Since the pandemic and the more recent AI evolution, Google Classroom has added many new features. Most are aimed at helping educators serve students better while using the popular education tool that turned 10 on August 14.

Akshat Sharma, a group product manager for Google Classroom, shares his favorite new features and discusses how teachers and/or students can best utilize these.

When it comes to AI features, these are vetted by educators who participate in the Google for Education pilot program to test new technologies, including AI applications.

1. Interactive Questions on YouTube

YouTube is incredibly popular with teachers and students, which is why Sharma and the Google Classroom team are excited about the new ability built into Google Classrooms to quickly and easily allow educators to embed questions within YouTube.

“You can add questions at any time stamp,” Sharma says. These questions can be multiple choice, true or false, or short answer, and can provide instant feedback to students and give teachers data on how these were answered.

Popular AI videos also have AI-generated questions added automatically, giving teachers a jumping-off point. “The student will receive real-time feedback and can go back and rewatch segments if they need to to help them arrive at the right answer,” Sharma says.

2. Read Along

Read Along is an AI tutoring product aimed at helping students increase their reading abilities. “About 65 percent of students globally can’t read at their grade level,” Sharma says. “We are really thinking about how AI can play a major role in supporting students in their journey of reading.”

Read Along allows students to read various stories aloud. The tool will highlight the word they’re reading and offer computer-generated voice feedback as they go. The tool also encourages student success and gently points out and corrects words they might miss.

“The core idea here is we’re making it very easy for educators to support every child’s individual reading education through this AI-enabled tutor,” Sharma says. “You get real-time feedback as a student as you’re reading out loud, plus on the teacher side, you get automated insights.”

3. Google Classroom Groups

Teachers are constantly telling the Google team that they want more opportunities to differentiate learning for students, Sharma says. The new groups feature in Google Classroom grew from that.

“The idea here is that educators can define groups of students inside Classroom,” Sharma says. “When they’re assigning any of the content they can choose to assign to any of the groups instead of the entire class. That provides flexibility in how teachers might want to differentiate content. For example, if you have a set of students who are English language learners, you might want to provide some specific resources for an assignment. Or you might have a set of students who are still emerging readers and you want to create a Read Along version of that assignment.”

The new feature makes it much easier for students to run a classroom and assign materials where one size definitely does not fit all.

4. Gemini in Classroom

Gemini, Google’s most prominent generative AI technology, is now built into the teacher experience in Google Classroom. The tool within Classroom has been specifically tailored to teacher needs and can help educators kickstart their lesson ideas and brainstorm activities, making differentiating for students easier, Sharma says.

The tool also has careful safeguards in place. It does not help with grading, for instance, and is not available to students.

“AI is another tool in the tool kit but what we’re really trying to do here is make sure we can solve the educator and student’s needs,” Sharma says. “Teachers have always wanted to differentiate more in the class to meet the needs of varied learners, but it has been very hard for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons has been that curating content, creating content for specific needs has been hard, but with AI we think that becomes more possible.”

• Google Gemini: How Google's New AI Can Change Teaching
• Google for Education Certification and Exams

Vivek Chachcha, product manager for Google Workspace for Education, has advice for those looking to incorporate Duet AI into their teaching: experiment. 

“In order to figure out how it can help you the most, it’s important to try new prompts, ideas, and ways of interacting with Duet,” says Chachcha, of Google’s recently released AI model, which is the most powerful the tech giant has made available so far. 

Duet AI is integrated across many products available in Google Workspace for Education, including tools such as Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. While not currently available to students through Google Education, Duet AI provides plenty of teaching opportunities. 

Here are 6 ways how to incorporate Duet AI into your teaching, according to Chachcha. 

1. Teaching With Duet AI: Use it To Write a Lesson Plan  

Lesson planning is one quick and easy way to take Duet AI for a test drive. 

“Duet AI can create that first draft and save you precious minutes,” Chachcha says. 

To do this, go to Google Docs and select the “Help Me Write” feature, which should appear as an option as soon as you enter text. Similarly, you can use Duet to draft quiz questions, emails, and more. 

2. Use Duet AI To Create Timelines, Itemize, and More  

Similarly, teachers can experiment with Duet in sheets. The Duet sidebar will appear on the right-hand side panel and will offer to help perform many different tasks. 

“Duet in Sheets can help you create timelines, map dependencies, and itemize the tasks,” Chachcha says. The tool can also help create formulas for different spreadsheet calculations. 

3. Use Duet AI For Summarization  

“Ever dread returning to a full inbox after a conference, a sick day or a vacation?” Chachcha asks. “Educators have so many emails and docs to look through. Duet can help summarize that content to make it easier to sift through.”  

This can be done by selecting the Duet AI tab icon – located next to the gear settings icon. That will open up a dialog sidebar with the AI that includes suggested prompts such as “What’s this email about?” 

4. Remember It’s Not Currently Available to Students Through Google Education 

“Right now, our focus with Duet is empowering educators,” Chachcha says. “Currently, we are limiting access to these tools to 18+ users because we’ve heard feedback that schools want the chance to rigorously test these tools in their school environments.”  

In the meantime, students can learn from materials a teacher creates with the help of AI. 

5. Make Your Voice Heard on How This Technology Evolves  

One common concern from some educators is the potential technologies such as Duet AI have to allow students to cheat. 

“The goal with any education technology is not to encourage cheating but to support students outside their class time, when they don’t have access to teachers, costly tutors or another trusted educator,” Chachcha says. “We are hearing from teachers that they broadly understand how to structure their assessments to proctor situations when open web access isn’t allowed, and are experts in coaching students on how to appropriately use online resources in other situations. Still, we are partnering with teacher communities, education organizations, and experts to understand their perspectives and gain feedback as the technology and usage evolves.”  

6.  Use it For More Than Writing 

“Duet is most often understood as writing because that’s the easiest connection to draw, but it has so much more to offer,” Chachcha says. “You can pick any subject -- it can help you write a practice quiz for fifth-grade geometry, a summary on historical events you’re teaching in tenth-grade history, or an explanation of why the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell for all of us who may have forgotten in the years since eighth-grade biology. The goal with Duet AI is to help elevate the educators so they can focus on what’s truly important to them.”  

• Duet AI for Google Workspace: How to Use It for Teaching
• 7 Ways to Detect AI Writing Without Technology

The best Google Docs Add-ons are often free, easy to access, and offer ways to make teaching more time effective. Yup, you probably wonder why you hadn't searched these out before. Some things just seems too good to be true!

Without getting too carried away -- as there are some poor Add-ons out there too -- it is worth knowing what to look for when selecting the best picks for you. More and more of these are appearing regularly and not all are aimed at educators. But find the right ones and Google Docs can be more powerful than your current setup.

If you're already using Google Classroom then you're likely au fait with Google Docs too. It is well-integrated, and makes sharing and marking submitted work very straight forward. Add-ons, often created by third-parties, offer ways of integrating other tools into the Docs framework, so you can go beyond word processing to offer more creative freedom in the way you work.

Google Docs Add-ons are easily added to your current setup, and there is a guide on just how to do that further down in this article. It's worth checking out as you can do useful things such as embed a YouTube video in a document or easily create a bibliography automatically -- and plenty more.

Here's what you need to know about Google Add-ons and which are the best for you.

• Best Tools for Teachers
• How do I use Google Classroom?

What are the best Google Docs Add-ons?

Add-ons are created by third parties, so each one is usually created to fill a certain need. For this reason there are many created specifically for teachers and ideal for education.

Currently, there are more than 500 add-ons specifically available for Google Docs. That's a lot of options to pick from! So we've gone through to find the very best for your needs as a teacher. But first, here's how to install one.

How to Install Google Docs Add-ons

First, fire up Google Docs on your device. Navigate to the top menu bar and there you will see a dedicated dropdown option called "Add-ons." Select this then the "Get Add-ons" option.

This will open a new window in which you can browse through the various add-ons available. Since we're going to give you a selection of the best options below, you can simply type what you want into the search bar.

In the pop-up window you can see more about the add-on when you select it. To install, you just need to select the blue "+ FREE" icon to the right. Allow permissions when required and select the blue "Accept" button. 

Now when you want to use an add-on, simply go to the Add-ons menu in Docs and installed options will be there for you to open and use.

Best Google Docs Add-ons for Teachers

1. EasyBib Bibliography Creator

The EasyBib Bibliography Creator is one of the best ways for both teachers and students to add proper citation to assignments. This works for both web-based citation and books and/or periodicals. 

The add-on will work with lots of popular formats, from APA and MLA to Chicago, with more than 7,000 styles supported.

To use, simply add the book title or the URL link to the add-on bar and it will automatically generate the citation in the selected style. Then, at the end of the paper, simply select the "Generate bibliography" option and the entire bibliography for the assignment will be populated at the bottom of the document. 

• Get the EasyBib Bibliography Creator Google Docs add-on

2. DocuTube

The DocuTube add-on is a really smart way to make integrating video into documents a far more seamless process. It is especially useful for teachers who use Google Classroom and want to integrate written guidance, or an introduction, with a YouTube video but without requiring the student to leave the document. 

You can still drop YouTube links into the Doc as you would normally, only now DocuTube will automatically detect these links and open each one in a pop-out window within Docs. It's a simple but very effective tool that helps maintain focus within the flow of a document while still allowing you to add rich media into the layout.

• Get the DocuTube Google Docs add-on

3. Easy Accents

The Easy Accents add-on is a great way to work within Docs while using different languages. It allows you as a teacher, or your students, to easy and quickly add the correctly accented letters to special character words.

This is ideal for foreign language teachers and students as well as for faculty who always want to have the option available for proper spelling. Simply select the language from the side-bar and then pick from the selection of accented letters, which will appear and can be selected to have each one instantly inserted. No more trying to remember keyboard shortcuts like in the days of old!

• Get the Easy Accents Google Docs add-on

4. MindMeister

The MindMeister add-on turns any normal Google Docs bulleted list into a far more engaging mind map. With it, you can take a subject and expand it in a visually engaging way without losing the flow of the document as a whole.

MindMeister will take the first point of your bulleted list and make it the root of the mind map while the other first-level points are turned into first-level topics, second-level ones into second, and so on. Everything branches off from the central point for a visually clear and engaging result. This mind map is then automatically inserted into the Doc below the list.

• Get the MindMeister Google Docs add-on

5. draw.io Diagrams

Diagrams is a great add-on from draw.io that allows you to be far more creative within Google Docs when it comes to images. From flow charts to mocking up websites and apps, it allows you to really express design ideas with an ease of use that makes it ideal for both teachers and students.

Not only will this let you create from scratch, but you can also import from the likes of Gliffy, Lucidchart, and .vsdx files.

• Get the draw.io Diagrams Google Docs add-on

6. MathType

The MathType add-on for Docs is ideal for STEM classes as well as mathematics and physics teachers and students as it allows for easy typing and even written entry of mathematical symbols. The add-on also supports the easy editing of math equations, something that's great to be able to do from anywhere, thanks to the cloud-based nature of Docs.

You can pick from an established selection of math equations and symbols or, if you have a touchscreen device, it's also possible to write directly into the add-on. 

• Get the MathType Google Docs add-on

7. Kaizena

The Kaizena add-on for Google Docs is a really simple yet effective way to give personalized feedback to students that is more easily digested than simple annotations. This add-on lets you leave voice feedback.

Simply highlight a chunk of text you want to comment on and you are able to record your voice to be heard right there in the Doc by your students. Similarly, they can make comments and ask questions on any documents without the constraints of typing. Students who struggle with the written word or respond well to a more human interaction may really appreciate this add-on.

This is also a nice way to collaborate on documents with fellow teachers.

• Get the Kaizena Google Docs add-on

8. ezNotifications for Docs

The ezNotifications for Docs is a great add-on for tracking how your students are working. It will allow you to be notified, via email, when someone is editing a Doc you have shared. 

This is a helpful way to keep an eye on students who are missing deadlines and could perhaps do with a gentle reminder nudge just before work is due, if you see they've not started. 

While you can activate alerts for changes in Google Docs, it can also offer control levels so you avoid being pestered too much. 

• Get the ezNotifications for Docs Google Docs add-on

The latest Google for Education update has landed and with it come a host of new abilities and features to help teachers get more out of their tech in the classroom and beyond.

Google has announced updates for Google Classroom, Meet, Slides, Docs, Sheets, Chrome, and more, with new features for admins, teachers, and students.

In the face of faster technological developments owing to AI and data analytics jumps forward, Google has been focusing on how that affects education. It has landed on a few key points, including being more collaborative, accessible, and privacy-forward in the learning experience. 

As such, Google Classroom has been given an AI boost to help to grow with these changes so as to best serve educators, students, and admins. Here are the most important updates that have landed in this new Google for Education update.

Google for Education update: Google Classroom gets AI

Google Classroom has been upgraded to start taking advantage of what artificial intelligence has to offer. One area this has been introduced is in creating practice sets. Now as educators create questions they will be offered suggestions on skills that they may wish to focus on, for example, solving equations with decimals or writing thesis statements. 

Crucially, if students get stuck while working through these questions sets, based on the skills selected by the teachers, the AI-powered system will be able to offer them helpful hints to ensure progress.

YouTube AI

Google has also given YouTube a teacher-focused AI upgrade. Now, using Classroom, teachers will be able to add questions to YouTube videos that are actually interactive. 

Consequently, students can answer questions as the video plays, with real-time feedback. Teachers can then see how students are progressing through the set video and questions set task. 

Smart canvas get upgraded

Following last year's launch of smart canvas in Docs, Sheets, and Slides -- through which collaboration can happen -- Google has upgraded the experience. Now teachers are able to enter a smart canvas in Docs and add a timer for class activities, insert a stopwatch, and create custom building blocks. 

Soon there will also be the ability to add voting chips within Docs too. But that's not all the features that have had upgrades. Slides and Meet have also have gotten an overhaul.

AI in Meet and Slides upgrade

Google has added AI to Meet, which is now intelligently able to recognize when a student raises a hand. This will then be able to activate the hand raise icon automatically so that teachers are notified, ensuring students wishing to contribute don't get missed.

Slides in Meet has been updated to offer co-presenting as a feature in the new version. This allows two teachers to manages slides at the same time while presenting to a class over the Meet system.

• Google Education Tools and Apps
• 5 Google Classroom Tips From Its Developers

A global study of the future of education by Google for Education has identified three key education trends: 

1. A rising demand for global problem-solvers 
2. The skill sets required for work are evolving
3. Embracing a lifelong learning mindset is necessary 

For the research, Google for Education collaborated with Canvas8 and American Institutes for Research to conduct a global study in 24 countries. The report, the first of a three-part series, draws on interviews with 94 educational experts and two years of peer-reviewed academic literature and a media narrative analysis.  

To Jennie Magiera, Global Head of Education Impact at Google, the research affirmed what many educators are already doing. “I found this whole report deeply validating for me, in saying, ‘Yes, the way that I was teaching was right,’” says Magiera, a veteran math and science middle grader teacher who worked in Chicago Public Schools. “It wasn't me just going off to left field and being creative for no reason. It was really goal-oriented in supporting my students in getting ready for success as they enter the workforce.” 

Education Trends: The Need for Global Problem-Solvers  

“As we think about 'global,' oftentimes we're just thinking about global such as geographic. We're using 'global' in this trend, both in terms of the space – I am Jenny from Chicago, but I'm also Jenny of planet Earth of the entire world – and also global as my whole self, like that whole child learner concept,” Magiera says. 

To bolster this more holistic approach to education and the term "global," teachers should focus on helping students understand their place in the world and how their actions impact others. “We want to make sure our learners have a support system so that we can give them positive support when they're in difficult circumstances, so that they can feel confident and secure in their own space as their own self,” Magiera says. “That then allows them to have empathy with one another and with their neighbors, both local and global.” 

Building New Skill Sets 

“By 2025 we'll see 97 million new jobs created, and 85 million existing roles disappear,” Magiera says. “When you hear that you can immediately go to the 85 million roles that will disappear, and be like, ‘Robots are taking over the world. Skynet, the Terminator.' No.” 

However, look closer at those numbers and you’ll realize that the net gain will be 12 million new jobs. “There's a huge push, obviously for computer science and making sure that we're supporting students and understanding the new digital languages of today and tomorrow,” Magiera says. “The World Economic Forum identified the skills with growing demand for employers within the next few years and they named analytical thinking and innovation, active learning, complex problem-solving, critical thinking, analysis and creativity, originality, and initiative.” 

Teachers can prioritize these skills by incorporating the real world into the lessons and exercises they assign. “Having been a middle-grade math and science teacher, when I think about that, I could teach math in a lot of ways. I could give my students a packet of worksheets and be like, 'Do 100, practice sets of multiplication,'” Magiera says. “Or I could give them authentic real-world situations that require them to utilize mathematical knowledge, like multiplication, and engage them in problem-solving.” 

Adopting teaching approaches such as project-based learning and phenomenon-based learning can help foster these desired sills.

Developing a Life-Long Learning Mindset 

The report predicts that as many as half the children born today living in some countries will live to be 100. As the lifespan increases, Google for Education’s report calls for expanding the learning span as well. 

For educators, that means continuing to learn new skills during their career as well as helping students realize that learning is a lifelong pursuit. Magiera would emphasize this to her students through classroom guests. “I'm a big fan of modeling, and I'd love to bring real-world examples into my classroom,” she says. “I brought in a friend's father who was an architect, but he started off in a completely different field and had three or four different chapters and acts to his life where he had different careers and he was variably successful in each.” 

Magiera’s sister, Kat Cho, is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult science fiction and fantasy, yet began her career as a cancer researcher. “I've had her speak with students about following their passions and being open to change,” she says. “It’s that growth mindset versus that fixed mindset that educators are constantly trying to teach children. It’s not, ‘This is who you are forever. This is the way it is,’ but that growth mindset of ‘It's always possible to change your skill sets, your identity, your approach to things and what you're good at.’” 

• 5 Edtech Research Trends & Needs For The Future
• Does Growth Mindset Work

Pear Deck is a presentation tool that uses slides in a way that's more interactive than other software allows. The idea is to create a presentation situation that's more engaging and makes for an ideal teaching tool.

Not only can students follow slides to learn, as in any presentation, but here they can use their personal devices to interact. That can mean answering questions, participating in a poll, and plenty more. This is a tool that allows the imagination of a teacher to carry the class into more immersive learning spaces.

Based on Google Slides, this is a really easy way to enhance presentations for anyone, but is especially well-suited to those schools already invested in the Google ecosystem.

So from testing a class knowledge on a subject before teaching to working on exit tickets to assess mastery and beyond, this is a very powerful tool. This guide aims to lay out all you need to know to see if Pear Deck is right for your class.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Digital Tools for Teachers

What is Pear Deck?

Pear Deck is a Google Slides add-on designed to help teachers create engaging slide show-style content for the classroom. Since this is Google-integrated, it allows teachers to create or edit presentations right there from within their own Google account.

The idea is to combine slide presentations with interactive questions to help advance inquiry-based learning. This allows students to work independently both in the classroom as well as remotely.

Pear Deck allows teachers to see the deck live so they can see who is participating at that moment. Student responses appear on the teacher's screen in real time, even if working remotely.

Teachers can create, share, and present their Pear Deck presentations directly from a laptop or tablet easily. There are apps but user reviews are not great as there are some usability issues – so it's often easier to use this via a web browser.

What's New in Pear Deck?

For back to school 2024, Pear Deck has made available Instant Pear Decks, which enables teachers to create standards-aligned classroom content in under 30 seconds. Using generative AI technology, Instant Pear Decks seamlessly generate customized lessons, mini-instructions, and activities based on selected grade level, subject, academic standard, and user prompts.

Pear Deck also has its content orchard, which is always growing. Recently it added a selection of new ELA standards-aligned lessons as well as those that focus on math. A selection of templates is available that can be edited by teachers to give the ideal lesson while also offering resources to test student comprehension.

Video Quiz is a newly updated tool that now allows teachers to access a library of more than 100 pieces of science content, complete with questions and drawing tools. Also added is an ability to search for YouTube content directly in the Pear Assessment and the ability to prevent skipping to ensure students watch the videos set.

In addition, Pear Deck recently added SEL resources as well as Next Generation Personal Finance lessons, in addition improving assessment and tutoring tools.

How does Pear Deck work?

Pear Deck allows teachers to create slide show-style presentations using their Google Slides account. This can be done from scratch, however, there is a huge selection of templates to work with, making the process easy.

While building, teachers can pick from four question types:

• Draggable questions with agree/disagree or thumbs up/down.
• Drawing questions with a free space or grid for students to draw in.
• Free response questions with short text, long text, or number capabilities.
• Multiple choice questions with response of yes/no, true/false, or A,B,C,D.

Once a project is created, teachers are given a short code that can be sent to students, easily done within Google Classroom or via other means. The student goes to the Pear Deck website and can input the code to be taken to the presentation.

Student responses appear on the teacher's screen in real time, with the option to lock student screens to prevent them from changing their answers. Likewise, during the presentation, teachers can backtrack to previous slides to add in impromptu questions.

