Google recently announced that applications are now being accepted for the next Google Teacher Academy. The next GTA will be held on March 10, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. Applications are due by January 27, 2011. As always only 50 applicants will be accepted. You can learn more and apply here. If you’re interested in knowing more about the purpose of GTA, watch the video here.

I attended the Google Teacher Academy held in Washington, DC in 2009 and have some advice for applicants. Applicants are required to create a one minute video about a topic GTA specifies. For some people creating the video is the hardest part of the application. If you’re concerned about making a video, please read my reflections on the video requirement here. Here’s a part of that post:
1. The video is just one part of the application. The GTA application process is not a film production competition. If you’re not great at video production, just remember that it’s the message of the video that is more important than fancy animations and transitions. Make sure your video accurately portrays your thoughts. Watch my video and you’ll see that I lacked fancy transitions, but I made sure the audience got my message.
2. The application is designed to get a sense of your overall body of work in the educational technology community. Focus on your strengths in the application. If you have a large following on your blog, on Twitter, or you work with 3,000 teachers a year, make sure that is clear.
3. Look at other application videos for ideas. You can see mine here, this is Kevin Jarrett’s, and this one is Tara Seale’s. You’ll see three different approaches in these videos, but all three of us were accepted to GTA.