Teaching in clouds: Integrating G Suite for Education in the teaching process
Name of training
Teaching in clouds: Integrating G Suite for Education in the teaching process
Researcher
Start Date
August 23, 2017
End date
August 23, 2017
Brief Description
Cloud computing has been one of the most important and influential advancements in information technology since the emergence of the Internet. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (2011), ‘[c]loud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.’ Since the advent of cloud computing, many companies, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, etc., have provided many different cloud services and products (Sultan, 2010). Nowadays, cloud computing has been widely used in education due to its flexibility, availability, practicality and cost effectiveness. Among the most popular cloud services are the ones offered by Google (Barlow & Lane, 2007; Herrick, 2009; Railean, 2012). In 2006 Google developed its Apps for Education which are currently referred to as “G Suite for Education: A Suite of Free Productivity Tools for Classroom Collaboration” (Google for Education, n.d.). Google for Education Services provide teachers and students with access to many different tools, such as Classroom, Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Docs, etc., each of which can serve different educational purposes. This 90-minute workshop aims at introducing participants to the different tools offered by G Suite for Education and ways in which these tools can be integrated in the teaching process based on constructivist approaches to teaching and learning. Special emphasis will be put on Google Classroom which is a free, web-based platform that integrates all the G Suite services. During the workshop, participants will be given access to G suite for Education and will have the opportunity to become acquainted with Google Classroom and other Google products through hands-on activities involving the creation and management of classes, assignments, provision of feedback and grades, etc. Examples of use of G Suite for Education will be presented throughout the workshop, such as its integration in two English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) Courses at the Cyprus University of Technology as well as in a Teacher Training programme for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers. By the end of the workshop, participants are expected to be able to adopt and integrate these tools in their own teaching contexts. The workshop is addressed to a broad audience that may consist of language teachers, teacher trainers, and stakeholders and generally anyone involved in language education. For this workshop participants are requested to have a computer with them with reliable Internet connection as well as their personal username and password needed to access the G Suite that will be sent to them beforehand.
Event Location
EuroCALL Teacher Education SIG Workshop - EuroCALL 2017 Conference