What are the best Pear Deck features?

Pear Deck offers lots of resources for teachers to help in creating and working with presentations. A sample question gallery, help articles, and a user forum are among the highlights, as well as lots of ideas for teachers to work from.

The system conveniently works with both traditional projectors as well as interactive whiteboards. The fact it integrates perfectly with anything that's in the Google infrastructure makes this super simple to use for those schools already working with Google systems.

The anonymity of each student is brilliant, allowing the teacher to see how the class is working, live, and have it up on the big screen if needed, but without anyone feeling shy about being singled out. This is ideal for both in class and remote learning.

The ability to add audio to slides is a nice touch as it can allow teachers to quickly add a personal note on work – ideal if this is being done remotely.

The teacher dashboard is a useful addition that allows teachers to see how everyone is progressing. They can pause, slow down, back up, and generally adapt to the way the class is working so everyone is kept involved.

How much does Pear Deck cost?

Pear Deck comes in three packages:

Free: Offers most of the main feature including creation of lessons, Google and Microsoft integration, student Locks and Timers, templates to use, and access to a Flashcard Factory.

Individual Premium at $149.99 per year: This has all of the above as well as the ability to view and highlight responses by name, support remote and asynchronous work with Student Paced mode, add draggable and drawable responses, add on-the-fly questions and activities, share student progress with Takeaways, get Immersive Reader, add audio to slides, and more.

Schools and districts at a custom price: All of the above plus efficacy reports, training, dedicated support, and LMS integrations with Canvas and Schoology

Pear Deck Best Tips and Tricks

Present live
Use the classroom screen to control a presentation while combining student personal device interactivity to engage, live.

Get listening
Record your voice directly onto a slide to give it a more personal feel, ideal for when students are accessing the presentation from home.

Question the class
Use multiple choice questions that allow you to pace the presentation, only moving on once everyone in the class has given an answer from their device.

Go blank
Use blank slides throughout the presentation as a space for students to creatively express their understanding as you work through the material.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Digital Tools for Teachers

Google Classroom add-ons are a new feature from Google Classroom designed to allow educators to seamlessly use other edtech tools in conjunction with Google’s popular learning platform. 

This integration is designed to save both students and teachers time by doing away with the multiple sign-ins previously required if they wanted to utilize Google Classroom and additional tools. 

In a recent announcement about the new feature, Google said it was initially partnering with 18 tools for Google Classroom add-ons. The first 18 Google Classroom add-ons are some of the most popular edtech tools, including Edpuzzle, Nearpod, and Kahoot!.

Here’s what you need to know about Google Classroom add-ons. 

What Are Google Classroom Add-Ons? 

Google Classroom add-ons provide educators with the option of utilizing additional edtech tools without the need for additional sign-ins and accounts. The add-ons make grading easier for educators with integrated features such as auto-grading and grade syncing. All of the add-ons sync with the Google Classroom grade book and some provide the option to include personalized feedback when sharing a grade with a student. 

In addition, by allowing educators and their students to do more from Google Classroom, the add-ons are designed to save time for both teachers and students. Now students won’t have to remember multiple passwords and login details if their teacher wants to use Google Classroom and a tool such as Kahoot! 

Cutting down on the number of student logins is always a plus. In the past, I’ve avoided incorporating certain edtech tools that I liked because I didn’t want to require students to create a new login or learn a new system. The introduction of Google Classroom add-ons essentially eliminates that concern if you are teaching a class that has a need for one of the add-on tools. 

What Tools Are Available From Google Classroom Add-ons?

The initial 18 tools are: Adobe Express for Education, BookWidgets, CK-12, Edpuzzle, Formative, Genially, Google Arts & Culture, Google Play Books, IXL, Kahoot!, Nearpod, Newsela, PBS LearningMedia, Pear Deck, SAFARI Montage, Sora from OverDrive Education, WeVideo, and Wordwall. 

Educators may need to email their administrators to remind them to enable specific add-ons. Google is also asking educators to provide feedback through Google Classroom on potential new add-on partners.

How Do I Use Google Classroom Add-ons? 

Before a teacher can use Google Classroom add-ons, an administrator from their district needs to set up add-ons by going to the Google Admin console and then navigating to the “Billing” or “User” page. Once in one of these pages, admins can assign licenses to individual teachers. However, in order to use add-ons, each individual teacher needs to have the Google Workspace for Education Plus edition or Teaching & Learning Upgrade assigned. 

After the administrator from the district has set up the add-ons feature and assigned it to each individual educator, teachers can find an add-ons module in the Assignment and Stream screens of Google Classroom. This will take teachers to a list of the available add-ons for their district. 

 Google Classroom Add-ons Tips and Tricks  

Free Support
Google has several free resources, including a presentation and lesson plan, designed to help educators integrate Google Classroom add-ons. These are useful for administrators looking to share the tool with their staff as well as individual teachers who want to learn more about how to best utilize the feature. 

Work Smarter
Use Google Classroom add-ons to cut down on the login information both educators and students need to remember. Having the tools accessible from one platform helps streamline your class and makes it easier for everyone. 

Consolidate Grading
Use Google Classroom add-ons to grade student work in one centralized location. Allowing students to find all their grade information and instructor feedback in one place can help them focus on the content of their studies rather than the medium by which it is delivered. 

Read Up
Because Google Classroom add-ons are not providing new tools, educators who utilize the add-ons will want to read our individual guides on many of the tools including Edpuzzle, IXL, Kahoot!, Nearpod, Newsela, Pear Deck, and WeVideo. 

• What is Google Classroom? 
• What is Edpuzzle and How Does It Work?
• Kahoot! Lesson Plan for Elementary Grades
• Pear Deck: Best Tips And Tricks For Teaching

The latest Google Docs update and Google Workspace enhancements have been announced to help teachers, students, and admins.

The Google Docs update, aimed at educators and students, includes a new search functionality to help make adding citations far easier. Also added is a new automated entry function, which aims to speed up repetitive work, a bit like using a smartphone's auto-typing.

The Google Workspace update, aimed at admins, allows you to assign SSO profiles to organizations or groups with the SAML Partial SSO feature. This was already available as a beta previously but has now been rolled out to everyone.

• More Google updates could affect you as an educator

Google Docs update: new search and auto entry

The new automated entry feature for the updated Google Docs is all about taking the work out of citations. This not only helps with adding the source to a document but will also make sure the formatting is done correctly.

This is useful both to educators and students. While it will make life easier for students, it's important they still learn how citations work so the automated part can be checked correctly.

The process uses simple drop-down menus to let users input the information needed to add the correct citation to the work.

In the citations sidebar you select the plus icon that says "Add citation source," and pick the source and how to access it, perhaps via a URL weblink or ISBN book number. Then enter or edit source information after it is populated in the fields. 

For in-text citations, leave the cursor where you want to place it, hover over the citation in the sidebar you want to cite, and select the Cite button.

For a bibliography, simply place the cursor where you want it to appear, and then in the citations sidebar, click Insert Bibliography. Simple.

Assign SSO profiles in Google Workspace

The new Google Workspace update is aimed at admins with a view to helping make SSO configuration an easier process. Previously a beta offering, this is now available to all to use.

As standard, when you configure an SSO with a third-party identity provider, that will apply to your entire domain. If you want to split users to authenticate with Google instead, perhaps for vendors or contractors, you can now do that.

The feature called Partial SSO lets you specify authenticator methods as needed. To do this, head into the Admin Console and select Security then Settings. In here pick the Set up single sign-on (SSO) with a third party IdP. Then pick the Manage SSO Profile assignments option.

Both the Google Docs update and the Google Workspace updates have rolled out and should be available on your device now or very soon.

• More Google updates could affect you as an educator

Google Jamboard is an interactive, multidimensional edtech tool that can be used in a wide range of learning settings (online, face-to-face, dual audience) to connect students to learning materials in a collaborative way. For an overview of Jamboard and a breakdown of its unique features and recent updates, check out “How to Use Google Jamboard, for Teachers.” 

Jamboard can be used in any academic subject and to teach any topic. Below, is a sample lesson plan that describes just one of the many ways that Jamboard can be used to bring learning to life. 

Subject: Science 

Topic: Anatomy and Physiology  

Grade Band: Middle and High School  

Learning Objectives: 

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to: 

• Identify the major body parts of the human body
• Describe the functions of the organs within a human body

Teacher Pre-Planning  

Before facilitating the lesson, review the different annotation features within Jamboard with students, and encourage them to use a wide variety of colors and drawing options. Jamboard allows for the use of simulated drawing tools such as a paint brush, highlighter, pen, and markers. 

In addition to writing on the Jamboard with one of the drawing tools, digitally integrated sticky notes in different colors can be used to help organize the content. For this sample anatomy and physiology lesson, you may want students to use different colors or drawing tools to identify the different body parts and organs. 

Finally, since the content is focused on the human body, pre-select appropriate images that students can label and save to a shared Google Doc. Other options for selecting an image file on Jamboard include uploading from a file on your device, by the image’s URL, with the camera feature, or searching in Google Photos. 

Teacher Instruction 

Google Jamboard features frames, similar to a PowerPoint or Google Slide presentation. Each Jamboard can have up to 20 frames. On the first Jamboard frame, have the pre-identified image(s) uploaded through the Google Drive file select feature. Then, go over each body part to provide an understanding of the official names and functions. Students can contribute to the Jamboard by labeling and adding notes while you, as the teacher, are instructing. 

Peer Exploration 

In subsequent frames, students can focus on one or more of the organs. For example, you can have students work in small teams with each one responsible for a particular organ. Since all students, regardless of their physical location, will have access to the Jamboard, they can all simultaneously contribute to the learning activity. 

For each frame focused on a particular organ, you could require the students to add the following:

• A unique background (either from the Jamboard options or one you upload)
• An image of the organ
• A sticky note with the official definition
• Annotated notes around the organ, explaining the function
• A table or diagram illustrating how different body parts and/or other organs are connected to the organ
• A fun fact related to the organ

The frame(s) can remain on Jamboard, saved as an image, or downloaded as a PDF. The saved work might be helpful as quick study guides for subsequent assessments.  

Sharing Learning 

Google Jamboard integrates seamlessly into the virtual conferencing Google Meet platform. After each team or student has completed their Jamboard, they can go into present mode and share their work, right from the Jamboard.  

How Can Google Jamboard be Used to Support Dual Audience Learning? 

As mentioned above, Google Jamboard is an extremely flexible and versatile edtech tool that can be used in a variety of learning settings. As students continue to learn online at home as well as in person, Jamboard has the potential to authentically connect students who are learning in either environment at the same time. Students can use their individual devices to contribute to the lesson as well as work on content independently. 

With Jamboard being part of the GSuite family of tools, everything is saved automatically, and students can pick up where they left off, regardless of if they change locations or even the device that they use.

• How to Use Google Jamboard, for Teachers
• Top Edtech Lesson Plans

The 3D interactive online exploration platform Google Earth provides a pathway to endless learning adventures around the globe. For an overview of Google Earth and a breakdown of its unique features, check out How to Use Google Earth for Teaching. 

Below, is a sample Google Earth lesson plan geared toward elementary and middle school that is focused on teaching geography. It is important to note that while geography is a natural fit for leveraging Google Earth, other content areas and Google Earth tips and tricks for teaching can be used. 

Subject: Geography  

Topic: Landforms 

Grade Band: Elementary/Middle  

Learning Objectives: 

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to: 

• Locate different types of landforms across the world 
• Describe characteristics of landforms on different continents 

Starter 

To start the lesson, go to the Google Earth home page and make sure students can see your screen. For online classes, students should be within the LMS that you are using for a live virtual class, and for in-person learning, students can see your computer screen either on their individual devices or on a larger screen in the classroom. Type in the search window the type of landform you would like to show students. For elementary students, you may want to focus on a few simple landforms, such as a lake, hill, and desert. For upper elementary and middle school students, you can add to the list and also review mountains, oceans, and plains. 

Guided Exploration 

After you have shown students examples and described each landform, students will explore Google Earth by searching for landforms across the world. Have students choose any three continents to focus on, and discover one type of landform on each continent. For example, you could have elementary students start with locating a lake, hill, and desert in North America, Asia, and Africa, while you may want middle school students to also locate a lake, hill, desert, mountain, ocean, and plain in Europe, Australia, and South America in addition to North America, Asia, and Africa. 

Using a comparison note sheet, students would fill in as they locate the different landforms. The comparison note sheet could be created on a Google Doc with columns in which students can enter the landform type, the continent location, and some of the characteristics (size, shape, color, and unique features). Once the student is on the specific landform in Google Earth, facts and characteristics about it will appear in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. You may also want to have additional columns for the specific name and country within the continent (e.g. “Mount Kilimanjaro“ and “Tanzania” instead of just “mountains”). 

Extending the Learning

As students finish their landforms exploration lesson, you could have them explore the continent of Antarctica and discover additional landforms. You could also have students   continue to pursue Google Earth and engage with the Games and Quizzes feature or take Guided Tour of one of the landforms or related areas that they explored during the lesson. 

As an alternative, you may want to use the Guided Tour feature to get students acclimated and excited about Google Earth and introduce it at the beginning of the lesson.  

Technical Tips 

Google Earth has a variety of features that can assist students in navigating the virtual globe. It may be helpful to have a cheat sheet available for students that can be easily accessed during the lesson that reminds students how to zoom in, rotate, and tilt within Google Docs. It may also be helpful to create a screencast for students to view as needed that demonstrates how to use the search navigation feature. 

Google Earth creates an exciting and immersive experience for students, and with traveling across the world being a difficult feat, they can at least see amazing sites virtually. Google Earth can be used as an interdisciplinary tool as well, particularly connecting social studies, world history and environmental science with geography. 

• Top Edtech Lesson Plans
• Padlet Lesson Plan for Middle and High School

Google for Education has seen a host of new updates rolled out ahead of the 2021-22 school year. The announcements were made for teachers, admins, and education leaders to help them "rebuild" and plan the future.

Updates have been announced, at time of publishing, for Google Classroom, Google Workspace for Education (formerly G Suite for Education), Google Meet and Chromebooks.

Below are the updates broken down by software so you can pick out which best applies to you.

• Google Classroom 2021 review

Google for Education: Google Classroom

• Roster Import: This feature is made for admins who need to setup classes in large numbers as it automates this, syncing with an SIS, and works using Clever.
• Classroom Add-ons: These have been added as a way to integrate useful content easily within Classroom. Admins can pre-install for teacher ease.
• New Student Activity Dashboard: Schedule assignments across several classes at once, and access Meet and Classroom more easily for better student engagement. 
• Offline Work: Students will be able to start work , review, and write assignments, and add attachments, all offline.
• Student Activity: Teachers will be able to see when a student was last active online, commented in class, or submitted work.

Google Meet updates

• New Admin Controls: Force break-out room students back into the main room and end meetings from the investigation tool.
• Waiting Room: Students will need to sit in a waiting room until a teacher joins the link.
• Multiple Moderators: Meet will support more moderators and will automatically make co-teachers co-hosts in the room.
• Privacy: Guests outside of the class roster will have to ask to join so nobody can just enter uninvited.
• Live Stream: Events can be publicly live-streamed to YouTube.
• Translation: Live translation captions are an option.

Google Workspace for Education

• Smart Canvas Updates: Better collaboration with Smart Chips to pull in information from other Workspace products (Docs, Sheets, and Slides), which means interactive checklists to mark bulleted items as done, table templates in Docs, and analysis for Docs and Sheets to find offensive language and style suggestions automatically.
• Security: Updates for Drive as well as enhancements for Education Plus and Standard.

Chromebooks updated

• Individualization: For schools giving individual Chromebooks to students, the addition of PIN logins can help make this easier.
• Chrome Insight Reports: Ease for admins to see when Automatic Update Expiration is coming.
• Magnifiers: A full-screen magnifier now has a new panning method for ease.
• ChromeVox: Now comes with new tutorials to help use the Chrome screen reader.

• Google Classroom 2021 review

Google Classroom is the most popular digital tool in education, due to its cost (free!) and the multitude of easy-to-use apps and resources related to it.

Google Education Tools and Apps 

What’s New in Google for Education?
Explore the latest updates to Google for Education, including all the exciting new AI features.

These Are The New Google For Education Features Teachers Need To Know About
From Google Classroom and Meet to Workspace and Chrome OS, these Google for Education updates are worth knowing

Best Google Tools for English Language Learners
Tech and Learning’s guide explains the best Google tools for English language learners—and the best ways to use them.

Google AI Tools

Duet AI For Teaching: 6 Tips from Google’s Workspace for Education Manager
Duet AI is integrated across many products available in Google Workspace for Education, including tools such as Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets.

Google Gemini: How Google’s New AI Can Change Teaching
Gemini has the ability to understand, combine, and work across multiple forms of data, including text, code, images, videos, and audio.

Google Learn About
Described by Google as a “conversational learning companion,” it's essentially a Wikipedia-style chatbot/search engine, and then some.

Google Classroom

The 4 Best New Features For Google Classroom
Akshat Sharma, a group product manager for Google Classroom, shares his favorite new features and discusses how teachers and/or students can best use them.

What is Google Classroom?
Google Classroom is a suite of online tools that allows teachers to set assignments, have work submitted by students, to mark and return graded papers, and more.

Google Classroom Review
Google Classroom uses the Google ecosystem of tools such as Docs and Slides, for easy materials sharing, and helps simplify student work evaluation.

How Do I Use Google Classroom?
Google Classroom allows teachers to teach remotely with features such as being able to set assignments, post announcements, share resources, communicate, and grade papers with annotations.

How to Setup Google Classroom
If you’re a new teacher looking to set up a class, a student interested in how the platform works, or a guardian looking to learn more about Google Classroom, this start-up guide will help.

Google Classroom for Teachers: A How To Guide
Everything a teacher needs to know about using Google Classroom to its fullest.

What Are Google Classroom Add-Ons? Tips & Tricks
Explore Google Classroom add-ons, which allow educators to integrate other digital tools into Classroom.

Google Docs

Google Docs Update And WorkSpace Enhancements For Educators
Learn all about the latest Google Docs and Google Workspace updates for educators, students and admins, including a new search functionality and new automated entry function.

Best Google Docs Add-ons for Teachers
A Google Doc add-on is a software addition that allows educators to expand the capabilities of Google Docs so they can be more creative in helping students learn most effectively.

Best Student Templates for Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drawings
These templates are great for students who want a quick and easy Doc, Slide, Sheet or Drawing.

Google Earth

How to Use Google Earth for Teaching
Google Earth is a powerful and free-to-use online tool that lets anyone travel the world, virtually.

Best Google Earth Tips and Tricks for Teaching
The best Google Earth tips and tricks for teaching can help turn a classroom, or remote learning experience, into a mind-expanding trip limited only by imagination.

Google Forms

What is Google Forms and How Can It Be Used by Teachers?
Google Forms is a quick and easy way to leverage a form-based system to create online quizzes, make grading faster and simpler.

5 Ways to Prevent Cheating on Your Google Form Quiz
Here are five tips for designing "cheat proof" Google Forms!

Google Jamboard

Using Google Jamboard Before It Is Shut Down in 2025
Google is sunsetting Jamboard on Dec. 31, 2024.

Google Maps

What is Google Maps and How Can it Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks
Google maps isn't just for driving directions. Learn how to use the free tool to teach geography, history and more.

Google Meet

How to Use Google Meet Grid View and More Tips for Teachers
Google Meet is a popular free-to-use video conferencing tool that replaces Google Hangouts and can be used to hold group or one-to-one video chats.

6 Tips for Teaching with Google Meet
A variety of lessons can be presented over video with Google Meet, from teaching the history of the Iroquois Confederation, the parts of speech, or how radioactive decay works. Here’s how to make the most of the platform.

Google Play Books 

What is Reading Practice? The Google Play Books Feature Explained
The new feature available in Google Play Books and Google Kids Space allows young readers to track reading position, hear words sounded out and much more.

Google Scholar

6 Google Scholar Tips From Its Co-Creator
These six tips will help you use Google Scholar in your classroom instruction.

Google Sheets

What is Google Sheets and How Does It Work for Teachers?
Google Sheets is a cloud-based spreadsheet tool that allows teachers to create useful spreadsheets for planning class, grading, and organizing resources, activity reviews, quizzes, and more.

Google Sites

How to Use Google Sites, Tips and Tricks
Google Sites is a free, easy-to-use website building and publishing tool that's ideal for use by teachers and students.

Google Slides

What is Google Slides and How Can It Be Used by Teachers?
Google Slides is a free and super simple presentation tool akin to PowerPoint that teachers can use to create presentations and learning resources.

Google Slides Review
Google Slides is the online presentation tool for teachers to create free resources for students, presentations and more.

How To Turn Google Slides Into An Animated GIF
Many tools to make animated GIFs are available, but it is always helpful to find one that is free and super easy to use with Google tools.

4 Best Free and Easy Audio Recording Tools for Google Slides
Four excellent, free options for recording audio right in a web browser, and then how to add that audio to Google Slides.

