Deploy Learning’s End of Year Wrap Up
Happy December!
We hope that you have had an amazing year! We’ve enjoyed working with so many of you and look forward to connecting with you all in 2025. We hope you are wrapping up your year with a big red bow and are making time to reset and recharge after a busy year.
If you’ve been on social media this week you will have no doubt seen the many posts everyone has been sharing about their Spotify Wrapped. The Wrapped recaps collate a user’s top songs, artists and albums from the year.
In case you are wondering, Jim’s top track was Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift with Imagine Dragons and OneRepublic in the top 5. If you ask him, he will swear it is because his primary school aged kids are constantly using his account with their Google Home. He is currently playing Buffalo Springfield on repeat to help with next year’s algorithm.
Phil’s top song (thanks to his 3 year old daughter) was “Do the Propeller!” by The Wiggles but of course there is a bit of Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift in there too!
All this has us wanting to share our own year in review with Deploy Learning’s top 5 highlights from 2024.
- Google Innovator Academy in Seoul
This year, Deploy Learning was asked by Google to design the APAC Google Innovator Academy (SEO24) in Seoul, South Korea. It was such a privilege to meet and work with the amazing Innovators from 11 countries over the three days.
There is something really special about the Google Innovator Academy. It’s a shared feeling of accomplishment, excitement and acknowledgement of the road it’s taken for all attendees to get there. They spend the three days unpacking ideas for how to change education. The one thing all Google Innovators have in common is the mutual excitement, connection and sense of community they have.
In 2026, Google will be celebrating 20 years of the Google Innovator Program. Keep your eye out in 2025 for Google to announce more opportunities for Google Champions and ways that you can get involved.
Are you a Google Champion? If not, reach out to us to learn how to join the community.
- Summits featuring Google for Education in Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide
This year, we had the pleasure of hosting hundreds of educators from across Australia at 3 of our free Google Summits. With these summits, we love giving you access to some of Australia’s best educators and thinkers. The one-day events were full of excitement, positive energy, hands on workshops and networking.
Our aim was to bring people back together for a fun day of professional development. We strive to help you grow your Google skillsets while helping you make connections back to your classroom. The added bonus of these events is the networking opportunities you get with other educators. We all share valuable insights into the future of how to use technology to amplify lessons.
Feedback from the events was overwhelmingly positive with many wondering how to do it again next year. Attendees left positive comments about the sessions, the presenters, and the overall experience.
Did you miss it? There is still a chance to join us for our last event of the series.
Click here to register for the FREE Melbourne Summit on 20 January, 2024.
Stay tuned for more opportunities in 2025.
- We launched our Online Courses!
In 2024 we launched 10 online courses for educators! For years, we offered 3 week courses but we learned that teachers want access to the learning when they have time. Our aim with these asynchronous courses is to support educators to achieve their Level 1 and 2 Google Certified Educator certification on demand.
We’ve also created smaller app specific courses for those of you looking to quickly develop your skills or learn more about Google Classroom, Sheets, Gmail etc. We call them Essentials and we even have a Youtube playlist of some of our favourite tips.
With information about Generative AI in high demand, we created a free Introduction to Generative AI course. We look forward to launching our ‘Gemini for Education’ and ‘Gemini for Business’ extensive courses in the new year.
We’re really proud of our courses and hope you find them useful. Please contact us if you would like what it could look like to sign up your whole staff.
- Gemini Academy
In November and December, we finished the year working with hundreds more educators to deliver the Gemini Academy. These 5 events consisted of 3 online sessions and 2 in person workshops at the Google offices in both Melbourne and Sydney. This was a quick workshop was devoted to learning how to write prompts using Google’s Generative AI Chatbot called Gemini.
Educators gained valuable insights into AI’s capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations, empowering them to make informed decisions about integrating AI into their teaching strategies.
They received extensive hands-on experience in using Google’s Gemini to streamline day-to-day tasks such as curriculum planning and teaching and learning strategies.
- Tech Path initiative with UNICEF, Google for Education in the Maldives
In August we were honoured with the opportunity to work with educators from all across the the Maldives for the official launch of Tech Path, a country wide digital learning initiative led by the Ministry of Education, Maldives with support from UNICEF Innovation and Google for Education.
We were asked to provide 5 days of professional development for teachers and staff from all across the country. Sharing topics like using Generative Artificial Intelligence to support teaching and learning and inclusive technologies with Chromebooks, we worked alongside teachers to contextualise technology skills for their students in order to improve foundational and 21st century skills. Additionally, we supported the Maldives National Institute of Education (NIE) to digitise content in order to make it more accessible to students across 200+ schools.
A huge thank you goes to the incredible work from folks at the Maldives Ministry of Education and the Maldives National Institute of Education for creating the opportunity and space for learning in Malé. Thank you to the team at Google and at UNICEF for inviting us to support them with this innovative programme.
Want to learn more about the great tech happenings in 2024? Check out Google’s 2024 Year in Review below for some of our favourite highlights including:
- Gemini! There have been some big updates to Gemini this year, we can’t wait to see what 2025 brings!
- Notebook LM – Your Personalised AI Research Assistant! This one is a game changer
- Google Vids – A new video editing tool that sits within Google Workspace
Like you, we are ready for a little time off to recharge and get ready for an amazing 2025. What do you have planned for next year? If you would like to help ideating or want some support, give us a shout or come see us at one of the many events we are running in 2025.
Thanks for being part of our work.
