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Five Big Google Announcements From June 2023

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Wish you could stop students from copying from ChatGPT and other AI tools? Google might have an answer for that if students are doing it on a Chromebook. Let’s explore this and a few other big announcements made by Google, including:

  • Google Classroom enhancements
  • Stop AI plagiarism
  • Improved accessibility
  • Google Meet’s paired tiles, Q&A, and polling
  • Google app licensing management

Let’s take a closer look at these updates. May you find the emergence of long-awaited features exciting!

#1 – Google Classroom Enhancements

Analytics. Wish you could leverage Google Analytics-style graphs and information for student work? Then you will love the announcement of Google Classroom’s new analytics features.

Gif showing several new analytics features in Google Classroom recently announced by Google.

These provide insight into student performance and engagement. What’s more, they address the following:

  • Assignment completion
  • Average grade
  • Active students
  • Missing assignments
  • Growth and loss for courses

That’s a pretty incredible analytics update. The analytics features will be launched in the coming months and are currently being evaluated.

Temporary Class Access. What’s more, Google made the announcement that Classroom now has the option to visit a class with temporary class access. That is, any of the following can now have temporary access without needing to be a co-teacher:

  • Principals
  • Department heads
  • School counselors
  • Curriculum leaders
  • Administrative assistants
  • Coaches and mentors
  • IT admins

In addition, trusted educators visiting a class can do the following:

  • Share links to class templates
  • Import content into classes
  • Plan, organize, and analyze assignments and grades
  • Choose grading scales to align with the district’s grading system
  • Disable submissions after the due date*
  • Make comments more engaging*

These features will be available to select Google Workspace for Education editions, including Teaching and Learning Upgrade and Education Plus, and must be enabled by administrators.

*All Google Workspace for Education editions will have access to asterisked features shown.

#2 – Stop Student Copying from AI

Ready to stop plagiarism and AI-assisted learning before it happens? Google announced that it’s adding ChromeOS data controls that allow Google Admins to:

  • Prevent copying and pasting from AI-based tools
  • Stop screen capture, sharing, and printing efforts
  • Disable cameras and microphones when not in use
  • Turn on an electronic privacy screen when viewing content

These features make it easy for school technology staff to enact restrictions. Some ways to identify when restrictions are enacted include:

  • Data source
  • Destination
  • User access

There are system requirements. ChromeOS devices must be on version 103 or later. What’s more, they must be in user or managed guest session mode. These ChromeOS updates have profound implications for device management in schools. Google provides some example scenarios and rules online at Google Support for you to explore.

#3 – Improved Accessibility

Google reiterated its commitment to accessibility with new releases and improvements. These releases improve viewing in the browser and read alouds for Adobe Portable Document Format (PDFs).

Image showing Google's announcement of an image to text feature available in the Chrome Browser.

Now, you can also take advantage of improvements on:

  • Google Reading Mode. This is now available for Chrome browsers on all devices. Reading mode makes text larger, changes the font, and eliminates distractions.
  • Image to Text Conversion in PDFs. This ensures screen readers can convert images in a PDF to text. Then, the screen reader can read the text aloud.

These changes will become available in the coming months.

#4 – Google Meet’s Paired Tiles, Q&A, and Polling

Have two people presenting in a virtual meeting? Will there be a translator or a sign-language interpreter? You can now “Ask to pair the tiles” so that the tiles appear together. If one of you speaks, both tiles are highlighted.

Image of four people in a Google Meet.

There was also a Google announcement of new question and answers (Q&A) and polling features that will be available for livestreams. Additionally, for schools with the Education Plus option, the limit is now set to 1,000 attendees.

#5 – Google App Licensing Management

In a move sure to please finance department superintendents, Google announced streamlined app purchasing. That is, Google Admins for schools can now buy apps from developers directly. Locate these available apps in the Google for Education App Hub.

The Google for Education App Hub makes it easy to access apps that work with Google for Education tools. App licensing “can be provisioned and managed within the Google Admin Console.”

Image of Adobe Express showing app licensing options.

Source: Adobe Express at the Google for Education App Hub

What’s available? Explore the Hub, but you won’t want to miss these offerings:

Any one of these alone would be amazing, but to have easy access is wonderful. Also, these are now available at no cost (FREE!):

  • Adobe Express for Education. It’s free for schools using Chromebooks across the U.S.
  • Figma. This is already free for all K-12 schools in the U.S. who use Chromebooks.

I hope these Google Announcements benefit you, your school, and your students. Once you give them a try, let us know what you think in the comments.

