Apps CT bootcamp
Posted on: July 28, 2012
On Thursday and Friday, 20 non-academic staff from CeL and from other departments attended NIE’s inaugural Google Apps Certified Trainer (Apps CT) Bootcamp. During our bootcamp, participants learnt how to use various Google Edu Apps to get ready for the certification test.
Why did we organize this event?
NIE requires its student teachers to maintain developmental e-portfolios in Google Sites and other Apps. CeL supports this e-portfolio programme by providing briefings, training, and support for student teachers and academic staff (see our NIeFolio portal). There are also other planned rollouts related to Google Apps.
While it is possible to provide training without certification, we want our trainers to undergo the rigour of certification, expand their personal and professional capacity, and be able to pass on what they know with moral authority.
We hope to change academic and administrative processes so that they become more efficient and effective with technical, social, and pedagogical affordances of various Google Apps. We hope to do this outside the walls of NIE too.
Some of the participants have only just started their journey. Others, like the ones in my team, have already been immersed in many of the tools and their culture of use.
Developing a culture takes time. But it is already gratifying to have already conducted a Google Workshop for Educators last December and the Apps CT workshop earlier this week. It was part of my three-year plan in 2010 and it is nice to see this part go ahead of schedule.
A note on the photos: Many thanks to the participants and lead learner, the always effervescent @WendyGorton, for the snapshots. The photos are in Google+, Twitter (#appsctbootcamp), and Facebook.
Many thanks to Wendy for facilitating, and assistant head of CeL, @SallyLoan, for coordinating the event!