Grackle

What is Grackle and How Can It Be Used to Improve Accessibility?
Grackle is software designed to help make digital files more accessible. It makes sharing files easier and everyone will be able to open and see anything they're sent.

• Best Tools for Teachers
• What is Google Classroom?
• Best Chrome Extensions for Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a powerful but very easy to use learning management system (LMS) that works with many other third-party apps and services to make digital educating far more easy, affordable, and accessible for teachers, students, guardians and admins alike.

You may have already used Google's own tools such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, making Classroom easy to get to grips with. 

The necessity for remote learning has forced it to be adopted more quickly than expected –- making the simplicity of Google Classroom very appealing.

Google Classroom is, at time of publishing, the No. 1 education app in the Apple App Store and the No. 5 free app overall.

Since many already use a lot of Google's tools and are familiar with how to use Google-based systems, it's an appealing way to transition to online learning quickly, easily and for free. It's also simple enough to use without worrying about needing IT resources to keep it running.

• 6 Tips for Teaching with Google Meet 
• Remote Learning Communication: How To Best Connect with Students

Google Classroom may be a stripped back LMS when compared to TalentLMS or SAP Litmos, but then it only takes about half an hour to get the hang of if you're used to using the web and Google tools. Yet it still gives educators the freedom to post materials, set assignments, and carry out quizzes quickly and easily. 

Google might not have made a complete LMS here, but it's cleverly made it open enough to integrate with other suites so that it can deliver more. That said, it does lack some integration with information services and doesn't offer a standards-based grading option at this time.  

So is this enough to be worthy of use on a large scale? Here's everything you need to know about Google Classroom.

What is Google Classroom?

Google Classroom is free and open to use, but that's within reason. Google ensures safety and security for students by only allowing you to create a class when your school or university has first signed up for a free Google Workspace for Education account. This is when the institution can decide which services students can use. 

It also offers a chance to look at and personalize the privacy and security settings to best suit the groups being taught. This is when accounts are setup for students, since they're not allowed to use their personal accounts to access the services. Access is limited to the virtual space, keeping it secure.

Google assures users of Classroom that it keeps all data secure, there are no ads, it supports compliance with industry regulations and best practices. 

Google Classroom is primarily focused on personalizing the learning experience of students rather than managing it. To quote: "Students can learn 21st-century problem-solving and the skills they’ll use in their future careers, with accessibility features that help every student do their best work."

Google Classroom might not be a full LMS but it does meet Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) standards so it can be used with another LMS as an add-on. It will also work with other free-to-use offerings such as Schoology and Edmodo as needed.

Google Classroom: Features

• Works on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Chrome, and other browsers
• Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets integration
• Create, manage, and grade assignments
• Not a Blackboard replacement

Google Classroom is super easy to access and works across – deep breath – iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Chrome, and pretty much any other device that can get a browser window running within it. For a growing number of K-12 students already using Chromebooks, this system is perfectly suited to their hardware and what they're used to doing with it.

When a teacher logs into the platform, they can see a section for each of their classes, with courses differentiated by colors and banners. Name the class, enter a description, pick the banner image, and it's good to go.

Resources can be shared to students all at the same time and they're notified by email. So a teacher can share and annotate a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide, and keep track of when students had that distributed. You can also pull material in from Google Drive, making integration even easier. 

While a presentation can be carried out using Google Slides, the teacher is also able to create a real-world view by using Google Meet to see and hear the students for video interactions. 

Student interactions can be controlled on three levels: students can post and comment, only comment, or only teachers can post and comment. This allows teachers to make announcements clearly, but it also makes it obvious if educators want students to interact with a posting. This applies to multiple teachers as more than one can be added to a classroom, making it great for assistance. 

This platform doesn't have an automated roster system but you are able to integrate with third-parties such as rosterSync using a CSV file. Sure, it requires a manual sync, but then this is free compared to the automated offerings from a dedicated LMS.

Google announced Classroom will allow for the export of grades into a student information system (SIS), increasing the ease of use and compatibility.

Google also announced the addition of the originality report feature so teachers can run a check against other student submissions from the same school. A great way to detect plagiarism.

Google Classroom: Performance

• Consistent connection stability
• Student interaction
• Presentation with Slide and video chat with Hangouts

Google Classroom offers a home page on which activity is clearly shown in a feed with posts students have made, newly added materials, assignments, and more. 

Three tabs sectionalize the layout with Classwork, People, and Grades. 

Classwork allows teachers to upload materials, create assignments and quizzes using Google Forms, and pose questions. 

People shows all the learners and educators, including those who haven't responded to your invitation to join. 

Grades is a chart that shows assignments and students and is where the teachers enters grades -– which is shared with each student privately. More on that below.

Depending on the settings, students are able to comment on one another's posts, which can support collaboration.

Google Slides could be better integrated as it can sometimes be difficult for a student to navigate between that and a document they're working on. This is a small multi-tasking gripe but is worth giving attention to. When the teacher shows the class how this is done, it can avoid leaving the less technically minded students struggling more than those who can work out multitasking more easily.

Making announcements is a simple and minimal feature akin to social media with no rich-text formatting. However, you can attach links, YouTube clips, and documents though, so it's very useful yet succinct. These announcements can be tagged with topics for even more clarity and organization. 

When making assignments, it's easy to select a title, add instructions, add files, pick a grading category (more on that below), or assign a point value and due date. 

Questions is another feature that provides an opportunity to increase engagement. For example, assign a question to the class or individual students, with short answer or multiple choice answer options. While this pales in comparison to the likes of Blackboard, you can use Google Forms to create self-grading, multiple choice assessments.

When it comes to Announcements, Assignments, and Questions, the really useful feature is an ability to save to draft, set to publish at a certain time, or push out immediately. This flexibility gives teachers the ability to plan and prepare well ahead.

Google Classroom: Grading

• Manual grading chart
• Weighted grading system option

Google Classroom uses grading charts to store an at-a-glance marking sheet for teachers. This is also used to share grades with students directly while maintaining privacy so grades from other students aren't visible. 

Grading is entered into the chart manually. Automation here, where grades from the assignment doc populate this chart, would be a nice option. Instead, teachers can work with the chart and the assignment open at the same time -- more like the real-world with a logbook open as marking happens.

Teachers can create a rubric, with up to 50 criteria per rubric and 10 performance levels per criterion.

For the grading itself, teachers are able to create a weighted grading system. Homework could be set to account for 25 percent while exams are another 25 percent, and class participation makes up the other 50 percent, for example. 

Google does the heavy lifting here, keeping track of the category as the teacher grades individual assignments. Control options here allow how much a student can see of their grades.

Should I use Google Classroom?

If you want to utilize a ready-made learning platform that's extremely simple to navigate, works across numerous devices, and integrates with other tools, then Google Classroom could be for you. It's simply one of the easiest ways to transition online, since many teachers and students will own the hardware to get up and running and the school won't have to worry about IT support. 

For teachers, this is a minimal way to plan and carry out lesson resource sharing, assignments, and grading. Everything is clearly displayed and easily accessible across multiple devices. There's even Google Hangouts support for live video interactions with the class.

What this is not is a competitor for full LMS offerings such as Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, Moodle, or Instructure Canvas. It's more like Schoology or Edmodo, which are also free to use.

At its simplest Google Classroom is the face of Google Workspace for Education, pulling it all together in one place for easier and quicker use of the various Google tools. While this is a great way to get teaching online, especially in a pinch, it's not a full classroom replacement. But if you've got no budget or infrastructure, it's hard to beat.

• What is Remote Learning?
• Strategies For Virtual Professional Development

If you are using Google Forms to give quizzes and tests in your classroom, you are likely aware that some students have figured out various ways to "game" forms to get a better grade. But you can stop cheating on Google Forms using some of these top tips.

While Google Forms can make a teacher's life easier, in offering a system that allows for quick creation of quizzes, it can also create an opportunity to cheat. That said, if you take the necessary precautions listed below, it's well worth using. For one thing, you can use a vast array of pre-written quizzes and templates, making it easier to set a quiz without taking up lots of prep time.

Want to learn more? Check out our feature, What is Google Forms and How Can It Be Used by Teachers?

Before we go into the ways to prevent cheating, be aware of the issue by looking below at some of the ways students try to cheat Google Forms:

1. Open a tab to look up answers
2. Preview your form before class to look up answers
3. Send questions to their friends
4. Share answers with friends
5. Take screenshots of your the quiz questions
6. View the HTML page source to find answers
7. Look at a friends screen to select answers
8. Right-click on words to check definitions and spelling
9. Share answers with classmates during passing time
10. Write down "cheats" on their hand or paper

• What is Google Forms and How Can It Be Used by Teachers?
• How to Stop Cheating in Remote Learning
• 10 Sites for Checking Plagiarism

5 Ways to Combat Cheating with Google Forms

1. Shuffle answer choices to block screen creepers

When asking a multiple choice question, click on the "snowman" at the bottom right to find the "shuffle option order" feature that will randomize the order of the answer choices in your question.

Shuffling answer choices will make it more difficult for "screen creepers" to copy answers from a classmate.

Note: Google Forms does have a "shuffle question order" feature, however using it can lead to issues. I recommend shuffling answers over shuffling questions.  

2. Use page sections to block assessment previews 

Add sections to your quiz to prevent students from previewing a form before class. This is a common problem if you post your quiz through Google Classroom to all of your sections early in the day. 

You can take this a step further by adding a "password" to your form to prevent students from moving ahead until you are ready. 

An easy way to do this is to collect their personal information (name/section) on the first page of the form, but require a password before they can access the quiz question. 

Set up a password by adding a short-answer question and using the data validation feature to require a specific number or phrase. 

Note: This is not a 100% secure solution and should not be used to protect sensitive information. 

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3. Use page breaks to create alternative assessment paths

Google Forms doesn't have a question bank feature to create different assessments for each student. However, you can create a similar experience by creating a branched form. 

First, add an ungraded multiple choice question in your quiz: “pick a number,” “pick a color,” etc. 

Next, set up 3 to 5 different sections to your quiz using the section feature mentioned in tip #2 above. Add as many questions as you like to each section.

Finally, add a "go-to" rule to direct students to a different section of the based on their response to the ungraded question that you added. 

4. Prevent cheating by asking better questions

Don't limit yourself to multiple choice questions. By broadening the types of questions you make it more difficult to cheat while at the same time better testing the students' knowledge. 

Consider options such as:

• Sequence questions - Use the checkbox grid question type to ask students to sequence or arrange items in a list.
• Matching questions - Use the multiple choice grid question type to create a matching question (great for vocabulary quizzes!)
• Reading Passage - Use the title/text element to add a short reading passage. 
• Video question - Have students watch a video and then answer questions about it (great for math and world language). 
• Image question - Images can be used as the question stem or question choices (great for science, math, social studies, and elementary students).
• Free response / short answer - If a student can answer all of the multiple choice questions correctly, but can't articulate 2 to 3 sentences on the same topic, then something is wrong.

5. Enable locked quiz mode

Locked quiz mode is one of many tools you have to protect the integrity of your assessments. When used in combination with the tips above, you have done your part to protect the integrity of your classroom quizzes. 

Locked mode prevents students from accessing external resources while taking a quiz. Their tabs, extensions, chrome apps, and screenshot functions will be disabled during the duration of the quiz. 

You can turn on this feature the settings page on your Google Form OR when assigned through Google Classroom.

If you use some/all of the tips listed above, you have done your part to protect the integrity of your assessments and encourage your students to practice academic honesty. 

There is no way to be certain that students can't cheat on an assessment. Ultimately, they are harming themselves and their academic growth. Our job is to encourage, instruct and train them to do their best and show good character, even when they have the opportunity to cheat.

• What is Google Forms and How Can It Be Used by Teachers?
• How to Stop Cheating in Remote Learning
• 10 Sites for Checking Plagiarism

Google Slides is now a very popular and powerful way to create slide presentations that can be used across a host of devices. Crucially, this is cloud-based so it can be created, edited, and shared from nearly any device with an internet connection -- just part of why it is ideal for education.

Integration with Google Classroom is, as you might imagine, excellent. This makes it a great tool for schools already using Google tools. But thanks to intuitive use and helpful templates, this is a great starter tool for most teachers.

Collaboration is another big draw here, making it useful for teachers and admins working together. But it's also a helpful way for students to work together on projects, where each can dip in and out from their device wherever they are.

This guide aims to explain all you need to know about Google Slides to see how it could work in your class.

• Google Slides review
• Google Classroom review

What's New in Google Slides?

Google has built some powerful integration with its AI, Gemini. You can now use the helpful artificially intelligent assistant to get what you need far faster and with less work than before.

That can mean simply asking for what you want and having the AI create it, images and all, so you have an end result that may work right away. Or you may need to edit to perfect the result, but it should still save a lot of time and effort.

As with all AI systems, this is improving constantly and at a fast rate so expect this to offer more and more -- worth getting to know now as it grows in efficiency and complexity.

Google Slides updates can be found here with other Google updates, including recent additions such as the ability to create more immersive presentations and remove image backgrounds in slides as well as expanding Slides recordings into Microsoft Edge and expanding voice typing and automatic captions to additional browsers.

What is Google Slides?

Google Slides is a presentation tool, at its most basic. It offers either a blank start or predesigned templates to create visually attractive and engaging presentations. It does this while making it very easy and intuitive to use, even for a total beginner.

Once a presentation is created, it can be shared directly with students using a simple link, sent via any medium, from email to text. The ability to lock access is a great security feature and works well if you want students to view but not alter your work.

That said, the ability to allow students to collaborate on a project is perhaps an even more valuable feature.

Google Slides doesn't have a dedicated desktop app, as with the Microsoft competition, but it will work through a browser on almost any device. You can also work offline and then upload content after you regain connection, making this useful when on the move.

As the platform integrates with Google Classroom, it is easy to share directly with a class or use in a presentation during a video conference or class.

This sample Google Slides lesson plan is designed to implement the tool into instruction.

Best Google Slides Features for Teachers

Google Slides is a very rich platform, when you consider how easy it is to use. The minimalism of the interface isn't too harshly juxtaposed by the myriad options when it comes to templates. These are plentiful, for sure, but it's when you go beyond the software that it really opens up.

Since Slides is widely used and allows for the easy sharing of templates online, there are many third-party options available. Not only can teachers get Slides created by other teachers, to be used as they are or adapted, but also it's easy to share among the faculty.

Making a new presentation is as easy as selecting "File" and "Make a copy." This allows it to be shared by one teacher and edited by another, without the original being affected. This is where collaboration can become really useful.

Collaboration with Slides for Student Learning

The ability to easily collaborate, beyond mere sharing of presentations, is of great appeal when it comes to Google Slides. Sure, you can lock a presentation to view only, if you don't want anything changed by someone you share it with. But you can also allow for comments and even editing to be optional.

For example, a teacher can share copies of the same Slides presentation with students, meaning each student has their own version. They would then be able to edit it, giving it huge potential as a quiz medium. Or as a way of offering students a template that they can use to create their own presentations.

Perhaps a science class report could be created within a Slides template, allowing each student to share their own observations. Then by reviewing it together, students can see what their classmates observed or help others learn from their experiences.

Slides allows for pictures, audio, and even video to be added easily so presentations can be very engaging and pull in information from a wide variety of source.

Live collaboration is another key aspect. A group of students can work on a single presentation without actually being in the same room together. They can each see the changes being made as they go, allowing them to learn from one another and work together as a group, virtually.

Teachers can also see when students are in the files making changes – ideal for keeping an eye on anyone who is regularly tardy with deadlines.

Google Slides Tips and Tricks for Teachers

Some less known but very valuable techniques can help teachers create the most original and engaging Slides for presentations that really affect their students.

Lots of tools are available within the platform but there are a few useful tips that will require you to use third-party software to get the most out of Google Slides as an education tool.

Use GIFs in Google Slides

One way to do this is to use GIFs, speaking the language of the youth. These moving images are a great way to convey a message quickly and clearly without needing to do much at all.

You can, essentially, condense your Slides presentation into a single moving image file to be viewed on a phone, laptop, or anywhere else. The catch? These GIFs aren't native to the software. But you can make them easily as we've explained in this How To Turn Google Slides Into An Animated GIF For Free guide.

Use Audio in Google Slides

Integrate audio recordings into the Slides presentation to create greater immersion in your subject. Uses for this include narrating a slideshow for when you're not there, reading aloud a story, providing feedback on work, getting a student to explain a solution verbally, and more.

Once again, this is difficult to do within the base platform, so check out our guide: 4 Best Free and Easy Audio Recording Tools for Google Slides.

• Google Slides review
• Google Classroom review
• Google Slide Lesson Plan

Google Slides is a free and easy-to-use platform for teachers and students that integrates perfectly with Google Classroom, and can be shared anywhere and with anyone. Since it is all online-based, most devices can display Google Slides, even smartphones – making it ideal as a way for teachers to share resources with students.

Another big appeal for Google Slides, aside from being free and readily accessible, is that the layout follows the usual Google format. It's intuitive and especially familiar to anyone with a Gmail account or those who use Google Docs. Create slideshows from scratch or use a whole host of helpful templates to get you started right away with ease. 

• Google Slides review
• Google Classroom review
• 6 Tips for Teaching with Google Meet 
• Remote Learning Communication: How To Best Connect with Students

Collaboration is another big sell here since Google Slides allows multiple teachers to edit the same slideshow. A great way to build something together or share  resources. 

Downsides exist, such as a lack of desktop app. But for a free tool, with more free templates appearing online daily, this is a really superb alternative to the likes of Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote.

So if Google Slides the ideal slideshow tool for you? Read on the find out everything you need to know.

Google Slides: Features

• Lots of templates
• Simple collaboration
• Rich media options

Google Slides at its most basic is a slideshow creation platform. But its potential is what really excites as that is only limited by your imagination within the framework it offers. So while you can start a presentation or slide deck resource from a template, it's possible to edit and personalize these very easily thanks to the intuitive controls.

Of course, this free tool doesn't offer as many transitions or fancy effects as some of the competition, but lots of new resources appear online all the time. For example, templates created by teachers are shared with other educators. This takes us to collaboration.

Google Slides led the way in easy collaboration and the competition is still playing catch-up. Teachers are easily able to share slide decks with students using the link, or directly within Google Classroom. Teachers can also share their slides decks for others to edit, or to make a copy and create their own version. This is a great way to dramatically speed up work creation while also helping grow creative resources. 

Of course collaboration doesn't mean all your work is open to editing. You can control the level of sharing with options such as "View only", "Comment only," and "Edit." This makes it great for sharing with teachers, limiting what you want to let them edit, and also with students, perhaps, on what you want to let them make comments.

Google Slides is media rich, so you can add photos, audio, and video very easily. This can be taken from files on your machine, be that a computer, tablet, or phone, and also from Google Drive. Beyond that, you have YouTube videos at your disposal for easy insertion as well.

Google Slides: Performance

• Super intuitive to use
• Useful wider Google tool integration
• Live collaboration is fast

Google Slides' intuitive interface is one of the greatest draws as it allows you to make a slideshow quickly but also can dive deeper into personalization and original content creation without needing to invest a lot of time.

Select the big plus icon to create a blank slideshow or select from one of the templates to fill in the pre-made presentation using your own content. Options allow you to add images, audio, and video, and you can also change colors, fonts, and sizing, plus add shapes and boxes. From pie charts to graphs, you can add plenty of data and even import charts that you or a co-teacher may have already created in Google Sheets.

The ease of use extends beyond the tool's creation and sharing abilities though. This is super compatible too, so it can be used to open other file types. Google does the conversion work so you can open the likes of PowerPoint and Keynote presentations right there in your free Slides software. 

Slides also allows you to export different types of files, which is great if you want to make a PDF for super quick and easy sharing.

Collaboration is not only easy to do, with a simple link share, but also works in real time as you can see anyone else in the file editing or reading. So you can see what students are using it, for example, and what they're doing. Or, even more usefully, you can work with teachers, live, constructing a presentation document together without actually being in the same room.

Google Drive and Google Classroom integration are huge factors since, if you use both, Slides becomes the easiest way to offer slide decks to students or co-teachers. It also makes for easy integration of files such as images, audio, and video right there from a shared Google Drive. This is great for educators who want to share resources across devices so new tools can be created.

Should I Use Google Slides?

If you want to create a slideshow or presentation, then Google Slides is a near perfect option. It's free, easy to use, works across devices, lets you import lots of rich media, and is allows simple sharing and collaboration. All that and -- yes we already said it but we're saying it again -- is free. That makes it ideal for use in schools with fewer resources or lack of infrastructure.

If you use Google Classroom or Gmail this is a perfect tool that'll fit into your ecosystem of resources naturally. And since it works on nearly all devices, it makes the resources you create available to nearly all students, no matter where they are.

• What is Remote Learning?
• Strategies For Virtual Professional Development

The ability to add audio to Google Slides has been one of the most requested features for many years. If you've read our Google Classroom review and are now using that, Slides is a very useful tool to add. Being creative, we have worked around this limitation in the past by embedding YouTube videos in Slides, or using a tool such as Screencastify to record a video of Slides while speaking. Although those workarounds still have their place, it is wonderful that we now have the option to add audio directly to a slide.

