Google New Zealand Blog: November 2013

Bringing hobbits, dwarves and dragons to screens everywhere

Thursday, November 21, 2013

goo.gl/TheHobbit “Journey through Middle-earth,”Chrome Experiment"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,”startsprevious Chrome Experimentssupport for WebGL in Chrome for Androidnow supported+Google ChromeChromium Bloga click awayPosted by Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Product Marketing Manager & Part-time Dragon-slayer

Deyvi Wilton from Christchurch wins Doodle 4 Google 2013

Friday, November 15, 2013

In June we announced our latest Doodle 4 Google competition, in which we asked school students across New Zealand to draw their own version of the Google logo, inspired by the theme “If I was an explorer....” Now, over 5000 doodles later, we can announce the winning doodle!
Congratulations to Deyvi Wilton of Papanui Primary School in Papanui. Deyvi has won a Chromebook and Nexus 7 tablet for himself and $10,000 worth of technology for his school. His doodle will be featured on google.co.nz early next year.

Deyvi’s Doodle was titled “Exploring New Zealand”. Deyvi said "My Google Doodle is about New Zealand because New Zealand is a beautiful country. I drew the kiwis because they are New Zealand's national bird. The last letter of my doodle is a road. The road has an arrow so you will keep on exploring New Zealand's amazing scenery and animals.”

The National Age Group Winners spent yesterday at the Voyager Maritime Museum in Auckland for the unveiling of the National Winner. Tony Huang, Madeliene Ferkins, Deyvi Wilton and Harrison Tomuri were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the of the Museum and had a very special sailing experience on the Ted Ashby. The young doodlers also saw their work in a special digital display at the gallery.

This year in a special prize sponsored by ASB, the winning schools teacher from Papanui Primary School, Kerrie Stedman will be going on an Antarctic expedition with Professor Chris Turney. You can see more about the expedition and meet some of the wildlife in the following Hangouts On Air series which will air live from the Antarctic islands. Special guests may include sea lions, penguins and the great albatross.
Antarctica Doodle 4 Google Hangout On Air Schedule: 29 November, Sean Lions and Exploration (Enderby Island): http://bit.ly/1ih4N6p 2 December, A View from the South (Carnley Harbour): http://bit.ly/HeIyCX 4 December: The Wandering Albatross (Campbell Island): http://bit.ly/17MPjlO 6 December: Bird Paradise (Snares Island): http://bit.ly/1fYEHZ7
Thank you to all our thousands of doodlers from across New Zealand, and look out for Deyvi’s doodle on our homepage.Posted by Leticia Lentini, Event Marketing Manager, Google Australia, who is giddy with excitement at the prospect of seeing a penguin belly flop on the ice.

5 tips to help protect your kids online this summer

Friday, November 15, 2013

It can be hard to keep up with all the latest devices and apps out there. I know in my house, my tech savvy kids are increasingly becoming our at home personal tech support. The web has become an incredible resource for our children, but it is important that we all make sure they are using it in a smart way.
With the summer holidays fast approaching and new devices rolling out, we thought it would be a good time to remind parents about some easy ways we can keep kids keep safe online. Protecting our users is one of our top priorities at Google and when it comes to family safety, we give parents and teachers with tools to help them choose what content their children see online.
The tools and tips here will give you the ability to make sure your family is able to navigate the web safely and securely:
1. SafeSearch in Google Search. Want to hide explicit images, search results, and videos? Turn on SafeSearch, a filter that keeps many of the adult results you might not want popping up on the family computer out of your Google Search results. While no filter is 100% perfect, with SafeSearch on you can feel more confident browsing the web with your family. You can also lock SafeSearch on your computer by logging into your Google account and changing your settings.
2. YouTube SafetyMode. Turning on SafetyMode in YouTube is easy. Just scroll down to the bottom of any YouTube page and click on the button that says “Safety” at the bottom of the page switch it on. You can also log in with a YouTube account and lock SafetyMode as your default setting on each one of your computer browsers. It will filter out videos with mature content or that have been age-restricted, so they will not show up in video search, related videos, playlists, shows or films. Learn how to turn on and lock Safety Mode on YouTube.
3. Flags on YouTube. On every single video on YouTube, there is a flag that you can use to report a video if you don’t think it is appropriate and violates YouTube’s Community guidelines, including content that is violent, sexual or hateful. Flagged videos and channels are reviewed by YouTube staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate our Community Guidelines. Flagged videos that violate our guidelines are removed from YouTube. Check out more tips at the YouTube Safety Hub.
4. Google+ settings and safety notifications for teens. You might not want to share the same photos with your boss as you would with your family. And you might not want your teen to have all the same ways to share that you do. Google+ is built to share selectively like you would want to in real life. Google+ is customised for teens helps them take advantage of the flexibility Google+ offers with the right starting points, educational materials, and timely reminders. When a teen joins Google+ they have different default settings to help keep them safe and remind them to be responsible. Check out some examples.
5. Check out our Good to Know site. The site is our one-stop shop for information about the web and advice about how to keep yourself and your family safe and secure online. You can learn more about Google’s privacy and safety tools for families, get tips from parents at Google about family safety, and find out more what Google does to protect you, your family, and the Internet.
We hope these tips will help make your summer holidays a little bit more relaxing. For more tips and videos about keeping your family safe online, visit our Family Safety Centre.
Posted by: Lucinda Barlow, Marketing Manager for Google Australia and New Zealand

The Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy: Training our teachers for a digital future

Friday, November 15, 2013

There’s no doubt that the web is transforming how we learn. Being able to work together in online documents, and publish and share work with friends and family around the world, turns out to have a big impact on educational outcomes—because kids know their work is seen and cared about.
New Zealand is making a huge investment in ultra-fast broadband, and our schools will be among the first to benefit from super-fast speeds and the services that come with them. Schools like Pt England, part of the Manaiakalani cluster, are already making the most of broadband by combining traditional teaching techniques with new technology to create a blended approach to digital learning—we were so impressed by it, we featured Pt England in a video here.
Pt England provides a great example of the potential of the internet to allow children to learn more, and to bring their knowledge and ambitions home to their families. But we’d love to see even more schools across New Zealand make the most of the same blended learning approach—and see more teachers and principals trained in how to make it happen.
That’s why we’re so pleased join the Ministry of Education in supporting the new Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy, a new partnership being announced today between the Manaiakalani Education Trust and the University of Auckland.
The Academy will take the skills and successes of the Manaiakalani cluster and share them with 10 graduate teachers who will teach and train in a full immersion digital learning environment for a year.
We’ll follow the stories of the first intake of graduate teachers here on this blog, and look forward to seeing digital learning light up classrooms across New Zealand in the coming years. To learn more about other New Zealand organisations making the most of the web, sign up to get the Innovation Partnership’s weekly Get On newsletter here.Posted by Ross Young, Public Policy Manager, Google New Zealand

New Zealand Blog

Bringing hobbits, dwarves and dragons to screens everywhere

Deyvi Wilton from Christchurch wins Doodle 4 Google 2013

5 tips to help protect your kids online this summer

The Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy: Training our teachers for a digital future

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