The University of Lynchburg made a big move when it hosted a Google for Education Summit, the first time such an event has ever been hosted by a small university.
The Google for Education Summit invited faculty, staff, students, and local educators for a presentation of Google Workspace. Throughout the day on Thursday, March 20, attendees heard from Google employees about the path Google is charting in the field of technological learning and became more proficient with the software.
The two-day conference consisted of two different parts. The first day was open to staff from K-12 schools and universities who were already using Google as their primary campus software and those who might be considering it.
The second day, Friday, March 21, was geared toward the University itself, with separate sessions for faculty, staff, and students. The faculty and staff sessions focused on efficiency and the student sessions focused on career development.
“More than 230 people signed up, but even more attended,” Sandra Perez, director of academic initiatives, said. “A lot more. We’ve never had an event that was so well attended by students, faculty, and staff.”
Speaking of the turnout, Chief Educational Technology Officer Charley Butcher added, “Google told us this was one of the best events they’ve ever done on a college campus.”
According to Butcher, the fact that Google was willing to come out for a special two-day event was something of a special favor to the University. He said that most schools don’t receive such attention, even larger ones.
Butcher attributes this generosity to the relationship he has cultivated with Google over the past seven years, having previously worked with Drew Sidel, head of education for Google Workspace in North America, and Leighton Spencer, East Coast liaison for schools and universities, at Google’s Boston office and with the educational nonprofit Educause. Butcher has also taught several webinars for Google on their generative AI software, Gemini.
So when Butcher and Perez met Sidel and Spencer at another Google for Education Summit at Virginia Commonwealth University, they invited them to give Lynchburg the chance to host a summit.
By the end of the meeting, Butcher said, it was a done deal. “I think in Google’s mind, it has put us on the same level as VCU, University of North Carolina Greensboro, or University of Virginia,” Butcher said. “Google values us as a partner just as much as those other schools.”
Jillian Yoerges, the University’s representative from Google, led the presentations along with Spencer. Chief among the useful AI features discussed were NotebookLM and Gemini Gems. The former is a tool for research and note taking that interacts with whatever documents the user uploads.
NotebookLM can take the content of an uploaded document and format it as PowerPoint presentations, notes, or even impressively realistic sounding podcasts.
“I can take any material I want to, plug it into NotebookLM, and it instantly creates a podcast that I can listen to as I go for a run,” Butcher explained. “I can even ask it a question, and the podcast will rewrite itself to answer that question.”
Gemini Gems, a tool for creating interactive personas, can copy the tone and writing style of whomever the user directs it to. According to Perez, this will make workflow much more efficient.
After talking with the Google reps, Butcher concluded that the University has, “one of the most robust implementations of Google software across the whole country.”
The University is encouraging all faculty and staff to use Google’s AI tools.
Perez added that she and Butcher will host workshops throughout the first week of April for faculty to practice using the technology. They will host another for students the week following. They hope a widespread use of Google’s software will foster greater collaboration across campus.
“Google is built for collaboration,” Perez said. “That’s what education should be about. It’s not about what one individual can do, it’s about learning together because we are preparing students for the workforce.”