Being able to add audio to Google Slides can be used in so many ways in school: 

• Narrating a slideshow
• Reading a story
• Making an instructional presentation
• Providing spoken feedback on writing
• Having student explain a solution
• Giving directions for a HyperSlides project
• And much more

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The only big pain point still left is the actual recording of the audio. You see, even though we can now add audio to a Google slideshow, there isn't a simple built-in recording button. Instead you need to record the audio separately with another program, then save it to Drive, and then add it to a slide.

So that brings up the big question: What are some easy ways to record audio? When using my Windows PC, I can use a free program such as Audacity. Students often will be using Chromebooks, so we need some web-based options. 

We are going to take a look at four excellent, free options for recording audio right in your web browser, and then how to add that audio to Google Slides. 

• How do I use Google Classroom?
• Google Classroom review
• Chromebooks in education: Everything you need to know

1. ChromeMP3 Recorder from HablaCloud

The first tool we are going to look at is by far the simplest of the bunch: The "ChromeMP3 Recorder" web app from HablaCloud. This tool however is a web app, not a website, which means it only runs on Chromebooks, not other computers such as PCs or Macs. 

If you are on a Chromebook though, this is a fantastically easy tool to use. Here's how it works: 

• First, install the "ChromeMP3 Recorder" web app. You can get the Chrome Web Store link on the site at HablaCloud.
• Once the web app has been installed, you can open it from the Chromebook app launcher when needed.
• When the app opens, simply click the red "Record" button to start recording.
  You can click the "Pause" button if needed during recording.
• When done, click the "Stop" button.
• The app will now ask you where you want to save the MP3 file in your Google Drive. You can also name the file at this point to make it easier to find later. 

That's it! This tool doesn't offer any other editing options. Just a simple way for anyone to record and save audio on a Chromebook.

2. Online Voice Recorder 

If you want another tool that is just about as simple but runs on Chromebooks, PCs, and Macs, then you can use the "Online Voice Recorder" website. 

If I am not on a Chromebook, this tool is is usually my "go to" for anytime I need to record some quick audio on the web. Here's how it works: 

• Go to the site at OnlineVoiceRecorder.
• Click the mic button to start recording.
• Note: You will need to give it permission to use your microphone the first time you use the site.
• Click the "Stop" button when done.
• You will now get a screen where you can preview your voice recording.
  If needed, you can trim the start and end of the audio to remove any extra dead space.
• When done, click "Save."
• The MP3 file will be downloaded to your device! 

Note: If using a Chromebook, you can have the file save directly to your Google Drive by changing the "Downloads" option in your Chromebook settings. 

3. Beautiful Audio Editor

The next tool for recording audio online is the "Beautiful Audio Editor". This tool is reasonably easy to use as well, but offers extra editing features. If you just need to record some simple audio, this might be more options than you need but would be helpful if you plan to do some editing to the recording afterward. Here's how it works: 

• Launch the tool at Beautiful Audio Editor.
• Click the "Record" button at the bottom of the screen to start recording.
  Note: You will need to give it permission to use your microphone the first time you use the site.
• Click the "Stop" button when done.
• Your recorded track will now be added to the editor.
• You can drag the play head back to the start and press the play button to preview your recording.
• If you need to trim out any of the audio, you will need to use the "Split Section" and "Remove Section" buttons in the top toolbar.
• When you are happy with the audio, you can click the "Download as MP3" button to generate a link to save the file to your device. 

Note: If using a Chromebook, you can have the file save directly to your Google Drive by changing the "Downloads" option in your Chromebook settings. 

Editing for this tool includes the option to change the audio speed, combine multiple tracks, fade the volume in and out, and more. You can get detailed directions by clicking the "Help" menu option. 

4. TwistedWave 

If you need even more fancy editing tools, another audio recording option is "TwistedWave". The free version of this tool allows you to record up to 5 minutes at a time. Here's how it works: 

• Go to the website at TwistedWave.
• Click "New document" to create a new file.
• Click the red "Record" button to start recording.
• Note: You will need to give it permission to use your microphone the first time you use the site.
• Click the "Stop" button when done.
• Your recorded track will now be added to the editor.
• You can click at the start of your clip and press the "Play" button to preview your recording.
• If you need to trim any of the audio, you can click and drag with your mouse to select the portion you want to get rid of, and then press the "Delete" button.
  When you are happy with the audio, you can download it my clicking "File" then "Download."
• Better yet, to save it directly to your Google Drive you can click "File" then "Save to Google Drive." TwistedWave will ask you to log in with your Google account and give permission. 

This tool provides other features in addition to simple editing. In the "Effects" menu you will find tools to increase or decrease the volume, fade in and out, add silence, reverse the audio, change the pitch and speed, and more. 

Adding Audio to Google Slides 

Now that you have recorded your audio with one of the tools described above, you can add that audio to Google Slides. To do this, two things must be true for the recordings: 

1. The audio files must be in your Google Drive, so if you saved somewhere else, such as the "Downloads" folder on your computer, you will need to upload the files to your Drive. For easy access, and to help with the next step, you should put all of the files in a folder in Drive.   
2. Next, the audio files need to be shared so anyone with a link can play them. This can be done file by file, but it is much easier to simply change the sharing permissions for the entire folder that contains the recordings.

With those steps completed, you can add audio from your Google Drive to Google Slides as follows: 

• With your Google slideshow open, click "Insert" in the top menu bar.
• Choose "Audio" from the drop-down menu.
• This will open up the "Insert audio" screen, where you can browse for or search for the audio files saved in your Google Drive.
• Choose the file you want and then click "Select" to insert it into your slide.

After the audio file has been added to your slide, you can edit several options for it including volume, autoplay, and loop. Here's how:

• Click on the audio file icon to select it.
• Then click the "Format options" button in the top toolbar.
• Finally click "Audio playback" in the side panel that opens.
• Here you can adjust settings such as:
• Start playing "On click" or "Automatically"
• Set the "Volume level"
• "Loop audio" if you want it to keep playing after it ends
• And "Stop on slide change" if you want the audio to end (or continue) when the user moves to the next slide.

Since 1984, Teacher Appreciation Week has celebrated the men and women who offer their skills, caring and passion to educate our nation's most important "resource"—the next generation. 

Teacher Appreciation Week 2020 sees an outpouring of gratitude and recognition for educators' remarkable efforts to bring learning into students' homes in these times of coronavirus-related school closings.  

Technology giant Google is one of those honoring teachers, with special tools and training; financial assistance; and a Google Doodle created for and in collaboration with teachers: 

• Free tools, training, and support for educators and familiess
  -Google for Education announced new additions to Teach from Home to help ease the transition to remote learning for schools and families. With today’s updates, families can find tips and tools to manage and support their children’s use of technology.
  -Within the re-launched Teacher Center, schools and teachers leverage new and improved training materials and tutorials. These materials and tutorials are based on feedback Google for Education heard from schools and educators about what would be helpful as educators continue to adjust and transition to learning and teaching from home.
• $2M to DonorsChoose to help support vulnerable students
  Google.org announced a $2M grant to DonorsChoose to support its Keep Kids Learning project. Today’s grant announcement is part of Google.org’s $10M Distance Learning Fund to ensure teachers and parents have access to the resources they need to keep the learning going. 
• New Google Doodle celebrating every teacher, in classrooms and at home
  This Google Doodle was made in collaboration with 54 State Teachers of the Year. Learn why they were nominated as their respective State’s Teacher of the Year here.

Remote Learning in Action is a series of articles from attendees and speakers of Tech & Learning's events. Click here to learn more about these events and to apply to attend.

Where: Pascagoula-Gautier School District, Mississippi

Who: Eva Harvell, Director of Technology

K-12 environments have moved from the classroom to the living room around the U.S. Districts are faced with obstacles they were not fully prepared for. The Pascagoula-Gautier School District (PGSD) in South Mississippi is overcoming each obstacle head on.

The district’s emphasis on professional learning, a positive push for technology integration, comprehensive curriculum pacing, and solid communication tools to connect with parents has allowed PGSD to continue to support our 6,800 students after closing our classroom doors on Friday, March 13.

PGSD encourages its educators to continually grow in order to stay current and implement research-based methods of instruction in the classroom. Our educators have access to a wide array of professional learning opportunities from the district’s technology integration specialists and curriculum specialists. The technology integration specialists began offering daily webinars immediately. These live, one-hour webinars focused on Google Classroom, Google Meet, screencasting resources, and other resources that would help educators organize and deliver content in a distance learning environment. Educators left the webinars with tangible ideas they could implement immediately. The webinars were also recorded for educators to reference later. Articles on implementing distance learning were used by our curriculum specialists as conversation starters in their professional learning sessions.  

Early on, we surveyed families to pinpoint which households needed to check out a district Chromebook or information on low cost/no cost internet connections. 

PGSD has been a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) district since the early 2000s. Being familiar with the integrative resources within GAFE, coupled with continuous professional learning opportunities on those resources, allowed for a smooth transition from classroom learning to remote learning. 

For several years, our secondary educators have used Google Classroom to deliver instructional content, facilitate class discussions, and assess student knowledge in a digital platform, all while still in the classroom. With the help of our specialists, the educators were able to make modifications to content and assessments for students now working at home. These modifications included using interactive slides instead of PDFs, allowing students to use Flipgrid or Adobe Spark to complete assignments, and recording Google Meet sessions for those who could not attend a live meeting. 

Our elementary educators were able to use resources, such as Screencastify, to create content-rich instructional videos for their students. They used Google Sites to build their own resource websites, which provided an accessible location to store and deliver content to their students and parents. Modifications to assignments also occurred on the elementary level to be more inline with remote learning. Instead of worksheets, teachers use Nearpod and Google Forms for assessing student knowledge. Online tools, such as Vocaroo, allow students to record themselves talking about the book they read or explaining how they solved a math problem. 

The district’s curriculum specialists work with master educators each year to create a comprehensive curriculum pacing guide, which lays out the standards pacing and research-based resources for each grade and subject. These guides have allowed the district to quickly determine on which standards educators will focus their instruction during remote learning.

To ensure we are reaching all of our parents, PGSD utilizes a variety of communication platforms, including social media, the district website, and SchoolStatus. Information that affects the entire district is posted on our district Facebook page and district website. Educators and administrators stay connected with parents through SchoolStatus, which provides two-way communication through phone calls and text messages. SchoolStatus also keeps a secure record of each communication. Parents can also communicate directly with the technology department, using a dedicated email address, for assistance on any technology-related issue or question.    

Educators around the U.S. are facing the same obstacles. PGSD has created a distance learning resource website that provides access to our webinars and other resources. 

We have also created a website where parents and students from all over can access online learning resources for PreK-12, behavioral and social-emotional support resources, and much more.

The face of education is changing, but the Pascagoula-Gautier School District is ready to do what it takes to keep our students thriving and growing.

No doubt about it, teaching remotely from your home office or kitchen counter is much harder than facing a room full of kids. Using a video link, such as Zoom, can help. 

Google Meet, however, goes a step or two further with extra security and functionalities such as the ability to add in auto-graded quizzes. Regardless of if it’s to teach the history of the Iroquois Confederation, the parts of speech, or how radioactive decay works, a variety of lessons can be presented over video with Meet.

Here’s how to make the most of the service.

1. Setting up Google Meet

Unlike Zoom, if you have a Gmail or Google Classroom account, you have access to Google Meet, but it’s easier if your school already uses the Classroom apps. If not, you can easily set it up. If you want, Meet can get you a domain name and URL for your class to use as its webpage, but it costs $12 per year, plus $12 per month after a two-week trial. 

• What is Google Classroom?
• Google Classroom Review 2020
• Google Classroom for Teachers: A How To Guide
• Best Zoom Shortcuts for Teachers

2.  Starting a class call using Google Meet 

To get a Meet-based remote class going, start at either Video Call, Phone Call, or Message. You can use a contact group to send it to everyone at once, or just contact a single student for a one-on-one lesson. Alternatively, a scheduled video class can be set up via a Calendar entry with a specific day and time. 

3. Keeping students out of Google Meet until you’re ready 

As is the case with Zoom video lessons, you only want to allow students to join after you’ve started the video call. If you use a nickname for the lesson (such as “What is Pi?”) students can neither enter before you nor stay online after you end the session. Start at the 9-dot Google apps icon in the upper right, select Meet and tap to “Join or Start a Meeting.” At this point, the lesson can begin on your terms. 

4. Making automatic assessments using Google Meet

One of the bonuses of using Google Classroom and Meet together is the ability to create self-graded quizzes.

• Begin at the Classwork tab at the top of the Classroom page;
• Tap Create;
• Pick the type of test you want, such as a multiple-choice quiz;
• Put in a title and instructions, and click on Blank Quiz;
• Add your questions one at a time using the Add option feature;
• When done, go to the Answer key link at the bottom to proof, indicate the correct answers, and add point scoring.

5. Integrating a document camera

This is one of the easiest ways to augment your remote teaching style to make it feel closer to a traditional classroom. As the name implies, a document camera lets you add physical items to your lesson, from a map to a petri dish. As with Zoom, you need to manually select the document camera to connect it to the video stream. Once you’ve established a video link, click on the three-dot settings icon in the lower right of the Meet screen. Then, click on Video at the top. Finally, an option to select the camera and its video stream should appear on screen after a second or two. 

6. Taking attendance 

The latest Chrome browser add-on can take virtual attendance of your video lessons. To start, you’ll need to download and install the Chrome Meet Attendance extension that is provided for free by Claycodes.org. It adds a section in the upper right of the Meet screen above where the class participants are listed. If you click to turn on the horizontal switch, it will record who is present on a time-stamped Google Sheets document. Note: It can record that your students are online but it can’t tell whether they’re paying attention--that’s up to you. 

Social studies and history educators always look for ways to bring lessons to life, introducing the world to the students and the students to the world. Tech helps not only inside the classroom, but also from the living room for students working with updated Chromebook software.

We discuss Google Expeditions with James Fester, who as technology coach led his former California district in an early Google Expeditions Pioneer Program.

Who: James Fester, Technology Integration Specialist

Where: Hill-Murray School, Independent 6-12 School in Saint Paul, MN

What: Using Google Expeditions and Tour Builder to enhance learning

Google Expeditions is more than just a way to get your students to "virtually" visit different locations. The ever-expanding list of experiences (around 900+ currently) includes topics in social studies, science, the arts, and career and technical education (CTE). 

Expeditions can become an engaging entry into your next learning unit or another form of input for student-centered research projects. It helps students connect class content to the real world by providing a window to the places and people that need to know what students are learning. By using the power of place, students understand the significance of the learning objectives they are trying to meet. 

You can illustrate the importance of angles and parabolas by leading students through a tour of world bridges. They can see how important an understanding of food webs is to park rangers. This kind of authentic connection just doesn't happen with textbooks and worksheets.

Getting Started

Students can access Google Expeditions in two ways: Using mobile devices with viewers, or through Chromebooks. The mobile devices tend to be more popular as the gyroscopes in the devices react to the student as they turn, creating a more immersive feeling. This is a great option for schools with a BYOD policy or during distance learning as the entire experience can be completed on a student's own phone or device. 

Biggest Challenge

The biggest challenge for schools is probably the cost. Electronics retailers such as Best Buy offer premade Expeditions Kits for classes of 10, 20, or 30 students, but these cost thousands of dollars. There are also issues around the maintenance of the devices and set-up that require the support of an in-school technician or dedicated teacher. 

Until recently Google Expeditions required Android devices, but now you can access the platform from any Chromebook, which is a huge win for schools. Students can use the touchscreen or their mouse to "drag" their point of view as their teacher leads the experiences. 

If the Chromebook route is your choice you'll want to make sure to have someone familiar with technical requirements to check and see if your school's devices can handle the AR content.  

Unexpected Pros and Cons

Two things that we didn't expect was the popularity of Google Expeditions throughout the school and the release of Tour Builder. When we first purchased these devices we assumed that they would be used primarily as science and history tools. Before long, however, the sign-out list included art, world language, and ELA teachers as well. 

Teachers heard from their students about how incredible Google Expeditions-infused lessons were and wanted to harness that interest in their own lessons. This proved to be both a good and bad problem. The popularity resulted in that the kits were constantly checked out, meaning that maintenance and issues of equity across schools needed to be addressed. However, since so many teachers were using the platform, we soon found that they were sharing lessons and best practices with each other on their own, creating a home-grown support system. 

What NOT To Do

Make sure that you don't overuse Expeditions. The power of VR and AR tech is the way it captures student attention and illustrates tricky-to-understand concepts in a simple way. But the magic soon disappears if it is overused or becomes "just another thing" in the classroom. 

Also, if students experience too many Expeditions experiences in one day they can get motion sick. (Don't ask us how we learned this...) 

Pro Tips

Google Expeditions works well as a standalone experience, but even better when it is the focus of inquiry-based lessons. Pairing the content with instructional strategies such as visible thinking routines or part of a project-based learning experience amplifies the effectiveness and the eventual payoff.

Prior to the release of Tour Builder, teachers were relegated to the premade selection of programs. Now, with a little bit of training, they can create their own virtual tours, making it possible to tailor the content to their classes. This has been a game-changer for educators who felt that the catalog of programs missed the mark somehow.    

If your class field trip was canceled, you can use these tips to take your students on a Virtual Field Trip

Finding Funding

Premade kits from Best Buy or other retailers are the most expensive options. Using Chromebooks that you already own is the cheapest and a good way to see if Expedition kits are worth investing resources. 

One strategy that I've seen work in larger districts is to split the cost between several schools and then do a timeshare in which each school gets the kit for a set amount of time. Another method is trying to assemble your own from a combination of older or donated devices and newly purchased ones. A school I worked with previously put out a call to their parents for old phones and within two weeks had assembled a class set of expeditions devices.

Tech Tools

• Edpuzzle
• Screencastify
• Google Hangouts
• Google Forms
• Flipgrid

 I would highly recommend the Google art and culture website and Google Earth Tour. I’m actually beta testing Google Earth’s tour creator, which is not yet available to the public but is incredible! Builds on many of the same principles that make Google Expeditions so great. 

Google has announced Teach From Home, a temporary hub of remote teaching tools and information for educators and school districts affected by the global COVID-19 health crisis.

Broad topics are organized by questions, suchs as "How do I teach remotely with video calls?" and divided into detailed instructions for successful implementation of remote learning goals. 

Users sign in with their G Suite for Education account, or create a new account to get started. 

Included is a step-by-step guide which can be downloaded in 16 languages.

For more information, visit https://teachfromhome.google/intl/en.

Teachers everywhere are preparing for or engaging in remote learning. Google Classroom has become the go-to place to launch this work. Whether teaching remotely or face-to-face, innovative educators know that G-Classroom saves you time, keeps you organized and helps you communicate with your students. 

If you're new to Google Classroom, no worries. They've put together this great resource to help you get started today. 

The Get Started Kit includes:

The Basics

Lots of video tutorials to get you started.

Teachers Lounge

Tips and tricks from teachers.

Extra help

• Help center
  In-depth knowledge and FAQs.
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Simply visit Google Classroom and get started now. 

cross posted at The Innovative Educator 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

Google Classroom is a powerful tool that allows teachers and students to create assignments, turn in work, grade assignments, share resources, have class discussions, and much more.

Classroom is constantly improving with new features. To help schools make the most out of Classroom, I have put together a series of videos on how to use this tool.

My goal for these videos is to keep them as short as possible, and have each one cover just a single topic. This way users can find just the information they need and can watch it quickly. Also, since Google Classroom gets frequent updates, it will be easier for me to replace a small video when it becomes outdated with a new version.

I plan to continue adding more videos to this series, so please let me know what Google Classroom topics or questions you would like me to address in a future video. See below for the current list of my Classroom help videos.

Google Classroom Help Videos

You can use the links below to open each video on YouTube, or scroll further down to watch any of the videos embedded in this blog post.

• How to Create a Classroom (3 minutes) - YouTube link
• How to Add Students (3 minutes) - YouTube link
• How to Post to the Stream (4 minutes) - YouTube link
• How to Add Materials to the Classwork Page (4 minutes) - YouTube link
• How to Create an Assignment on the Classwork Page (7 minutes) - YouTube link
• How Students Complete Assignments (5 minutes) - YouTube link
• How to Grade Assignments (5 minutes) - YouTube link

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

Vivi International today announced it has joined the Google for Education Integrated Solutions Initiative. Vivi’s solution provides a wireless screen mirroring technology built for the education sector.

The partnership will allow schools to link their Google account with Vivi to access a greater range of media and cloud integrations.

Users with linked accounts can now access Google through Vivi to include media during a lesson using Google Slides or as part of a playlist in the Digital Signage feature. Vivi users now also have the option of saving annotations straight to the cloud via Google Drive, and not just to their local device. Vivi provides an integration with the Google Admin Console to help validate user profiles.