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Google Tips and Tricks

2022 Google Resource Roundup

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Every year, I gather all the fabulous Google resources from our blog and compile them into one amazing roundup. This year, we have had so many fantastic posts on topics ranging from Google’s new screencasting app to ways to supercharge your Google Sheets. Check out this incredible list, categorized by topic/tool, of Google blog posts from 2022.

Arts and Culture

Apps

Calendar

Chrome

Chromebooks

Earth

Fonts

Forms

Photos

  • Google Photos’ New Video Editor – Google unveils a new movie maker and video editor for its popular Google Photos. You can blend video clips, images, and text.

Sites

Sheets

Slides

Various Google Topics and Tools

In addition, don’t forget to check out our google resource roundups from previous years.

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UncategorizedWeb 2.0 Tool

12 Apps to Try in 2022

by Sara Qualls
written by Sara Qualls

With well over two million apps available in the App Store and Google Play Store, it can be tough to know which ones are worth your time. Here are some of my favorites to give your mobile life a boost this summer. Disclaimer: Some apps are free and others offer more features if you pay.

Video and Photo Editing Apps

1. Snapseed.

Developed by Google, this is a great app for more advanced photo editing. This app has some of the best enhancement features and tools I’ve seen in a photo editing app.

iOS | Google Play

2. Quik.

From the makers of GoPro comes one of the easiest video editing tools I have seen. This app is one of two apps in my life that I have bought the full version of. It’s that good. What makes it stand out is its ability to take a video and pull out highlights for you.

iOS | Google Play

Parental Controls

3. Quostodio.

With three boys, I have tested my fair share of parental control apps over the years. Quostodio is pretty great as far as parental control apps go. I like this one because it can monitor search queries and can send you reports on your child’s activity plus offers web filtering. If my kids were not all almost out of the house, I’d probably upgrade to a paid plan. The free version is limited to monitoring one single device and only keeps seven days of activity saved.

iOS | Google Play

4. FamilyKeeper.

The free version is not as feature-packed as the previous, but it does offer parents a warning about potentially dangerous behavior on social media and chat apps using AI. It will send you real-time alerts if it detects a child is being cyberbullied, searching or visiting websites you don’t want them on, and if they are spending too much time on their phone. However, it doesn’t stop them or shut their phone down. You’ll have to do that.

iOS (Available mid 2022) | Google Play

Password Managers

5. 1Password.

If you are one of those people who are keeping all their passwords in their Notes app, it’s time to stop and really think about if that’s the best place for those gatekeepers. (Hint: It’s not.) There are many password managers available today that are free. However, most are not what they are touted to be. The individual plan for this app is still budget-friendly at $3.99 per month and a plan for up to 10 users is $19.99 per month. 1Password is great because of the breach and dark web monitoring. I love it because of its privacy cards. If you’re an online shopper, like me, it will take your actual credit card number and replace it with a different set of numbers. So if there is ever a data breach where you used your card, your information won’t be leaked.

iOS | Google Play

6. Dashlane.

If you want to keep it on the free side, Dashlane will do. It lets you store 50 passwords (because you should not be using the same password for every site) and offers password sharing with your family. This one ranks high in my book because it can give you the option to replace your weak passwords across hundreds of sites with just a click. Plus, it comes with a VPN.

iOS | Google Play

Brain Games

7. Match 3D.

When I need to wind down, my current obsession is Match 3D. At first, the thought of matching objects sounded a bit subpar. And, then I tried it. You may find yourself quickly addicted to this game as well.

iOS | Google Play

8. Two Dots.

This puzzle adventure may easily become your new go-to phone game. Just connect at least two matching dots and you will be on your way to solving brain games.

iOS | Google Play

Travel Apps

9. Wanderlog.

Whether you are planning a vacation by plane or hitting the open road, this is one app you need to download. I personally love road trips. What makes Wanderlog fantastic– it doesn’t limit the number of stops you can create along the way, like other apps. It also has a website if you like to plan your travel that way. Bonus: You can collaborate with friends and family and write about your tip.

iOS | Google Play

10. Culture Trip.

This app has been around for a while. It offers curated content from experts and locals. It provides you with insider tips, guides, what to avoid, and where to go for a local and authentic experience. If you hate doing all the “tourist” things, this app is for you.

iOS | Google Play

Finance Apps

11. Mint: Budget & Expense Manager.

This free budgeting app connects all of your financial accounts in one space. It also helps you track spending, savings, and budget goals. Mint is great because of the customization for tracking your transactions. You can categorize and tag as you see fit which is often overlooked in most financial planning apps. You can also check your TransUnion credit score for free and use their credit monitoring tools. The only downside is the ads. However, that is how this powerful app has remained free.

