles:

  • Google Educator Level 1 and
  • Google Educator Level 2
  • complete the online Google for Education Certified Coach Course
  • a Google Trainer Skills assessment test
  • Be an active coach for a minimum of an 8-16 week cycle; based at least partially on this work….
  • Submit a portfolio which includes the following steps: create a short video, provide three coaching artifacts, and submit an administrator letter of reference that illustrates successful use of the 5-step coaching model in action

Why bother? Here are some of the benefits:

  • a deeper understanding of the coaching process so that my district colleagues will hopefully see their time spent with me (as a coach) as highly valuable
  • access to more Google training
  • early access to some of Google’s new product launches
  • potential access to premium versions of Edtech tools, although this will likely be an overlap with the premium perks I have access to as a Google Certified Trainer
  • connections for collaborating with and learning from a community of other Google Coaches; as Google’s newest certification, this is a vibrant and energetic and welcoming community. The opportunities to connect with the existing cadre of GC Coaches for training and mentoring was so valuable to actually going through with the process.
  • a listing in the Google for Education Directory, which could lead to some additional opportunities to share Google tools
    • So far it appears that I am the first Google Certified Coach in Western Canada, so that is kind of cool!

A special thanks to some of the teachers in my district with whom I was able to have very rich coaching cycles, perhaps thanks to COVID! One definite shift over last year is how willing teachers are to jump on a Google Meet to work toward their goals and problem solving. In a geographically huge district like mine, even doing a portion of coaching “virtually” allows for lots more opportunities. Thanks to Rebecca M., Ingrid D., Susan C., Lora FW., and Angie A. in particular for including me in your solution finding process.

After, a “not yet” email from my Google Innovator Application in July 2020, this is a satisfying accomplishment. I look forward to all of the learning that this will lead to.