The Google Partnership announcement comes just a week after the Australian-based EdTech start-up revealed it recently closed a funding round with New York-based investment group, Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC). The capital raised during the round will be used to accelerate Vivi’s expansion in the US market.

Google’s Pixelbook Go shows that school-oriented computers don’t have to be big, boring and underpowered. At just half an inch thick, the Chromebook is built of rugged magnesium alloy and has a 13.3-inch display that uses super-tough Corning Concore glass. 

Available in Black or Not Pink (actually, peach colored), the Pixelbook Go has a thoughtfully ribbed back that can help keep it from being accidentally dropped. 

Inside, the $650 base model is built around an Intel M3 processor and includes 8GB of RAM and 64GB of solid-state storage space while the high-end $1,399 Pixelbook Go has a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Regardless of which you get, the system has creature comforts, like a Titan C security chip, a backlit keyboard and, happily, its battery can last for a full day of schoolwork as well as add two hours of use with only a 20-minute charge.  

Spec Check

Display: 13.3-inch

CPU: Intel M3

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 64GB

Thickness: 0.5-inch

Weight: 2.3-pounds

More: store.google.com/us/product/pixelbook_go_specs

Those schools and classes that use Google Classroom will soon be taking a step forward with the latest updates. From boosting its Originality reporting to reusing classroom resources to extending security updates for Chromebooks, the new features can help a teacher to cope.

• To start, the five-year Chromebook life expectancy will be extended to 8 years for many new devices. This means that they will continue to receive operational and security updates for an extra three years, giving them more life in the classroom. It comes at the cost of around $35 per device, however.
• Next, the software’s Originality reports, which spot plagiarism and help improve student writing, now show missing citations and can be used for three assignments per class. To use it more often, your school needs to upgrade to the Enterprise for Education suite.
• Finally, teachers can now make and recycle teaching rubrics and use up to 50 criteria and 10 grading levels. Meanwhile, students can now check in and see the status of completed tasks and review returned work. When done, the grade shows up.

More: Google Classroom update

When creating a new Chromebook-friendly curriculum, one Google-certified educator got creative with GAFE. (Now her students are very, very appy.)

Who: Debra K. Segiet - Creative Tech/PLTW teacher

Where: Churchville Middle School, Elmhurst CUSD205, IL

What: Using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) to creatively engage students.

I took the job at Churchville during the first year of the Middle School 1-to-1 Chromebook deployment (now all 3-12 grade students use Chromebooks while K-2 uses iPads), so the previous Microsoft Office-dependent curriculum was null and void. Our goal was to always make sure our students are college, career, and life ready, so I started creating lessons that utilized the Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in fun, creative ways. Luckily, I work alongside two other amazingly creative tech teachers.

One of my favorite lessons to teach students conditional formatting while creating art is the Google Applied Digital Skills - Make Art with Google Sheets. My students continue making them even after completing my class. I have added an animation component using Google Slides. The students create multiple sheets of their Pixel spreadsheets art, changing each slightly. They take screenshots of each sheet and use “slide transitions” to animate.  

My 8th graders love creating their own product ad. Each student brainstorms a new product idea, creates several images using Google Draw, downloads those as PNG files, and brings them into Google Photos using the animation feature. They then add the .gif to a class Google Slide show, create a slogan and add a sound file to play with the slide. 

Positive Results

The students love the innovative, engaging curriculum we built. Since the Creative Tech course is part of the Unified Arts department, students travel through a wheel of five courses that exposes them to Art, Family and Consumer services, Industrial Tech, Music and Creative Tech. Positive concrete aspects included ease of use and the ability to apply what was learned in Creative Tech to their core classes as they learned many ways to express their understanding. Just as important was their enjoyment of learning and expanded collaboration, as the apps can be shared with others.

Biggest Challenge

Some of the apps and extensions offered as part of the Google Web store had to be vetted for students under the age of 13. We also had to work closely with our district tech staff to unblock the ones we could use.

Pro Tips

Get Google Educator Certified. (Level 1 is only $10 and there are free prep units/practice tests here) Discover new apps in GAFE and other extensions that can be added through the Web store and Google Drive.  

Educators love to share! Follow Google experts like Jake Miller @JakeMillerTech, Tony Vincent @tonyvincent, Kasey Bell @ShakeUpLearning, Alice Keeler @alicekeeler, and Jennie Misong Magiera @MsMagiera. 

Also check out applieddigitalskills.withgoogle.com for courses for your students.

Finding Funding

One great thing about GAFE—it’s free!

Tech Tools

• Padlet
• Pixlr Editor
• Piskel
• CoSpaces
• Scratch
• Tynker (free lessons)
• CodeHS (free lessons)
• Code.org
• WeVideo
• Chromebooks
• iPads
• Dot & Dash Robots
• Ozobots
• Spheros
• littleBits
• 
  

Catch up on everything new in G Suite for Education from January 2020, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our January 2020 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda and all the awesome resources and G Suite updates from the summer months. This includes 37 new Google updates and 15 Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Apps news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Apps is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the January 2020 meeting:

Note: If you would like to see each of the agenda items with links directly to those spots in the video, open the video using the YouTube link below and then click “Show More” below the video. 

 YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwPvr581ZU8

You can view the full Google Document agenda with links to all the Google Apps updates from the last month, as well as all the resources covered in the meeting in the Google Doc linked below.

View the agenda - Google Document link

Agenda details

Upcoming Events

• NEOTech 2020 (March 16-17) John S Knight Center in Akron - https://www.neotechconference.org/
• OETC - February 11-13, 2020 - https://oetc.ohio.gov/ - Google Meetup at OETC on 2/12 at 11:30AM at Flatiron
• ITIP Ohio Google Summit 2020- Kalahari Conference Center in Sandusky, May 10-12, 2020
• SPARCC Educational Technology Conference - Friday, August 7, 2020 - http://conference.apps.sparcc.org/ 

What's New in G Suite

December 2019

• 12/2/2019 - Drive file suggestions in Google Chrome will be generally available beginning in December - Resource Link
• 12/2/2019 - Improvements to image carousels, table of contents, and buttons in new Google Sites - Resource Link
• 12/3/2019 - Version History rolling out to the new Google Sites - Resource Link
• 12/3/2019 - Embed Cloud Search in your new Google Sites - Resource Link 
• 12/3/2019 - Dark mode available for Google Tasks on iOS - Resource Link
• 12/4/2019 - Review the latest changes to a new Google Site before publishing - Resource Link
• 12/4/2019 - Google launches Santa's Village site for this year with new educational and fun activities - Resource Link
• 12/4/2019 - Google rolls out Focus Mode as part of the Digital Wellbeing tools for Android - Resource Link
• 12/5/2019 - Google updating search results in Admin Console to be more helpful - Resource Link
• 12/6/2019 - Google Chrome prepares built-in QR code generator to share web addresses - Resource Link 
• 12/9/2019 - Propose a new meeting time or add a note to Calendar invites from Gmail - Resource Link
• 12/9/2019 - Google adds new option to attach emails to other emails in Gmail - Resource Link
• 12/10/2019 - Google expands password, phishing protections in Chrome and redesigns profiles - Resource Link
• 12/11/2019 - Google Search rolling out "smarter" Top Stories carousel with machine learning - Resource Link
• 12/12/2019 - Google's "Art Zoom" video series adds two new entries: "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and Botticcelli’s "Birth of Venus" - Resource Link
• 12/12/2019 - Google Assistant adds "Interpreter Mode" to provide live translation so you can have a back and forth conversation with someone speaking a foreign language - Resource Link
• 12/17/2019 - Google Calendar has started testing Google Tasks integration - Resource Link
• 12/17/2019 - Chrome OS gets update to control music from lock screen - Resource Link
• 12/17/2019 - Change to locations of booked rooms in Google Calendar events - Resource Link
• 12/18/2019 - Help your team get more out of G Suite with four new resources - Resource Link

January 2020

• 1/6/2020 - Doodle for Google 2020 contest now open - Resource Link
• 1/7/2020 - Google Assistant on Android will offer powerful "read this page" text to speech option for web pages - Resource Link
• 1/8/2020 - More options for copying presentations in Google Slides - Resource Link
• 1/8/2020 - Break out a single value within a pie chart in Google Sheets - Resource Link
• 1/9/2020 - Google Docs add-on "SAS Writing Reviser" to be discontinued on July 15, 2020 - Resource Link
• 1/13/2020 - Google Admin Console adds option for super admins to recover their passwords - Resource Link
• 1/15/2020 - Google updates timeline for discontinuing Chrome apps - Resource Link
• 1/16/2020 - Manage audio and video in Chrome with one click - Resource Link
• 1/21/2020 - G Suite Add-ons now generally available in Calendar, Gmail, and Google Drive - Resource Link
• 1/21/2020 - Originality reports and rubrics now generally available for Google Classroom users - Resource Link
• 1/21/2020 - Google updates the collection of creativity apps for Chromebooks to include WeVideo, Book Creator, Infinite Painter, Squid, Soundtrap and Explain Everything - Resource Link
• 1/21/2020 - Google extends support for new Chromebooks to 8 years, but also raises price for licenses - Resource Link
• 1/23/2020 - Google's Dataset Search comes out of beta - Resource Link
• 1/27/2020 - Google App Maker will be shut down on January 19, 2021 - Resource Link
• 1/28/2020 - Google Translate app to add "Transcribe" mode for long-form real-time translation - Resource Link
• 1/29/2020 - Google launches Tangi for 60-second how-to videos for art, cooking, DIY, fashion, lifestyle, and more - Resource Link
• 1/29/2020 - Hangouts Meet gets option to use your phone for your audio during a video call - Resource Link

Show and Tell

• SAMR matrix with Alex Oris - Resource Link
• Create Stop Motion Animation on a Chromebook using Stop Motion Animator - Resource Link
• Create Filters in Gmail - Resource Link
• Second Grade Harvest Holidays Hyperdoc - Resource Link
• Sheet Spider add-on for Google Sheets - Resource Link
• Easy Accents - New version of the popular Docs add-on released, needs reinstalled - Resource Link
• Stop, Breath, and Listen - Resource Link
• ScriptSlide - Resource Link - Add-on for Google Slides to display your speaker notes and then use your phone to remotely control your progress through the text.
• Google Calendar cheat sheet - Resource Link
• Writing Roadmap - Resource Link
• Picture in Picture extension for Chrome - Resource Link
• The easiest way to make a buzz-in type game to play with students - Resource Link
• Screencastify extension updates free version with all premium features, now with a 5 minute limit per video - Resource Link
• Forget Ctrl + V... Learn Windows + V - Resource Link
• Classroom Assist - Google Innovator Project- Resource link

To see the schedule for upcoming Google User Group meetings visit:
Google User Group schedule - https://sites.google.com/view/geg-ohio/monthly-meetings

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

How It’s Done: Using Tech-PBL to Reach Struggling Students

Using tech tools to enhance project-based learning helped one teacher personalize lessons and reach all her students, regardless of knowledge gaps and multi-level abilities. 

Who: Lacrecia Terrance, M.Ed—theEduProject, Lead Consultant/CEO PBLWorks, National Faculty Member, 4th/5th Grade Teacher 

Where: EBR Readiness Elementary School, EBRPSS Baton Rouge, LA 

What: Using PBL and Tech to Motivate Struggling Students 

I teach fourth and fifth-grade students at an alternative center for students who are at risk and have behavioral issues. With this group of students, it is important to have engaging activities that keep them motivated. Teaching struggling students with learning gaps led me to research different strategies and tools to interest students and hook them into wanting to learn. To address multiple-ability levels and differentiate instruction, I implemented Project Based Learning. My PBL projects are strategically planned to connect to students’ personal experiences using tech such as; Flipgrid, Youtube, Quizizz, Anmito, Flipgrid, Spark, etc. This has allowed students to be more creative and provides them with more opportunities to take ownership of their knowledge and understanding. 

After getting to know my students’ interests, strengths, and challenges, I start with a video from Youtube and SchoolTube to give exemplars for the learning objectives for the day. This sparks student interest and inspires them to try things they have not done, leading to deeper discussions and extending their thinking. I then use Quizizz activities to assess understanding of the information and content. The first time the students saw me pull up Youtube on the Promethean board, they said, “Oooh, you’re gonna get in trouble.” Their previous experiences prevented them from viewing computers as a learning tool. The very first video I showed was a music video of their choice and had students critique it. This is where it all began and students were hooked.

Positive Results

Agency and Excitement! When I walked into my classroom, I saw great anticipation and a desire to learn. Reflecting back on my first impression, these students cared less about school and felt that everyone had forgotten about them. Just observing the growth, agency, and confidence of each student helped confirmed using PBL and high-quality dynamic tech tools to be an effective approach to reaching ALL students, especially struggling students.

The Biggest Challenge

My biggest challenge was keeping them from watching inappropriate music videos and not focusing on the lesson objective. I needed to teach them how to be responsible digital citizens and what that means. Students were only accustomed to being left alone on the computer or earning time on it as a reward for good behavior. To overcome this obstacle, my involvement became key to provide them a purpose for each online tool. I used Minecraft to connect them to a team-building activity. Students had the opportunity to play their favorite game while I modeled how tech could also accomplish learning objectives for the day.

Finding Funding

Many of the programs are free and some can be found on ISTE teacher resources. Others, such as FlipGrid, Google Classroom, and Clever, are funded by the school or district.

Pro Tips

Get to know your students and provide opportunities to include their voice. Many students feel like passive participants in their learning and the key is to give them relevant authentic experiences. ISTE has five competencies of digital citizenship that I use to guide my understanding to give students a greater opportunity at success: inclusive, engaged, balanced, alert, and informed.

Tech Tools

• PBLWorks.org
• ISTE.org
• Google Classroom
• Flipgrid
• Youtube
• Quizizz
• Anmito
• Spark
• Gallup
• Clever, an instructional portal to store all of my online digital resources for my students.

Who: Jean Augustine Secondary School Kinesthetic Learning Department—

Tyler Robinson (Department Head, @JASSphoenix)

Lindsay Smockum (@MsSmockum)

Stacy Burnett (@burnett_stacy)

Tom Leca (@CoachLeca)

Victor Kass (@CoachKass) 

Where: Peel School District School at Brampton, ONT, Canada 

What: Using Tech Tools to Enhance PE

To be honest, there was a time when I would not allow “screens” in the gym whatsoever. I embrace meeting students where they are at to engage them, but I had concerns about students being distracted instead of physically active. When I joined Twitter I began to see how tech could be harnessed to augment a PE program. I was able to observe tons of best practices from other PE teachers and share ideas with them. Tech was a key part of students’ lives and therefore was an integral part of their learning in school. A tech tool should only be used if it provides a more effective means to improve student learning, not just for the sake of swapping an old technology for a new one. In the end, tech became a regular part of my daily practice as a teacher and continues to be important to this day. — Victor Kass 

Every cohort, every class is different. However, scaffolding it right from grade nine allows them to build the skills they need for the rest of the courses in our department. For example, they learn how to use iMovie during the creation of their Target Games videos in grade nine and then that skill is continued in Grade 10 Fitness, Grade 11 Net/Wall & Invasion/Territory focus courses, etc. Therefore, it is the students’ expectations that this is just part of the course when they enroll. Most kids have devices, but the department having iPads to fill the gaps (especially with iMovie) definitely helps create buy-in because there are no excuses. Assessments predicated on 21st century learning means that buy-in is essential for success. — Tyler Robinson

Positive Results

Our students are now able to obtain valuable, objective feedback about their personal fitness and movement competence. (We are also able to create an equitable platform to evaluate student learning.) With the use of video feedback, students can self-assess their performance during game play and analyze their strategies and tactics. They can demonstrate their learning regardless of athletic ability. Improved participation has followed, as students are focused on explaining/critiquing their decisions and choices during game play rather than comparing their athleticism with other students. Because of this newly leveled playing field, collaboration improved and enable all students to have a voice. Perhaps most importantly, tracking fitness test data allows students to adjust goals and see improvement no matter their original fitness level— a strong starting point to becoming healthy adults leading active lifestyles. — Lindsay Smockum

The Biggest Challenge

In our journey to engage modern learners some obstacles we've seen include: students who do not have access to devices, learning which angles are best to film, logging in/out of GAFE Ed Tool apps daily, learning to navigate the online platforms, wifi/privacy connectivity, the learning curve associated with new tech tools- vs - the timeline of use, and the correlation between student use of social media platforms and engaging with the curriculum in an effective way. We are pretty lucky to have the support to order and have access to equipment like pedometers, Chromebook carts, tripods and about 18 HPE Department iPads for our classes to use daily; for some of the students who may not have devices. We have also learned that long term if you guide, monitor and empower the students they will act responsibly- even with social media. Leadership roles help with the 'responsibility' of tracking, posting, filming, collaborating, and editing data to be used/shared. Students’ "tech IQ" is sometimes even higher than the teachers, letting them navigate the tech with relative ease. — Victor Kass

Finding Funding

At the beginning, I used my own personal devices (iPhone and iPad) to complete simple tasks, such as attendance or take video to show students. It did not take long for my school board, which is known to be very progressive pedagogically, to begin funding for wifi and tech devices, as well as provide access to cloud based learning tools such as Google Apps for Education. Students were also encouraged to “bring their own device” or BYOD. Our principal recognized the importance of this shift in educational pedagogy and she was happy to purchase iPads for the Physical Education Department teachers. Over the years, we continued to add class sets of iPads, chromebooks, and Fitbits, a TV screen hooked up to an Apple TV for airplay, and wireless speakers. The key in all of this was whole school wifi. Without that, the use of these forms of tech would have been very limited. — Victor Kass

Pro Tips

My advice for any educator attempting to incorporate technology into their program is to not be afraid to dive right in! Tech is an invaluable feedback tool, which also fosters an equitable platform for tracking and evaluating student learning. I also suggest using apps and feedback tools that students can access on their own personal devices, such as Google apps. — Lindsay Smockum

Tech Tools

• Technique
• Delayed Camera
• iMovie
• Instagram
• Snapchat (for stories/gifs, but also content)
• Youtube playlists
• Google Classroom/GAFE Tools
• Remind
• Wireless Speakers
• Coach's Eye
• Sports Stats
• O’See Video Delay
• iPhone 
• iPads
• Team Shake
• FitRadio
• Spotify
• Skitch
• Fixture Maker
• BaM Video Delay
• Seconds

I am excited and honored to be presenting at the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC 2020) in Miami, Florida this January 14th through 17th.

I always look forward to an opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at FETC 2020, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

My Sessions:

 TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2020

Holy Sheets! Google Sheets Activities for all Subjects

• Session Code: W060$
• Time: 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
• Location: 229 B - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/sheets

Literacy Activities with Google Docs

• Session Code: W133$
• Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
• Location: 228 B - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/docslit

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020

Googley Activities and Tools for Elementary Students

• Session Code: W168$
• Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
• Location: 229 B - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/primarygoog

Awesome Uses for Google Drawings in Your Classroom

• Session Code: SB02
• Time: 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM
• Location: Expo Hall Booth 4600 Skill Builder Theater
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/drawings

Google Tools for Struggling Students

• Session Code: C057
• Time: 2:00 PM - 2:40 PM
• Location: 228 B - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/sped

 THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2020

Applied Digital Skills: Google's Tech Skills Curriculum for all Subjects

• Session Code: W206$
• Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
• Location: 240-241 - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://bit.ly/appdigskills

Hipster Google: Tools You Probably Never Heard Of

• Session Code: M010
• Time: 12:00 PM - 12:40 PM
• Location: Grand Ball Room C - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/hipster

Fantastic Feedback Tools for Google Docs

• Session Code: C252
• Time: 2:00 PM - 2:40 PM
• Location: 228 B - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/docsfeedback

Beyond the Slideshow: Unleashing Student Creativity With Google Slides

• Session Code: C323
• Time: 4:00 PM - 4:40 PM
• Location: 244-245 - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/slides

 FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2020

360 Degree Learning with Google Tour Creator

• Session Code: W239$
• Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
• Location: 231 - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/tourcreator

The Bionic Educator

• Session Code: C372
• Time: 11:00 AM - 11:40 AM
• Location: 206 - Miami Beach Convention Center
• Session Resources: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/bionic

Connect with Me

I would love to stay connected with you after the conference. Please feel free to connect with me in any of the ways listed below:

• Email: ericcurts@gmail.com
• Twitter: @ericcurts
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/ericcurts
• Website: www.controlaltachieve.com

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

Editor's note: Google has recently announced it is scrapping its VR projects leaving educators questioning the place of this technology in the learning environment. Virtual reality (VR) expert and global conference presenter Kai Liang unravels the findings of this news report and sheds light on the reality of virtual reality. 

Proponents of VR believe that it is an excellent educational tool which allows students to play a more active role in learning by exploring and manipulating three-dimensional, interactive environments that create a feeling of ‘being there’; especially beneficial for concepts that can’t be ‘seen’. Taking chemistry as an example of one curriculum area, rather than trying to understand atoms from a textbook, using VR, students can ‘fly’ inside various molecules, making invisible atomic and molecular concepts visible and experienced on a human scale. 

