Thoughts on GEUG14, now with EXTRA Google!

Before I go into the actual event and what went on, I thought I'd take a moment to say how wonderful what little of York I saw was. Stepping off the train into Eboracum, walking past ancient Roman settlements and towering parapets was truly a sight to behold, often in stark contrast to the modern architecture that now sits quite comfortably next to the old.

The still very grandeur Roman structures still had a place in the bustling city of York, very much like the scene I witnessed on the train up there; two young lads both reading next to each other, one with a kindle, one with a paper book. A common theme I picked up on during the Google Apps for Education European User Group 2014 (GEUG14) ... and breathe... event. The old and the new.

GEUG14 took place in The Ron Cooke Hub in the Heslington East Campus of University of York.

The Ron Cooke Hub - University of York

Pretty impressive place!

I met a rather enthused +Tom Smith to whom I had to apologise to for not getting a chance to fulfil his personalised tour of York ;) and +GEUG14 (Kimi Smith) who expertly helped arrange the event.

After the usual coffee wake up call we headed into the welcomes and keynotes. I'll say now that I will end up skipping a lot of the 'bits in the middle' as I'd like to concentrate on the key moments or points I took from the event so apologies If I miss anyone/thing out.

First up though was Matthew Collins when he dropped the stats on York's use of Google Apps For Education (GAFE) . 

• 100,000 Google Docs in 6 months
• 3500 Google Hangouts in 6 months

An impressive figure to say the least, not to mention their use of Google Apps Script to create bespoke web apps such as the library seating availability tool.

Interestingly the driver for their shift to GAFE came not from the usual tools in the suite for educational purposes, such as collaborative group writing using docs, but from moving all the institution email and calendar to Gmail and Google Calendar. I can think of another institution which would benefit from moving off a creaking exchange server too.

Ross Mahon from Google went through the usual sales pitch for Google, although most of the room were I'm guessing already sold on the benefits of using Google products. One thing that did catch my eye was Google Chrome for Business. Basically a distributed and managed browser, possibly a platform for educational tools?

Using the suite of Google tools creatively was the gist of Tom Smith's session. Some nice examples of how Google Apps Script has been used to bring together multiple Google tools at University of York, such as Google Sheets, Google Forms and Google Apps Script to create a room booking form and library seating availability.

My coding fingers started to twitch at this point so I'll briskly move on..

There are so many great points I took from the event I'd like to cover, however I may break them down into separate blog posts. Or maybe a bullet list, because.. well.. It's easier

But first, a big thank you to +Martin Hawksey who profiled my work on the Open Badges Generator. This was my first dabble into using Google Apps Script and the rest of Martin's session clearly showed the potential and power that GAS brings to the fore. With Martin's experience in this field his endorsement was much appreciated :)

Martin demonstrated that GAS can turn single Google tools into almost a collective 'engine' which can generate bespoke tools.

I want to list some key messages now, I fear if I extrapolate too much on each one then this will become a very long and probably boring post :)

• The power of Google Apps Scripts
• Letting departments have their own 'light-bulb' moments when getting to grips with Google Apps
• Most GAFE projects driven by other teams and not IT departments
• GAFE staff buy-in by whole departments not filtered down by managers
  

I took quite a lot away from the event and I definitely think I'm going to explore some of the questions raised in more blog posts, but for now I think to round off, I'd like to quote Matthew Collins and what he had to say to give you something to think about -

"You have to give academics something they can't get elsewhere"