It was Saturday and I drove to work – which really is not something that happens frequently, putting it mildly, but hey: it was totally worth it! Running a live YouTube show and connecting with colleagues in other time zones is not always an easy task so Saturday was simply the best option for us. Why driving to work, then? Way too many distractions at home! The rig i have at the office – always ready to roll – is also a lot better than my home gear.
Kim Mattina is a Tech Integration Coach at the William Davies Middle School in New Jersey and it was especially interesting having her as a guest since we are now both into YouTube Live HangoutsOnAir as well! Kim and a colleague of hers, Brian Costello, have just recently fired up TheSuiteTalk (whoa, that show title rocks like crazy!) focusing on – could you ever guess? – GSuite For Education and all the new features there that are almost daily launched by Google. A super cool initiative by Kim and Brian and it goes (almost) without saying that I’d be more than glad to help in any way I can, even though I’m definitely not a Hangouts pro.
We also touched base on the hardware a bit, especially Chromebooks which are increasingly popular in the US schools (and in Sweden!). No wonder, considering the pricing and perhaps even more important the fact that these cloud based laptops are extremely easy to roll out and manage – not to mention tight security and automatic updates.
Kim invests quite a lot of time and effort to keep herself updated about the latest developments within educational technology and helping out at the Google edu product forums as a volunteer is an important and fun part of that endeavour. A great community there at the forums, Kim says, and I have absolutely noticed that, too – trying myself to help a bit whenever I find the time.
In case you only want to listen to our words of wisdom, I completely understand: why not point your browser to iTunes and my corresponding podcast OnAirWithNiilo to subscribe! Of course, you can also listen to this very episode right here:
Many thanks to Kim for taking the time to chat with me and we’ll definitely be in touch later on as well. Looking forward to checking out the future episodes of TheSuiteTalk!
Take care, everyone and see you On Air!
DViS: Sverige för Ukraina 