I play an active part in the majority of EdTech developments in China, Australia, Romania, UK and South East Asia. In China in particular, the government is committed to VR in education. With all this in mind, I was interested in finding out more about Google’s perceived move away from VR production. Of course, as with many news items, the headline doesn’t tell the full story.

At first glance, the headline suggests its move away from VR is because it doesn’t believe in the benefits of the technology. However, when you read further, the report actually stated that it was simply a case of its VR hub funding coming to an end.

Google’s decision to move away from VR hardware development was also not based on its lack of belief in the power of VR in education; it was because it doesn’t see a future for smartphone-based VR in a box, and I agree with this. The second reason is an age-old problem that we see too often in education: it’s not a big enough audience to attract these multi-national giants. The current uptake of VR in schools is gaining good speed, but this is simply NOT comparable to the quantity of business Google expects in the consumer space. 

The changing face of VR content supply

When I started out in the VR space, there were more than a hundred VR content developers in China; these companies were trying to be everything for everyone. Unsurprisingly, today, this has thinned down to leave only those who are fully committed to supporting the education sector. 

Of course, while the hardware headsets are important, the quality of the content is the real king! Google Expeditions, zSpace, Lifeliqe are good examples but the strength of education content developers such as MEL Science is based on their starting out as science education companies, not VR developers. It’s not about VR, it’s about using the technology for education to enable students to learn knowledge points better by interacting with otherwise invisible micro-level processes; for me, this is the right way to approach VR content development. 

So, where do decisions like these leave schools who appreciate the value of VR in the classroom? 

As the appreciation of the important benefits of VR leads to more schools committing to the technology, we will see these high quality EdTech developers grow further, increasing the quality and diversity of their learning content. The future is bright! 

Google’s decision is, in a way, a positive move for schools. The education content providers that are surviving are the good ones that are carefully matching the content to the curriculum; in effect the market has created its own natural filter of quality. 

VR hardware maturity

At an entry level schools can actually make VR headsets very easily out of cardboard! One step up from this is DIY kits that produce a plastic headset; a slightly better VR experience for around $25. Taking another step up in terms of cost and quality comes manufactured headsets such as Oculus Go’s for $199. Huawei’s new super light and relatively cheap VR Glass headset is expected to sell millions and ignite the market; good news for the quality content providers in education. 

When we look at the growing maturity of VR technology, it’s interesting to note that there are an increasing number of universities offering a degree course in VR, something that was unheard of a few years ago. So, whether you use VR because of its incredible education power or because students will undoubtedly be using the technology in their future lives, VR is here to stay.

Google tools. Good.

Maps. Good.

Google map tools. Awesome.

The move by Google to create a web-based version of Google Earth a few years ago made sense. They needed something that would work on mobile devices and Chromebooks. But as a huge lover of the Desktop Pro version of GE, the problem for me was that the web-based version lacked so many of Pro’s bells and whistles.

I loved the ability to create tours and Google LitTrips, to use Historical Imagery, to combine different layers of data tell amazing stories. Sure. There was Tour Builder and My Maps but my heart still belonged to Google Earth.

But apparently Google listened in on enough of my conversations to do something about my need for tour creation tools in the web-based version of GE. A few weeks ago, they finally added the ability to generate tours with some pretty sweet features.

(If you’re semi-new to the Google Earth world, there are multiple versions. There’s the original Pro version that you install directly onto your laptop or desktop, there’s the more recent web-based version that runs through the Chrome browser – including on Chromebooks, and there are mobile app versions that run on tablets and phones. We’re talking about the web-based Chrome version here. While you can view tours created on the Pro and web versions on mobile versions of GE, you’re still not able to create tours on the mobile versions. Clear as mud?)

These new features help you and students replicate tours already present that you can find in the Voyager section of the Chrome version. You can combine text, photos, video clips, Street View images, and 360-degree videos to immerse your viewers wherever you want to take them around the world. You can also add place marks, lines, shapes, full screen slides and the ability to add text to create rich information boxes about each of the places on your tour.

The resulting stories can be organized into narratives that will fly viewers from place to place as they watch your presentation. Get a sense of the possibilities by taking a look at a Google made tour of US national parks. Or this tour of Henry Box Brown’s escape from slavery in 1849. Maybe this Google LitTrip on Anne Frank.

Or take a quick look at a Civil War Battlefield tour that took me about 10 minutes to throw together. Your teacher brain should be seriously jumpstarted by now. I think you can use this for a wide variety of both teacher directed and student directed projects. Geography obviously but this would also be great for integrating both fiction and non-fiction text. For connecting past events with current issues. For developing flipped classroom resources. For combining cross-disciplinary stuff like science and civic engagement projects your kids are doing in the community. For highlighting current events. Virtual field trips. Digital argumentative essays using place and movement as evidence.

One of the cool things that’s an improvement over the desktop version is the Google Drive integration. When you’re logged into GE and create a tour, your work is saved and dropped into an automatically created Drive folder titled Google Earth. The tool also works just like a collaborative Google Doc – allowing you and students to invite editors to the tour creation process. This lets you work with other teachers to build out and share tours complementing your instruction. It also means you can create and monitor work done by student groups or have students create their own tours together or individually.

This is perfect for those of you using Google Classroom. You can quickly create an assignment in Classroom and share it with students. (Though you can have kids view only or edit a tour as a class, there does seem to be the inability to create a tour and have Classroom make a separate copy for each student. Hopefully that’s on their to-do list.)

Get an easy to use five page PDF tutorial that walks you through the process step by step. Or for the YouTube lovers in the room, check out these three video walkthroughs:

So many Google Map tools. So little time.

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant for ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

Google has prepared a comprehensive curriculum that schools can use to teach students proper Web etiquette, online health and respect for others. Aimed at K-through-12 classrooms, Be Internet Awesome emphasizes five aspects of online life. In addition to being thoughtful about sharing online comments and looking for the telltale signs of online fakes, the program seeks to strengthen the user’s privacy and to foster an online ethic of kindness. Finally, the program emphasizes that students should always feel free to ask adults when they’re uncertain what to do. The curriculum package includes a form letter to adults, lessons plans and culminates with Google’s Interland game to expand and reinforce the classroom work. 

Lately I have been obsessed with simplifying my curriculum. That is, drastically decreasing the Extraneous Cognitive load of all materials, technology, etc.

Perhaps I'm just maturing as an educator? Perhaps I'm just EXHAUSTED by all the options out there. Or perhaps I'm just developing a much deeper love for the content I'm teaching rather than the tools used to teach it?

I'm sure it's a combination of all things. Either way, I find it fascinating, and somewhat paradoxical, how attempting to deeply simplify the tools I and my students are using poses as a greater instructional design challenge than leveraging a system of complex tools. 

Either way, this coming semester (classes at my school are a semester long) I am going to be transitioning all of my class websites from traditional Google Sites to simple Google Documents.

I use our class website to not only curate resources, but also deliver all instructions (link documents, practice problems, activity templates, etc.). In transitioning to a Google Doc based system I plan on having one document, that is broken into individual learning cycles where students will access all class materials.

I will use one hyperlinked bookmark to identify where we are in the document for that particular day so students feel a sense of flow and organization to the document. Students will click on the link at the top of the page and be shuttled immediately to the portion of the document for that day.

Click here for an example of an old website using Google Sites, and here for an example of the beginning (2 of 6 units have been completed) of my new system.

I will also be including a "Teacher's Corner" (under construction...apologies) link at the top that will outline how each unit is designed according to the 5E/Hero's Journey learning cycle format.

I do not explicitly indicate the curricular jargon to students, rather I want them to experience the journey authentically. However, I want you, and other fellow educators, to be able to access my thinking.

Not sure if this post makes any sense, but I am SUPER excited about the challenge in simplifying my curricular materials for both learning and instruction. I will be updating this process as I progress over the next few months under the "Projects" tab. 

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

Catch up on everything new in G Suite for Education from October 2019, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our October 2019 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda and all the awesome resources and G Suite updates from the summer months. This includes 33 new Google updates and 27 Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Apps news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Apps is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the October 2019 meeting:

Note: If you would like to see each of the agenda items with links directly to those spots in the video, open the video using the YouTube link below and then click “Show More” below the video.   YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQH1howzmFY 

You can view the full Google Document agenda with links to all the Google Apps updates from the last month, as well as all the resources covered in the meeting in the Google Doc linked below.    View the agenda - Google Document link

Agenda details

Upcoming Events

• Teacher Success Summit- October 28- November 2, 2019 - Register
• Learning Innovations Conference - November 5, 2019 - Kent State Student Center - Free registration is now open online; slots are limited; Earn 6 contact hours or grad credit
• Teach Better Conference- November 8-9, 2019- Akron, Ohio - https://teachbetterconference.com/
• OCALICON 2019! November 20-22 Columbus, OH - https://conference.ocali.org/
• WVIZ/PBS Ideastream Tech & Learning Conference - Cleveland, OH - 11/20/19
• Google's Applied Digital Skills workshop - NWOCA (Archbold OH) - December 17th from 9am to Noon - Free Registration Link
• NEOTech 2020 (March 16-17) John S Knight Center in Akron
• Call for Presenters going out tomorrow, Nov 1st search twitter for #NEOTech2020
• EdTechTeam Ohio Google Summit - Dublin, OH - April 2020
• The Ohio Google Summit 2020- Kalahari Conference Center in Sandusky, May 10-12, 2020 - Call for Presenters is now open (due January 15th)

What's New in G Suite

• Google starts testing Duplex on the web as 'Assistant in Chrome' - Resource Link
• Dark theme now available for Google Voice on Android- Resource Link
• Google for Education launches a Pinterest page - Resource Link
• Google launches Password Checkup site so you can see if your passwords are compromised or weak - Resource Link
• Google to Add End of Life Details to Chromebook Settings App - Resource Link
• Action Blocks: one tap to make technology more accessible - Resource Link
• Google Recorder app for Android adds transcription and audio search - Resource Link
• Keeping privacy and security simple, for you - Resource Link
• A new look for the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides Android apps- Resource Link
• Grasshopper app to learn coding is now available for the desktop, including additional courses - Resource Link
• Google launches "Goal Seek" add-on for Sheets to calculate the required value of a cell to achieve a desired formula value in another cell - Resource Link
• Google testing search results without listing URLs of sites - Resource Link
• Customize text size and position for captions in Google Slides - Resource Link
• Blogger gets major UI refresh on Android - Resource Link
• Directly click on chart elements to move and delete them in Google Sheets - Resource Link
• Google adds "Exploring the Maya World" collection to Arts & Culture site - Resource Link
• Google Photos gets a new 'crop document' feature - Resource Link
• Google rolling out Live Caption feature starting with Pixel 4 phones - Resource Link
• Google adds ".new" shortcut for Keep with note.new, notes.new, and keep.new to quickly create a new note - Resource Link
• Google Books gets updated look - Resource Link
• Google adds "Books: From Scrolls to Screens" collection to Arts and Culture site - Resource Link
• Getting started with Google for Education - Resource Link
• See a filterable, searchable list of the latest G Suite launches- Resource Link
• Set profile picture for Gmail and all Google apps - Resource Link
• Google Photos to get new drawing and annotation tools - Resource Link

• Google launches "Digital Wellbeing Experiments" for Android - Resource Link
  
    Unlock Clock - Better understand your tech use by seeing how often you unlock your phone - Resource Link
    Post Box - Minimize distractions with scheduled notifications - Resource Link
    We Flip - Spend quality time together by switching off from technology as a group - Resource Link
    Desert Island - Find focus by going a day with only your essential apps - Resource Link
    Morph - Stay focused by getting the right apps at the right time - Resource Link

• Google makes breakthrough with their quantum computer - Resource Link, Resource Link
• Google highlights accessibility features for Chromebooks - Resource Link
• How Google Search Works (in 5 minutes) - Resource Link
• Google adds cal.new and meeting.new shortcuts to create a new Google Calendar event - Resource Link
• Google Hangouts now supports up to 100 participants for schools - Resource Link
• Google reminds admins to check their "Comprehensive Mail Storage" setting - Resource Link
• Fundamental Device Management for G Suite will log user access on Windows, Mac, Chrome, and Linux devices - Resource Link

Show and Tell

Special Guest- Jen Giffen - Jen’s 18 Favourite Google Chrome Extensions - Resource Link

G Suite Videos

• Propose a New Time in Calendar - Resource Link
• How To: Email collaborators from Google Docs - Resource Link
• EDU in 90: Innovate with Google Sites - Resource Link
• How To: Get Notified about Spreadsheet Changes - Resource Link
• How To: Set up a Tabbed Inbox in Gmail - Resource Link
• Q&A Tool in Slides - The Suite Life - Resource Link
• Transcribe an Audio Note in Keep - The Suite Life - Resource Link
• EDU in 90: Apps for Writing & Research - Resource Link

SPARCC videos on Gmail, Contacts, Google Accounts, etc.

• How to: Manage Multiple Google Accounts - YouTube link
• How to: Create and Use Folders in Gmail - YouTube link
• How to: Manage your Gmail Inbox Layout Options - YouTube link
• How to: Create a Personal Contact Group in Google Contacts by Manually Adding Addresses - YouTube link
• How to: Create a Personal Contact Group in Google Contacts by Importing Addresses - YouTube link
• How to: Create a Google Group Email List by Manually Adding Addresses - YouTube link

Posts from Eric's blog at https://www.controlaltachieve.com/

• Educational Activities and Games with Flippity - Resource Link
• 15 Awesome Article Sites for Students - Resource Link

• 5 Google Classroom Pro Tips for Its 5th Birthday - Resource Link
• Stop Motion - Resource Link
• 27 Tips to Deliver Powerful Professional Development - Resource Link
• Google Sites Scavenger Hunt to help students learn how to make a site - Resource Link
• Mystery Reveal - Resource Link
• Students learn Google Read and Write - Resource Link
• Just in time for Halloween, Google posted a picture of an actual "Google Graveyard" of products they have killed off - Resource Link
• Book Creator - Upgrade Trainers and Innovators- Resource Link
• Learn Sheets - Resource Link
• Sketch to Remember - Resource Link
• Screencastify and Reading Fluency - Resource Link
• GMail Basics Part 1: An EdPuzzle Flipped Lesson - Resource Link
• Pictionary Generator is a great way to start creating images using AutoDraw to help students with brain breaks.
• Google Slides Drag and Draw - Resource Link
• Virtual Reality Activity Sequence - Resource Link
• Slido add-on - Create and Run Polls Within Your Google Slides - Resource Link
• Where to Find Incredible Student Templates for Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drawings - Resource Link
• Creating and Sharing a TIP Vocabulary Chart in Google Sheets - Resource Link
• Mindful Break - Chrome extension from Google that gives you a mindfulness tip and guides you through a short breathing exercise. Can also set reminders - Resource Link
• 4 Google MyMaps Activities You Can Do - Resource Link
• Halloween Mad Libs with Google Sheets - Resource Link
• Tracking Success- Resource Link

To see the schedule for upcoming Google User Group meetings visit: Google User Group schedule - https://sites.google.com/view/geg-ohio/monthly-meetings

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

The best student templates for Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms or Drawings can mean the difference between an easily produced masterpiece and an effort filled low-mark mess. These can be of tremendous help to teachers, who can share these templates to make the lives of their students easier – and ultimately the quality of work submitted, better.

If you have ever used Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawings, and Forms, then you know how easy it is to collaborate and share work with peers and students. Thousands of educators create and share best student templates as part of their lesson plans, activities, and projects, making these resources free through their blogs or on Twitter. 

Using templates saves you and your students a lot of time and stress. All you need to do is copy the template you want your students to use, edit and tweak the template as you like, then share the URL with your students so they copy it and complete the work.  

Below is a list of websites with tons of free templates, tips, and tricks.

• Google Classroom review
• How do I use Google Classroom?

Free Templates for Google

The following websites are filled with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings templates that are ready to use. Edit and tweak these templates as needed. 

You may want to share the activity with your students as a template so they can preview it. To do this copy the template’s long url and change the edit part in the URL, "/edit", to "/template/preview."

• Of course you can find several free templates I share regularly on this blog, Teacher Reboot Camp, in my books, and in my 400+ slide presentations.
• Eric Curts shares tons of templates for Drawings, Slides, Docs, and Sheets in his blog, Control Alt Achieve.
• Kelly Fitzgerald shares tons of Google tricks and templates, including several graphic organizers, in her blog, Edtech Nut.
• Brad Dale shares tips, tricks, and templates in his blog, Time to Talk Tech.
• Ms. Drasby’s Tech Babble is full of tips, tricks and templates.
• The TCEA blog is another great place to find tons of free templates, including Breakout Edu activity templates.
• The educators from Black Gold Regional School Division share tons of creative templates for students to create magazines, newspapers, and more!
• The Instructional Tech Talk blog has several templates, including awesome infographic templates for students.
• Flippity has tons of templates for Google Sheets! Create digital flashcards, interactive quizzes, scavenger hunts, and other cool stuff.
• Check out Slidesmania and Slidescarnival for some colorful themes and templates to make your presentations and lesson plans stand out.
• Pear Deck is an add-on for Google Slides to increase student engagement. The platform features a library of ready to use templates.
• The Google Teacher Tribe has several podcasts, tips, tricks and templates.
• Alice Keeler often shares tips and templates, especially for Sheets.
• Find templates for student choice menus and more at the Shake Up Learning blog.
• The Google Teacher Tribe has several podcasts, tips, tricks and templates.
• Twitter is another way I find tons of useful templates! I recommend these hashtags-#GoogleEDU, #GoogleClassroom, #GoogleET, and #GSuiteEdu.

Catch up on everything new in G Suite for Education from September 2019, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our September 2019 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda and all the awesome resources and G Suite updates from the summer months. This includes 22 new Google updates and 19 Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Apps news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Apps is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the September 2019 meeting:

Note: If you would like to see each of the agenda items with links directly to those spots in the video, open the video using the YouTube link below and then click “Show More” below the video.

 YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQPDDTrmg5g

You can view the full Google Document agenda with links to all the Google Apps updates from the last month, as well as all the resources covered in the meeting in the Google Doc linked below.

 View the agenda - Google Document link

Agenda details

Upcoming Events

• Applied Digital Skills workshop - September 30, 2019 - 12:30pm-3:30pm - SPARCC / Stark County ESC - Free registration
• Future Ready Schools Leadership Institute- October 7-8, 2019- Kalahari Resorts -Website Link
• Learn 21 Conference- October 29, 2019- Ohio State University Ohio Union -Website Link
• Ohio Technology Summit (Makerspace Edition) - October 29th @ Otterbein University - Website Link
• Learning Innovations Conference - November 5, 2019 - Kent State Student Center - Website Link
• Teach Better Conference- November 8-9, 2019- Akron, Ohio -Website Link
• EdTechTeam Ohio Google Summit - Dublin, OH - November 9-10, 2019 - Website Link
• OCALICON 2019! November 20-22 Columbus, OH - Website Link
• WVIZ/PBS Ideastream Tech & Learning Conference - Cleveland, OH - 11/20/19
• NEOTech 2020 (March 16-17)

What's New in G Suite

• Switch to a blank screen and set advanced time options for presentations in Google Slides - Resource Link
• See when someone is out of office in Gmail and Hangouts Chat- Resource Link
• Google Images removes 'exact size' and 'larger than' search filters - Resource Link
• Updated Working Hours in Calendar helps colleagues know your schedule- Resource Link
• New version of Android brings Live Captioning and more Digital Wellbeing tools - Resource Link
• Translate Docs into other languages - Resource Link
• G Suite Admin Console getting updates including faster loading, improved search, unified app management, and new policies for users and devices - Resource Link, Resource Link
• Display the word count as you type in Google Docs - Resource Link
• New improvements for Jamboard mobile and tablet apps - Resource Link
• Chrome version 77 adds built-in feature to send webpages to and from your desktop and mobile devices - Resource Link
• Form Notifications add-on now available in the G Suite Marketplace - Resource Link
• Google Expeditions now has the option to share a link to individual Expeditions and specific scenes - Resource Link
• Google launches "Recover Together" website with addiction recovery resources - Resource Link
• Google adds Live Caption feature to Hangouts Meet on Android - Resource Link
• Google Docs and Slides adds custom line spacing for text - Resource Link
• Google Docs adding link preview feature - Resource Link
• Chrome gets updates including tab previews, answers in the address bar, color customization, and more - Resource Link
• Search, view and add bots directly within Hangouts Chat- Resource Link
• Transformation reports from Google for Education are now generally available - Resource Link
• Google Assistant comes to more Chromebooks - Resource Link
• Dark theme is coming to Gmail for Android and iOS - Resource Link
• Find people and rooms more easily on the Hangouts Chat mobile app - Resource Link

Show and Tell

• My, Myself and I Google Slides - Mr. Theriault - Resource Link
• Video - "Diving into Google: An advanced search methods tutorial" - Resource Link
• SearchReSearch blog from Google's Dan Russell - Resource Link
• 30 Ways To Use Google Search For Critical Thinking In The Classroom- Resource Link
• 4 Ideas for Promoting Creative Thinking with your Content - Resource Link
• Chromebook Gestures- Resource Link
• Parent Conference Translator- Resource Link
• SnackVids - Easy site to pull the transcript from a YouTube video and help you search for the words you want - Resource Link
• Google Slides "Mystery Reveal" Template - Resource Link
• "Creator Studio" add-on for Google Slides - Resource Link
• 6 Chromebook keyboard shortcuts that save time - Resource Link
• Spice Up Your Slides with 600+ Free Design Templates - Resource Link
• 3 Tips to Turn Your Lectures into Engaging Conversations - Resource Link
• Student Metacognitive Portfolios Using Google Sheets - Resource Link
• Learner Portfolios with Google Sites - Resource Link
• Hacking Google Sites to create template for student portfolios - Resource Link
• The Power of Google Drawings to Engage Students - Resource Link
• Bookmarks in Chrome – Everything you need to know to use your bookmarks like a pro! - Resource Link
• How to Manually Update Chromebooks - Resource Link

To see the schedule for upcoming Google User Group meetings visit:

Google User Group schedule - https://sites.google.com/view/geg-ohio/monthly-meetings

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

Today, Google for Education announced the launch of originality reports, a new feature that helps ensure the authenticity of coursework by flagging any text that has missed citations and has high similarity with text on the web or in books. 

