Working remotely

One of the real joys I have had over the past month of lockdown has been watching my own children, as well as teachers and leaders right across New Zealand, try new things. We’ve also tried some new things at…

In a rapidly changing landscape, leaders are inevitably presented with complex challenges. How quickly we adapt and how effectively we communicate is crucial at such times. With NZ's move from Level 3 to Level 2 about to become a reality,…

In times of disruption communicating the right information to the right people at the right time is critical. And knowing beforehand who will do this in the moment is also vitally important. Does the responsibility to get the messages out…

…there is a need to balance the management of critical adaptive responses within and surrounding the organisation, with thinking and emotions. Adaptive leaders are both optimistic and realistic. To thrive in this challenging, sometimes overwhelming, complex environment, they find sanctuaries…

In a world where technology and artificial intelligence seem set to take over, I feel secure in the knowledge that the human connection is still the single most powerful teaching and learning tool that we have. “Teachers instruct of course,…

Watching and listening to news from around the world it would be an understatement to say that it’s a time of disruption and uncertainty for schools. Monitoring and responding to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic situation as it spreads throughout…

I’ve just come back from a conference in Sydney entitled Transforming Workplace Culture by Gallup. This conference explored the critical elements of what it takes to develop an engaging workplace and how to transform your workplace culture. I found it quite inspiring so here are some of my key takeaways.

This is a question that many educators would purport to have as a guiding principle in how they, and their organisation, works. Yet so much about how we ‘do’ education seems to me to be premised on a negative approach.

Have you ever had the problem of transitioning from one Google Environment to another and wondered how on earth to do this? This post will show you how to transition between Google environments with ease!

I’ve long been interested in emerging technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. You probably heard of virtual reality and augmented reality. I remember one of the earliest examples of virtual reality which was a software product by Apple – QuickTime VR which was an amazing software package.

As more and more of our workplaces move to cloud-based environments such as G Suite or Office 365, often times we are sending others a link rather than a document. This tutorial will show you how to insert hyperlinks into Docs, Sheets and Slides.

I think of Trello as a virtual post it note tool with some really handy extras – a bit like post-its on steroids! Not only is the visual design of this tool really easy to use, but it has a range of great features which make it super useful for teams.

This post explores the question: ‘what is the relationship between productivity and great leadership?’. . When the pressures of leadership mount up, your ability as a leader to make better decisions will be tested.

Yipee!!! This is a long-awaited request from many who have switched from offline spreadsheets to Google Sheets. Finally, Google Sheets support for rotated text has been added. To do this simply click into a cell in Sheets (Format > Text rotation).

Do you want to increase your productivity? Make sure you never miss a to do, keep lists and more with this FREE tutorial on Google Keep. Google Keep is a free note-taking tool from Google which you can use in all sorts of interesting ways to increase your productivity.

Google Calendar now works better on iOS devices with these shiny, new features which you’ll love: Month view and week in landscape view, so you have even more ways to see your schedule at a glance.

When you get the next Gmail iOS app update, you’ll notice some really useful changes. This is the biggest oveNew Gmail app on iOSrhaul of the app in a long time (nearly 4 years) so is probably quite overdue really.

Learn how to enable safe search on Google with this tutorial from Learning Architects. Includes Youtube safe search, safe search on Google and ideas for safe search engines for kids.

Page Numbers in TOCsThe table of contents in Google Docs makes it easy to organise and navigate long and complex documents, providing a list of hyperlinks that users can click on to jump to that part of the document.

Learning how to use Google Drive offline is an important feature within the Google Apps system to understand, especially if you are a person who travels a lot to places with unreliable wifi connectivity. Read this post to learn about offline mode in Google Drive…

In this video describing how sharing works for Google Docs, the Google team explain how we used to share files prior to Google Apps (now called G Suite). These ideas also apply to the sharing of other aspects within the Google ecosystem.

This tip shows you how to search using the Chrome Omnibox – Google’s combined address and search bar. In Google Chrome, the search box is also the address bar as in other web browsers. This combined feature provides much functionality, which, if used effectively can save you lots of time.

An ‘add-on’ is a small piece of software that plugs into either a Document, Sheet or Form that provides additional functionality. There are lots of them to choose from that perform all sorts of handy functions!

Here is a presentation given at the New Zealand Google Apps for Education Summit in Christchurch and Auckland focussed on developing a school or company ‘start’ page.

Here is a presentation given at the New Zealand Google Apps for Education Summit in Auckland and Christchurch focussed on developing a shared vision for school leaders. It is aimed at helping school leaders develop strategies for improving how they enable their people gain and deepen commitment to the vision.

One of the greatest advantages of working ‘in the cloud’ is the collaboration possibilities this brings. There are many ways you can collaborate within Google Documents.

Learn how to set up mail delegation; a really handy feature within gmail – email delegation. Gmail delegation allows one person to ‘delegate’ their email to another user, which is a great solution for busy school leaders, managers and CEOs

Learn how to tame your mailbox using priority inbox. Here is a neat little video describing the benefits of Google’s Priority Inbox – which is a massive improvement to gmail that saves you time and makes you super-efficient.

The flood of email is a major cause of stress in our digital world. This post will help you learn to overcome the flood of incoming emails and take control over your inbox! Mail filters enable you to classify and organise mail as it comes in, as well as perform various actions on email.

Today I came across an interesting problem – how can you easily set up a class with their own email addresses if you DON’T have Google Apps for Education for your school? This is not something I’d considered, as Google Apps is free for education and is so amazingly easy to implement and use.

If your organisation has moved to Google Apps but you want to continue using OutLook as your email software, then you can. It is entirely possible to continue to use the tool you love and harness the power of the cloud through Google Apps.