Available through Classrooms, originality reports use search capabilities as it cross-references student work against hundreds of billions of web pages and tens of millions of books.

Google for Education also announced new activities to CS First, a Code with Google curriculum for elementary and middle school students. The new CS First activities, called Characterization and Interactive Presentation are two key components of English Language Arts (ELA) instruction. Both activities align with Common Core ELA Anchor Standards and include instructional videos, lesson plans, student materials and more.

Tour Creator

Simple Google tool puts kids at the helm of creating VR experiences

Pros: Useful features to add narration, ambient audio, and 360-degree photos.

Cons: No built-in audio recording capability or initial tutorial.

Bottom Line: Allows teachers and students to create compelling tours for viewing in VR or on a web browser.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

For the past couple of years I’ve been a live reporter at ISTE and for 2 years interviewed folks with my toddler, Savvy. This year I am attending the ISTE conference virtually!  This year’s conference highlighted so many ways to use Google apps and tools to engage learners and make grading, assessment, feedback, pbl, gamification, student engagement, collaboration, student choice, and student voice easy to do! Currently, I am the Computer and Technology teacher of over 400 elementary students. Google Education apps and tools has helped me manage it all and be a powerful teacher. If you missed the zilions of presentations and amazing ideas at ISTE don’t worry, because I got you covered. Below I have added links to presentations, resources, tips, and more thanks to Wakelet, the great free curation tool that captures thoughts, reflections, and reactions from Twitter during a conference. I recommend following the presenters. I have shared a list of Google Gurus in this post.

Top Google Education Tips and Updates

These are the important updates and cool ways to use Google Education apps and tools.

• Students can now earn a GSuite certification!
• Google Classroom is adding several grading features, including rubrics, and has a new user-friendly design.
• Now you can import questions from other forms on Google Forms and Google Forms is getting a makeover.
• Google Expeditions is now compatible with Chromebooks and students can use Tour Creator to build their own virtual reality tours.
• Google has new grammar suggestions to improve writing.
• Google has partnered with different EdTech companies, such as Seesaw and Kahoot! so teachers and students can easily use learning apps with Chromebooks and GSuites Edu.

TEACHING & LEARNING IDEAS, RESOURCES, & TIPS

• @WTerral shared how to create gifs with Google Slides and how to make your own Chrome extensions.
• In their presentation, Get in the Game! Lil Gamers, @mrsnpartyka  and @k8wakeshare downloadable Choice Menus and Game Boards, tips for managing choice work in Google Classroom, and ideas for gamification with Google Forms.
• Find resources for the presentation, If You Give a Kindergartener a Chromebook, here.
• Add Screencastify’s screen recording videos (create tutorials or show students how to use websites) to Google Slides. Great for your beginning of the year presentations.
  @Njcashman shared the resource Glide for creating an app within minutes using Google Spreadsheet.
• @She3llyLynn84 shared how to create games with Google Slides.
• Google Earth scavenger hunts where another idea. I didn’t see links, but found these two resources (Geolocation coordinates scavenger hunt and Google Classroom scavenger hunt) to help you set this up in your classroom.

Top Google Tips and Resources

These are some of the highlighted tweets taken during the presentations and related to Google Education so you have the latest news, updates, resources, and tips!

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

I spent the morning at Slate Creek Elementary in Newton, observing just a few of the cool things going on there. Lots of PBL. Lots of inquiry. Lots of great student questions.

And one of my favorite hook activities ever.

Tenae Alfaro, Slate Creek principal, is planning a summer trip and so she asked fourth grade kids to do some in-depth research and plan a trip for her. Now . . . I’m not sure she’s actually going go take the trip kids come up with. But what a cool essential and authentic question to ask nine-year-olds.:

So there’s a crowd of fourth grade kids over in Newton doing research on states and monuments and museums and all the kinds of things you might typically do on a cross-country family trip. And one of the tools that would be ideal as part of that final product is Google My Maps.

I’m still surprised by the number of teachers who aren’t aware of this piece of Google’s G Suite. If you’re still not sure what it is, think Google Docs in map form. My Maps supports collaborative editing and sharing, it’s easy to use, and it integrates with all the other G Suite apps. It’s a great tool for helping kids see connections between events, people, and place.

And for the kids over at Slate Creek (or your students,) it’s a perfect way to create rich, deep, and multi-layered visual representations of trips. So use it for planning a principal’s summer trip, as a Google Lit Trip that highlights events and travel in fictional stories, or to chronicle actual trips and events such as Lewis & Clarks Corps of Discovery.

• Cause it’s a map. Seriously . . . maps are perfect for visualizing places
  And distances. And relationships. And for highlighting the best BBQ places. But even if you’re not using it to track down Roy’s Pit BBQ and Kansas City Joe’s, it’s still useful to help kids see where places are in relation to each other as they create both authentic and fictional trips.
• It’s part of your school’s Google Drive suite of tools
  You all know how much I love all things Google. As you create your trip on My Maps, it auto-saves a copy of the map into the Google Drive account your student is using. So it’s perfect for stashing in a Google folder that is storing all of the trip planning resources, photos, and itineraries.
• You can add all sorts of extra details to your map
  Because it’s part of the Googleverse, you can use Google’s default search features, add images, or insert YouTube videos into your map with the click of a button. If a specific place, museum, battlefield, or point of interest is in the Google database, you can quickly add its website, reviews, and contact info to your map. This also allows your kids to customize their travel map by adding photos or videos as well as text. All of these extras are added and are viewed by clicking on an individual marker. (Scroll down for a handy tutorial for how-to’s.)
• Kids can plan a specific route by creating a direction layer
  Each My Map can have multiple layers of markers. One of the My Maps options is to generate directions. So  . . . students can combine those two features to create a layer of directions from one location to the next as part of their trip planning.
• My Maps is super editable
  Pretty much everything a kid could add in a My Map is customizable. So think custom icons and colors for different markers making it easy to see what things with just a quick glance. For example, we’re taking a Civil War Battlefield Extravaganza in a month. So we’ve got stars for battlefields, little museum icons, BnB icons – all color coded and numbered so that each day makes sense in the bigger picture of the trip. 

• Semi-mobile friendly
  All My Maps are accessible for viewing on mobile devices. iOS devices don’t yet allow you to edit a map but Android users can install the My Maps app for full features.
• They’re easy to share
  It’s super simple to share maps with others and allow them to edit and add to the map. Or students can lock their maps after their maps are finished by changing the privacy settings to View only. They can then be shared with you for assessment or embedded on your class website. 

Get step by step instructions to creating your first My Map at the super handy Google My Maps support page. The sweet video below is also great for a quick walkthrough. 

(For the youngsters in the group, Clark Griswold was the greatest father of all time – packing his family into a station wagon for a cross country trip to visit the amazing WallyWorld. He would have loved Google My Maps. And if you haven’t seen the movie, well . . . you haven’t lived until you’ve watched Chevy Chase shoot John Candy with a BB gun. Just saying.) 

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant forESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies

Gaggle, a school safety company, announced today that it has joined the Google for Education technology program as a Premier Partner. Gaggle supports schools and districts that use G Suite for Education by monitoring Google accounts for early warning signs of students in crisis.

Gaggle’s student safety solution uses a combination of machine learning and human safety experts to review students’ use of online tools. The solution analyzes and reviews the use of collaboration platforms, such as Google’s G Suite for Education, for nearly five million students across the United States. The solution alerts school officials when students show signs of self-harm, depression, thoughts of suicide, substance abuse, cyberbullying, unhealthy relationships, and credible threats of violence against others.

In my most recent post I shared a collection of web-based audio recording tools that you and your students can use to record and add your voice to Google Slides, or any project. There are many fun and engaging ways this new feature for Slides could be used for teaching and learning.

In the past I have had a lot of fun making drag and drop manipulative activities such as the Build a Snowman, Build a Jack-o-Lantern, and One Fish Two Fishtemplates. My plan was to combine that sort of activity with the new audio feature in Slides.

To try this out I created an interactive, audio-based activity in Google Slides for practicing short and long vowel sounds. In this slideshow, students are presented with clipart images that have attached audio files with each word spoken aloud. The students can then drag and drop the images to a box with the corresponding vowel sound. (Even if you are not a primary teacher, you can learn a lot about grouping items for any audio activities you might want to make.)

To make this work well, I had to take advantage of a neat option in Slides for grouping items. This allowed me to combine each piece of clipart with its associated audio file. In this blog post we will take a look at how this is done, so you can use this trick to create similar multimedia activities. You can also get a copy of the final template below for short and long vowel sounds to use with your students if you would like. 

Resources

Podcast Version: (Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast tool.) 

Video Version: (subscribe on YouTube) 

Short and Long Vowel Sounds Template

Below is a link to get your own copy of the Google Slides template for students to practice identifying short and long vowel sounds:

Short and Long Vowel Sounds - Google Slides template

Directions

Here are the basic directions for doing the activity:

• Each slide has a box for a short vowel sound and a box for a long vowel sound on the left side of the slide. You can click the audio button in each box to hear the the short and long vowels spoken out loud.
• On the right side of each slide there are eight clipart images that represent words that use either the short or long vowel sound.
• Click the audio button on each picture to hear the word read aloud. You may have to click the button twice to get it to play.
• Then drag the picture to the box with the same vowel sound. 

Note: You will need to do this activity in "edit" mode, not in "presentation" mode, so you will be able to drag and drop the clipart images into the correct boxes for their vowel sounds. 

Extension #1 - Students add an image 

As an optional extension for this activity, students can also add their own images that use the short and long vowel sounds. After each drag-and-drop slide, there is a challenge slide where students can insert images as follows: 

• Click "Insert"
• Click "Image"
• Click "Search the web"
• Search for pictures for words with the short or long vowel sounds.
• Choose a picture then click "Insert".
• Drag the picture to the box for its short or long vowel sound.
• To make the picture fit, you may need to drag its corner to make it smaller.

Extension #2 - Students write sentences

Another extension activity for students is to have them write sentences that use a word with the specific short or long vowel sound. After the first extension activity slide, there is a slide where students can write their sentences as follows: 

• Click in the text boxes on the left side of the slide.
• In the top box, write a sentence that uses a word with the short vowel sound.
• In the bottom box, write a sentence that uses a word with the long vowel sound.
• Students can use the words in the word bank, which are the same as the clipart images they just sorted.
• Or the students can use a word of their own with the correct vowel sound.

Grouping Items in Google Slides

To make this activity work, it was necessary to make sure each clipart image and its corresponding audio file stuck together so they would move as one item when the student drag and drop them. This can be done in Google Slides by using the "Group" option. Here is how you do that: 

• First, insert your images in the slideshow as normal. For example, click "Insert" then "Image" then add an image by uploading, searching, or such.
• Next, insert the recorded audio file to go along with each image. To do this click "Insert" then "Audio" then select the recorded audio from your Google Drive.

Note: For several suggested web-based tools for recording the audio, see my earlier post "4 Free and Easy Audio Recording Tools for Google Slides". 

• Now drag and drop the inserted audio icon on top of, or overlapping, its associated image.
• With the image and the audio together, you now want to select both of them. You can do this by clicking on one on them first, then holding down the "Ctrl" or "Shift" key and clicking on the second item. Now both the image and the audio file will be selected simultaneously.
• With both items selected, click "Arrange" in the top menu bar, then choose "Group" from the drop-down menu.

The image and the audio will now be grouped together as if they were one item. The students can still click on the audio file to play it, but when they drag and drop the image, the audio file will move with it.

This can be useful technique anytime you would like to add audio to an item in a slideshow. The audio could be directions, a description, a question, or simply a pronunciation such as in this activity. 

Conclusion

Creating a drop-and-drop audio activity is just one example of using this new feature. There are many other creative ways that audio can be used in Google Slides. It will be exciting to see the wide variety of activities that people develop and share. 

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

As the school year winds down, most teachers go through some sort of check-out procedure for their physical classrooms, making sure everything is properly organized or put away for the summer. In much the same way, you may want to do some clean-up and close-out steps for your digital classroom ... Google Classroom.

Google Classroom is a powerful tool to help you and your students collaborate and communicate, but when used year after year, it can start to become a bit of a mess and a management challenge. To help with this, there are several suggestions to consider for Classroom when wrapping up the school year.

See below for six steps that may help you clean up your Classroom as you transition from one school year to the next. However, keep in mind these are all just suggestions and each is optional. While some may not apply to your situation, hopefully several will assist you in keeping your Classroom organized, clutter-free, and efficient for a new year. 

Resources

Tip #1 - Return all student work

One of the great features of Google Classroom is how it streamlines the process for turning in work. When a student turns in an assignment, Google automatically changes the sharing permissions on the file (or files), making you the owner and reducing the student's rights to view-only. This is helpful for grading, but you don't want to leave it this way.

When done grading an assignment you want to make sure to return the files to your students, so the ownership of the files will revert back to the students. This is especially critical if later you decide to clean up your Drive and delete old files. If you are still the owner of the students' work, when you delete it, you are really deleting the file. However, if you have returned the files, you are no longer the owner, so if you delete them, all it does is remove them from your Drive.

So, one of the first tips to consider is to make sure you have properly returned all the Classroom assignments to your students. One way to do this would be:

• Click the menu button in the top left corner of Classroom
• Choose "To-do" from the drop-down menu.
• This will show you all of the assignments from all of your classes.
• You can narrow it down to just one class at a time if needed by choosing a class from the "All classes" drop-down menu at the top.
• For each assignment you can click on the "Turned in" link to view the student submissions.

• You can now look for any student work that is marked as "Turned in" rather than "Graded".

• Select those students, add a grade if still needed, and click the "Return" button at the top to return them to the students.
• When done checking an assignment you can go back to the "To-do" page and move it into the "Reviewed" section by clicking the three-dots menu and choosing "Mark as reviewed".
• Repeat as needed.

Tip #2 - Un-enroll students from old classes

Another possible clean-up step is to remove students from the old classes. This may be an option for you if you prefer not to have students accessing content from your class in the future.

For example, this could be for academic integrity issues if you do not want students showing certain course content to new classes in future years. Of course, no cheating-prevention solution is guaranteed, as students can always find many ways around preventative measures. Still though, it is an option that may help.

If you decide you would like to unenroll students from old courses, you can do the following: 

• Open the course and go to the "People" tab.
• Check the box at the top of the "Students" section to select all the students in the class.
• Click the "Actions" button.
• Choose "Remove" from the drop-down menu.

Tip #3 - Archive old classes

When you are done with a class, a good way to clean up Classroom is to archive the old classes. Archiving is a process that: 

• Removes the class from your main Classroom home page (making your page cleaner and easier to navigate).
• Freezes the class so no new changes can be made to it (especially helpful if you choose not to remove students from the old classes).
• Still allows you to copy and reuse old posts and assignments from the archived class in your new classes.

To archive an old class, do the following:

• Go to the home page of Classroom
• Click the three-dots menu in the top right corner of the "card" for the class you wish to archive.
• Then click "Archive" from the drop-down menu.
• You will now get a pop-up window asking you to verify that you want to archive the class. Click "Archive" again to verify.

If you ever need to un-archive a class, you can do so as follows:

• From the home page of Classroom, click the menu button in the top left.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the drop-down menu and choose "Archived Classes".
• Click the three-dots menu in the top right corner of the "card" for the class you wish to un-archive.
• Then click "Restore" from the drop-down menu.
• You will now get a pop-up window asking you to verify that you want to restore the class. Click "Restore" again to verify.

Not only will archiving old classes help keep your Classroom screen clean, but it will also help your students. As the students start back for a new school year, they will not get distracted by classes from the previous year, but instead can easily jump right into this year's content.

Tip #4 - Remove old class calendars

When you create a class in Google Classroom, and then make assignments with due dates, this automatically creates a Google Calendar for the class. This is a convenient way for your and your students to go to Google Calendar and see upcoming due dates for classwork and projects throughout the course of the school year.

However, when the year is over and the class is done, you don't really need that calendar showing up anymore. If you have a number of classes, they can quickly clutter up your calendar list. Thankfully there are a couple of easy options for removing the calendars for old classes.

• Go to Google Calendar.
• You should see the names of your classes in the list under "My calendars" on the left side of the screen.
• To remove an old class calendar you will need to access that calendar's settings.
• Click the three-dots button to the right of the class name in the "My calendars" list.
• If you just want to hide the class calendar from your list, simply click "Hide from list".
• If instead you want to delete the calendar, click "Settings and sharing".
• You can now scroll down to the bottom of the calendar details screen and in the "Remove calendar" section click "Delete".
• This will open a pop-up window asking you to confirm the deletion.

Tip #5 - Move old class folders in Drive

Because Google Classroom automates the sharing and collaborating process, it is easy to forget what is actually going on behind the scenes in Google Drive. For each class you create in Google Classroom, a folder gets created in your Google Drive where all of the assignment documents and other files are stored.

Now you may never open that Classroom folder in Drive, so this tip may not apply to you at all. However, you may choose to browse that folder as another option for easy access to all your students' submitted work. If that is the case, the "Classroom" folder in your Drive can get pretty crowded over the years.

If it helps, you are allowed to move class folders to a new location in your Drive, so only the current class folders are easily visible. Here's how: 

• Go to Google Drive and select the "Classroom" folder.
• If you do not already have a place to move the old class folders, create a new folder by clicking "New" and "Folder".
• Name it something like "Archive" or "Old Classes" or such.
• You can now simply drag and drop the old class folders into the new folder you have created. 

Moving class folders does not interfere with their use in Google Classroom in any way. It simply cleans up your "Classroom" folder to make it easier for you to find current classes, if so desired.

Tip #6 - Remove old class files from "Shared with me" in Drive

When files get shared as part of a Classroom assignment, sometimes the files will also show up in the "Shared with me" area of your Google Drive. If you have a lots of students and lot of assignments, this can cause quite a mess in "Shared with me".

Now I am of the philosophy that it is not really worth the fight to try to keep "Shared with me" clean or organized in any way. I tend to think of it as Grand Central Station and just accept the fact that it will always be a mess.

However, if you really want to clean up "Shared with me" you are allowed to remove files from there. So you may want to consider getting rid of old files from this year's classes.

First though, two quick but important notes: 

• Make sure you have returned all the assignments to your students first before you delete anything out of "Shared with me" (see Tip #1 above). Remember that you actually become the owner of a file when a student turns it into you. If you have not returned the file yet, then you are technically the owner of the file, and if you delete the file, it really gets deleted.
• On the other hand, if you are not the owner of a file, and you delete it from "Shared with me" it does not really delete the file. It simply removes it from the "Shared with me" list. The file will still show up in your "Classroom" folders, even when you remove it from "Shared with me".

To remove a file from "Shared with me" do the following: 

• Go to Google Drive.
• Click "Shared with me" on the left.
• Select the file (or files) you wish to remove.
• Now you can click on the "Remove" icon in the top toolbar (looks like a trashcan).
• Or right-click on the file(s) and choose "Remove".
• The file(s) will now be removed from "Shared with me".

BONUS: Delete Old Classroom Bookmarks

Here is an extra bonus piece of advice I got from a good friend. Sometimes we try to make navigation easier for our students my having them add a bookmark directly to our Classroom page, rather than the Classroom site in general. That can certainly help save a click or two on a day to day basis, but can become confusing the next year when that class is no longer active.

If you have a practice of having your students add bookmarks for you Classroom page, also be sure to have an end-of-year practice of reminding your students to delete those old bookmarks. Again, this will help for a much smoother launch in the new school year. 

Conclusion

Google Classroom is a wonderful tool to help you and your students share documents, have discussions, access resources, and more. However, even something as useful as Classroom can become cluttered and less efficient if we fail to manage it well. Hopefully some of the tips shared above will be useful for you, and will help keep your Classroom running smoothly. 

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

It is important that students know how to search on the internet. This not only includes the basics of “how to”, but also what search engine to use. In this post, I wish to point out seven areas of search engines everyone should be aware of. They include:

1. The Informational Search Engine
2. The Human Reviewed Search Engine
3. The Computational Search Engine
4. The Individualized Search Engine
5. The Social Media Search Engine
6. Primary Document Search Engine
7. Subscription Search Engine

While there are more categories and of course more search engines, it is important to become familiar with these seven. It is also imperative that students understand that there is still more information available in the somewhat closed web environment. These include reference services and databases. Your school librarian will be happy to introduce you and your students to some of these highly academic resources. Let’s take a moment to look at these seven categories and a search engine from each one. After looking them over take a moment to experiment and try each one out. I know you will also enjoy the sites that follow the seven categories encouraging your students to work on their search strategies. I am certain you and your students will enjoy the search and the inquiry just as much as the getting the answer. Also, remember that the answer just might lead to new questions and inquiry! 

Seven Categories of Search Engines with an Example for Each

Google Advanced Search – Informational Search Engine –   It may be best  to direct students towards the Google Advanced Search Engine even before using the Google Basic Search. In fact, Advanced Search should be used until students understand how to use these advanced techniques in a Basic Search.  When  educators ask students to search and find information on the internet… it is not to just get the answer. It is to learn an important process that will serve them through future schooling and eventual careers. Take a look at the Google Advanced Search Engine and see why it really should be a basic prerequisite! For those who have been long time users of the advanced search you are probably aware that it is no longer next to the search box in its once prominent location. Instead… it was moved a while ago to the upper right-hand corner appearing as a gear icon and sometimes may not appear until you perform a basic search. The link above takes you directly to the Google Advanced Search Engine.  You can check out some of the Google Advanced Search Operators that can be used in the Basic Search at this Link. Read more about using the Advanced Search at 21centuryedtech.

Sweet Search – Human Reviewed – It is owned by Dulcinea Media, a company committed to supplying students with a search engine that returns results that are accurate, reliable, safe, and understandable. Instead of having students sift through millions of websites, the research experts, educators, and librarians at Dulcinea have created a database of tens of thousands of sites that students have access to in their searches. As a result, SweetSearch excludes results from unreliable sites that might rank high in other search engines.  This allows  students to choose the most relevant result from a list of credible returns, rather than having  educational time wasted on unreliable sites. Since Sweetsearch is powered by Google, it does allow the ability to toggle results between Google and Sweetsearch. Read more about using the Advanced Search at 21centuryedtech.

>WolframAlpha – Computational – Google is best termed an informational search engine… its strength is looking for facts and information. There are also data based search engines, by now you may know that I am referring to Wolfram Alpha.  This search engine claims, “to bring broad, deep, expert knowledge to everyone… anytime, anywhere!”. They further state, “We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematization of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.” Check out theWolframAlpha Educator Page. It is filled with great ideas for all subject areas.

Google Custom Search – Individualized – This  is a unique way to curate and archive sites for students and still require them to practice good searching techniques. Many times as teachers we find our students trying to maneuver their way through  the internet jungle often finding sites they cannot understand, are not reliable/credible, or do not apply. As educators, we must help teach our students how to both search and evaluate resources they find.  Many times it seems more efficient to just hand out the links. What might it be like if we still controlled the links, but students still had to search? This is the whole idea behind a Google Custom Search!  It is also easy to learn, takes very little time,  and best of all… free. It also allows the teacher to have a listing of those very best websites in designated areas. You can make as many Custom Search Engines as you wish. All you need is a Google account.
To get started visit the Google Custom Search Engine  Page. Here you can either sign in or if you do not have a Google account… sign up. After doing this you are ready. To create a custom search engine from scratch, you’ll need to define a name and description, and add some sites to search. Make sure you have thought this out and have those sites in mind.

Twitter Advanced Search – Social Media Search – This Twitter Search Page is valuable when showing teachers great ways to collect learning resources.  Many times after using, they are excited to sign up for their own Twitter account.  Using Twitter can have its challenges. With the Twitter Search Page, it may now be possible because no log in or account set up is required. It could be great in finding facts and information. It can also be used with current events or an unraveling news story. Most of all, it can show students the power and educational benefits of social media. As always… before using with students consult your district AUP, Terms Of Use, and check with district administration.  As in using any web application, students should be trained on proper digital citizenship and monitoring of students is essential. Read more about the Twitter Advanced Search at  21centuryedtech.

Infotopia – While not well known, it has some unique features. One is its ability to do a Primary Document Search. You may need to read past the ads… but that is something that should be taught anyway!

Your Subscription Database – Does your school, state, or public library  supply data bases for students. Students must get beyond just Googling! I have listed some that are free and some that might have a cost… or perhaps it is already paid!

Some sites that can help with student inquiry and searching skills

• Inside Search
• A Google A Day
• Google Search Education
• SearchReSearch
• Google App Searching 

Thank you for joining me and I hope you found this information something you can use in your school and useful to share with other educators.  As always, I invite you to follow me on twitter (mjgormans). Please give this post a retweet and pass it on to someone who will benefit. To ensure you do not miss a future valuable post or other resource covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, STEM, 21st-century learning, and technology integration please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS. Have a great week… enjoy the Websites! – Mike (https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/ 

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana.   He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator   of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

Because of a number of conferences and trainings in the last few weeks, we did not hold our normal monthly Google User Meeting. However, I still wanted to share out all of the new updates from the month, so I have included them below.

We will be back on track with live Google Hangout meetings at the end of April. The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Apps news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Apps is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below for 17 new Google updates and 27 Google resources for your class from March 2019. 

Agenda details

Upcoming Events

• EdCampCLE - Apr 13, 2019 - North Ridgeville, OH - Google Doc flyer
• ITIP Ohio Summit Featuring Google for Education - May 13-14, 2019 - Sandusky - www.itipohio.org 
• CREATE Conference - June 6, 2019 - Anthony Wayne HS - createconference.net 
• KEEP Academy - June 10-12, 2019 - Streetsboro High School
• APS3T - June 11-12, 2019 - Firestone CLC, Akron, Ohio
• Tech and Trek Conference - June 19-21, 2019 - Hiram College - https://www.ideastream.org/tech-and-trek-conference
• Mid-Ohio Road Show - August 8, 2019 - Bucyrus HS - Website 
• SPARCC Tech Conference - August 9, 2019 - North Canton, OH - http://conference.apps.sparcc.org - Call for proposals due May 1st! 

What's New in G Suite

March 2019

•  3/4/2019 - Google launching Chromebook App Hub later this year to help educators learn about Chromebook apps and activity ideas for schools - Resource Link
• 3/5/2019 - Create animated GIFs with Google's Data GIF Maker to compare data and tell stories - Resource Link
  3/7/2019 - G Suite admins can now turn on Gmail Confidential Mode Beta - Resource Link
• 3/7/2019 - Vault for Gmail now supports Gmail confidential messages and Jamboard files - Resource Link
• 3/12/2019 - Google Hangouts Meet getting picture-in-picture option to show your webcam when presenting your screen - Resource Link
• 3/12/2019 - Google rolling out on-device offline voice typing for Pixel phones (so far) - Resource Link
• 3/12/2019 - Google Lookout accessibility app now available for Pixel phones (so far) using AI to describe your surroundings - Resource Link
• 3/12/2019 - Google Drive is getting a new look on iOS and Android - Resource Link
• 3/13/2019 - Google adds Carmen Sandiego game to Google Earth - Resource Link
• 3/14/2019 - Google Launches Animated “Chromebook Simulator” Help Site - Resource Link, Resource Link
• 3/18/2019 - Google Drive Priority page coming out of Beta and rolling out to all users - Resource Link
• 3/18/2019 - Tasks getting options for date and time, and import from reminders - Resource Link
• 3/19/2019 - CS First adds two lessons in Spanish - Resource Link, Resource Link, Resource Link
• 3/19/2019 - New easier option rolling out to insert images into cells in Google Sheets - Resource Link
  3/22/2019 - Chrome to begin warning users of Flash Player's depreciation starting in July - Resource Link
• 3/26/2019 - Dynamic Gmail rolling out, allowing users to reply to and resolve Google Docs comments right inside an email thread - Resource Link
• 3/27/2019 - Google shutting down "Google Drive Plug-in for MS Office", being replaced by update to Drive File Stream - Resource Link 

Show and Tell

• Google Instant Search Tools - Resource Link - 15 new interactive tools from Google instant searches including number spinners, an Earth Day quiz, a mindfulness exercise, and more.
• Screencastify Addon - Resource Link - New addon for Google Slides to easily insert videos you have recorded with Screencastify into your Slides.
• Background Removal Tools and Activities - Resource Link - Tools for students to remove the background from their pictures, then add themselves into different scenes and images for educational projects.
• Pi-Line Activity - Resource Link - Have student create a Pi-Line Skyline to learn about creating a bar graph and the digits of Pi, while being creative.
• Getting Started With Google Expeditions AR Tours - Resource link
  Skip the Spreadsheet in Flippity.net - Resource link
• How to Remove Duplicates in Google Sheets - Resource link
• Tweet Archiver - Resource Link - How to use If This Then That (IFTTT) to save a copy of all your tweets into a Google Sheet for easy access and searching
  Google Graphing - Resource Link - 
• How to use Google Sheets to make scatterplots and find line of best fit.
• Tips and Tricks for Google Slides Picture Books - Resource Link - How students can use Google Slides to make their own picture books, including images, music, narration, and more.
• Tour Creator in the Elementary Classroom - Resource Link - How students can use Google Tour Creator to make interactive 360 degree presentations
• Class Roster - Resource Link - Extension to make a Google Sheets roster from the students in any of your Google Classrooms
• Become An Internet Search Master Google Slides Presentation - Resource Link
  How to create barcodes using Google Sheets - Resource Link
• Reading Strategies Randomizer - Resource Link - Google spreadsheet to randomly choose before, during, and after reading strategies for ELA or ELL classrooms, with links for more details on each strategy.
• Dr. Seuss Digital Listening Centers with Google Forms - Resource Link - Using Google Forms and embedded videos for students to listen to and respond to stories.
• Chromebook Trackpad Checklist - Resource Link - Infographic and checklist on how to use 1, 2, and 3-finger gestures on a Chromebook trackpad
• Beautiful Audio Editor - Resource Link - Free online audio tool for recording and editing audio, then save to Google Drive or as an MP3 or WAV file.
• 3 Google Slides Add-ons You Didn't Know You NEEDED! - Resource Link - How to use Flat Icon, Photo Slideshow, and Magic Rainbow Unicorns add-on for Slides
• 40 incredibly useful things you didn't know Google Search could do - Resource Link - Tips and tricks to get the most out of lesser known Google search options
• Choice Learning Interactive Hyperslides - Resource Link - How to use Google Slides to make self-paced lessons with student choice of topic
• Add your Screencastify videos directly in Google Slides with new add-on - Resource Link
• "Move to the Top" option added back to Classroom Stream - Resource Link
• The Hottest Chat App for Teens Is … Google Docs - Resource Link, Resource Link
• Research Templates - Resource Link - A collection of three Google Slides templates for student writing including templates for "Animal File Folder", "Who Would Win?", and "Non-fiction Magazine".
• Templates for Teachers - Resource Link - Large collection of Googley templates for student activities and teacher productivity.
• Tips to make your Google Docs more accessible - Resource Link 

To see the schedule for upcoming Google User Group meetings visit:

To join the GEG Ohio email discussion list:

• Go to the GEG Ohio Google Group forum page at: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/gegohio 
• Click the button labeled "Join group to post"
• Alternately you can send an email to gegohio+subscribe@googlegroups.com and then the "Join this Group" link you receive in the confirmation email.

If you have something to share and would like to join the Hangout for an upcoming meeting, send me an email to let me know at: ericcurts@gmail.com 

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.

1. Use validation to collect better data

Your Google Form is only as good as the data it collects. If your data is a mess, it won’t be very useful.

Many of the question types in Google Forms offer a setting called “response validation.” Use it to require a response to fit a certain criteria: 

• Checkbox questions: set a minimum or maximum number of choices that can be selected.
• Short Answer question: use the Regular Expression feature to get consistently formatted phone numbers, zip codes, or state abbreviations.
• Paragraph Question: set a minimum or maximum response length

2. Make your form look pretty!

While Forms has added the ability to change the header image, background, and some limited font options, with a little effort you can really make your form look nice!

I frequently split my form into different sections and use the image element to add graphics.

A good example is this conference registration form: http://tinyurl.com/y48js49p 

I use Canva to create most of my form graphics. I discovered that the “Leaderboard” template works really well with forms.

Another trick you can try is adding emoji to your form questions and answer choices. I use the fire and right-pointing-hand symbols to emphasize important information or numbers in highlighted blocks if I have a set of steps I want to clearly explain.

The Emoji One Chrome extension is what I use to access emoji icons on my Chromebook (works on Mac and PC too!). 

3. Automate with Add-ons

Once you’ve mastered the essential elements of forms, you MUST dive into add-ons.

Add-ons are like apps for Google Drive. To become a true Form Fanatic you need to be familiar with add-ons for forms AND sheets.

Add-ons will help you work more efficiently and create automated systems. I use a LOT of different add-ons for different situations. Here are some of my favorites: 

Form Add-Ons:

• Choice eliminator removes MC options from your form after they have been selected. Great for sign-ups, volunteer opportunities, and reservations.
• Form Limiter will set limits on how long your form is available or how many responses a form will receive before it is turned off. Great for forms with deadlines.
• Use Email Notification for Forms to send out email or mobile phone notifications when a new submission is received.

Sheet Add-ons

• Autocrat is one of my personal favorites! I use Autocrat to generate documents based on form data (certificates, invoices, meeting agendas, etc)
• Copy Down isn’t super exciting, but it’s very helpful! I use Copy Down to apply formulas to incoming form data to create automatic calculations.
• FormMule is an email merge utility that you can use to send customized emails based on form responses. I use FormMule when I need to run calculations on my form data before sending out an email.

There are a LOT more add-ons, but those are some of my favorites!

4. Filter, Sort, and Pivot your Data!

We use Google Forms to collect data. Once someone submits a form, the information gets dumped into Google Sheets...and things get interesting!

A spreadsheet is an amazing tool for collecting and organizing information. Here are three things that you should know how to do in Google Sheets:

• Sort - Sort a column in your spreadsheet to organize your data alphabetically or numerically. This is basic, but very useful!
• Filter - Filter your sheet to isolate the information you want to see. For example, you might use the filter option to hide quiz scores for your first and third hour classes so that you can review the scores from second hour.
• Pivot - A pivot table lets you look at your data from a different perspective. This is especially helpful with things like test scores or survey information. For example, you might “pivot” your data to see if the 8th grade students who had failing grades in math also struggled in their ELA courses.

Data analysis is super important topic. If you want to learn more, I recommend that you connect with Ben Collins, the smartest Google Sheets guy I know! 

5. Autograde and lock your quizzes!

Google Forms has a special quiz mode that will auto-grade student choices!

Stop wasting your precious time hand-grading paper quizzes! Auto grade them!

Don't limit your quiz to traditional multiple choice questions! Here are a few ideas you might want to try:

• Image Questions - insert and image of a map or equation and and then ask comprehension questions (great for math and science!)
• Video Questions - Add a short video to your quiz and then ask questions about the video content (great for world language!)
• Check Box Questions - Use the checkbox question and have students select “all that apply.”
• Matching Question - use the grid question type to set up a matching question.

Be creative... there are LOTS of possibilities.

You may have heard about the new LOCKED MODE for Google Forms.

I shared an early review a few months ago. When enabled, locked mode will prevent students from accessing other information during a quiz.

It's pretty awesome!

Locked mode is NOT available yet...but it should be very soon (March?)! Watch this video or read this blog post to see how it works!

Each spring I teach a 5 week Google Forms masterclass. Join me for a deep dive into Google Forms!

I offered this course for the first time in the spring of 2018 and the feedback was outstanding:  

This course is perfect for classroom teachers, tech coaches, and school administrators!

Interested? Click here for details! 

cross posted at electriceducator.blogspot.com

John Sowash creates useful resources for educators on his blog, The Electric Educator. John is the author of The Chromebook Classroom and founder of the Google Certification Academy. You can connect with John on Twitter (@jrsowash) and Instagram.

Catch up on everything new in G Suite for Education from January 2019, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our January 2019 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda and all the awesome resources and G Suite updates from the last month. This includes 23 new Google updates and 27 Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to: 

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Apps news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Apps is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the January 2019 meeting:

 Note: If you would like to see each of the agenda items with links directly to those spots in the video, open the video using the YouTube link below and then click “Show More” below the video.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dYuc7W0Pv8

You can view the full Google Document agenda with links to all the Google Apps updatesfrom the last month, as well as all the resources covered in the meeting in the Google Doc linked below.   

View the agenda - Google Document link

Agenda details

Upcoming Events

• OETC - Feb 12-14, 2019 - oetc.ohio.gov
• OETC TILO Mixer - Feb 13, 5:30-7:30pm - Park Street Tavern - Google Doc flyer
• NEOtech Conference - March 6-7, 2019 - Cleveland Convention Center - http://www.neotechconference.org/
• EdCampCLE - Apr 13, 2019 - North Ridgeville, OH - Google Doc flyer
• ITIP Ohio Summit Featuring Google for Education - May 13-14, 2019 - Sandusky - www.itipohio.org
• APS3T- June 11-12, 2019 - Firestone CLC, Akron, Ohio
• Tech and Trek Conference - June 19-21, 2019 - Hiram College - https://www.ideastream.org/tech-and-trek-conference - Call for proposals
• SPARCC Tech Conference - August 9, 2019 - http://conference.apps.sparcc.org

What's New in G Suite:  January 2019 

• Assign unique colors to chart elements in Google Sheets - Resource link
• Option to embed Google Drawings in Docs - Resource link
• 11th annual Doodle for Google contest opens for K-12 students - Resource link
• Google Classroom updates include drag-and-drop topics and items, and new look and themes - Resource link
• Google Chrome Labs releases online Etch-A-Sketch tool - Resource link
• Moving Directory settings in the Admin console - Resource link
• Applications open for Google for Education Certified Innovator Program - Resource link
• Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites getting a Material Design update to their look - Resource link
• New Scratch 3.0 launches based on Google Blockly - Resource link
• Upcoming Hangouts service consolidation for all G Suite customers - Resource link
• Two new Hangouts Meet tools added to the Admin console - Resource link
• New Gmail compose formatting and download options - Resource link
• Google’s Jigsaw publishes new quiz to test your ability to identify phishing emails - Resource link
• Jamboard web improvements - Resource link
• Updated roadmap for classic and new Google Sites - Resource link
• Google Arts and Culture mobile app gets updated with AR tools and more - Resource link
• Details on G+ shutdown for consumer accounts - Resource link
• Blogger changes related to G+ shutdown - Resource link 

Show and Tell

• Google Tools and Activities for Art Education - Resource link
• Google Tools and Activities for Music Education - Resource link
• Googley Activities and Tools for Primary Students - Resource link
• Get Healthy with Google Fit and My Maps - Resource link
• 20 Awesome Add-ons for Google Docs - Resource link
• Write Better with Writer's Highlighter Add-on for Docs - Resource link
• Dark Mode for Google apps - Resource link
• Google Slides "Guess Who?" game template - Resource link
• Google Slides "Guess What?" game template - Resource link
• Google Classroom Guide (doc and video) - Resource link
• Using Google Sheets to manage differentiation activities for students - Resource link
• Picture-in-Picture mode for YouTube Videos - Resource link
• Branching Forms for immediate assessment feedback - Resource link
• "Decorate your Gingerbread House" Google Slides activity - Resource link
• "Disguise Yourself to Break into Santa's Workshop" Google Slides activity - Resource link
• Creating & Locking Google Slides Backgrounds - Resource Link
• Make a Copy with Version History - Resource link
• Creating Student Portfolios with Google Sites - Resource link
• Google Earth Studio - web tool for creating geographic animations and video - Resource link
• Google's "Year in Search 2018" - Resource link
• Digital Wellbeing mini-course from Google to help us find better balance with technology in our lives - Resource link (and a collection of digital wellbeing resources from Google and more - Google Docs link)
• Font Formatting in Google Comments - Resource link
• Creating digital self-portraits with Google Drawings - Resource link, Resource link
• Free video course on Google Apps Scripts to learn how to code in Google Sheets - Resource link
• US States Google Drawing template - Resource link
• Build a Member of Congress activity for Google Slides - Resource link
• Create your own "Mobile App" with Google Slides - Resource link 

To see the schedule for upcoming Google User Group meetings visit: 

Google User Group schedule - https://sites.google.com/view/geg-ohio/monthly-meetings

If you have something to share and would like to join the Hangout for an upcoming meeting, send me an email to let me know at: ericcurts@gmail.com 

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.