iOS | Google Play

12. Truebill Budget and Bill Tracker.

I probably have too many subscriptions. From Amazon Prime to Spotify to Instacart to Netflix to that HBO Max that I had to have when the Friends Reunion came out. My list goes on and on and on. If you forget to cancel it, though, you’re still being charged. That’s where Truebill steps in. The app will find your subscriptions and ask you which ones you want to cancel and does it for you! This is available only for premium subscriptions but you get to choose what you want to pay per month. You read that right, you choose from $3-12 a month. There is a free trial as well. (Bonus: They offer bill negotiations.)

iOS | Google Play

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Announcements/Important DatesGoogle Tips and Tricks

Scout Out Fresh Ideas at TCEA’s Google Summer Camp

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

With the approach of summer, many people are thinking about summer activities, especially for children, and even more especially as public events, gatherings, and programs begin to re-open. So it’s natural that thoughts turn to that staple of summer learning: the summer camp.

This year, TCEA is putting a twist on this all-American summer tradition by hosting a virtual Google Summer Camp. Rather than stitching together wallets and friendship bracelets, our friendly and experienced camp counselors will help campers weave together the various and ever-changing strands of Google apps and services, from Sheets and Slides to social-emotional learning and search strategies. 

No matter your role in education, we’re confident that exploring the back trails and shortcuts through the thick forest of Google-icious products can improve your work.

About the Google Summer Camp

Intrigued by the opportunity to goose up your game? TCEA’s professional development experts have designed a program with multiple sessions each day of camp, letting you explore across topics — no bug spray, sunscreen, or hiking boots required! We’ll help you blaze a trail to the new school year with up to 18 professional learning credit hours.

Here are the details:

  • When: June 22-24 from 8:30 a.m. – noon, Central (so you have the afternoons off to practice what you’ve learned or take a nap!)
  • Where: Online
  • Topics: Getting Going with Google Sites, Google Tools and Social Emotional Learning, Make the Most of YouTube, Collaboration and Creativity with Jamboard, Digital Literacy and Google Tools, Secret Gmail Tips, To Infinity and Beyond with Forms, Teaching Vocabulary with Google Tools, and more
  • Price: $119
  • All registrants receive one year of complimentary TCEA membership

All sessions will be recorded so that you can watch the ones you don’t attend live for up to a month. That’s a lot of learning and something that regular summer camp doesn’t include!

Ready to have some summer fun and give a boost to your teaching? Meet us at Google Summer Camp, and we’ll help you find the right path to professional learning.

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ChromebooksGoogle Tips and Tricks

Google’s Drive Storage Policy: Avoid the Terror

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

This post was originally published December 15, 2020. It was updated on January 19, 2021, April 6, 2021, and 11/29/2023.

Google’s storage policy has left many scratching their heads. For consumers relying on Google’s free offerings, the threat to dump data raises fears. Let’s explore what their storage policy means for educators and what you can do as a free Gmail user.

Topics covered:

  • What Google’s storage policy says
  • Options for taking control of your data sprawl
  • How to best back up and clean out Gmail, Drive, and Photos
  • How to move email and files from one account to another
  • What the new policy’s multi-tiered approach (Education Fundamentals/Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus) means for educators

Ok, ready to get started? Let’s go.

What Google’s Storage Policy Says: For Consumers

The Google Storage policy governs storage of Google Photos, Google Drive, and Gmail. Remember, Google Drive includes Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, Jamboard, and Sites. You have one huge storage bucket, but all these components have to fit inside of it. This policy affects the consumer, or free, version of Google tools. We’ll discuss education users in a moment.

Here’s are the facts as I understand them:

  • If you are inactive (two years) or exceed storage limits, you will lose your data. This applies if you store data in Gmail, Drive, or Photos.
  • To be inactive, this means you’re not logging into these services.

Break the rules, and you’re not completely out of luck. Google offers you emails, notifications, and the opportunity to save your content. But, if you are using the free storage option, you have only 15GB of space available.

Most important for Google, you can invest in their Google One storage plan. So, you CAN avoid the cataclysm of losing data.

Avoiding Data Loss for Consumer Google Accounts

If you started using Google Drive because of free cloud storage, you may find paying to expand storage limits problematic. If that’s your attitude, you may want to avoid the Google One storage that augments your storage space. I no longer pay $1.99 a month for my Google One expanded storage (120 GB). What are my savings? It’s a truism that data expands to fit the space available. I’m so glad I switched to an alternative. What alternatives are there for you?

Let’s explore some of the options possible.

Keep Data Storage Local

google storage my drive

Suffering from data sprawl? You’re saving so much data, you can’t find the important stuff? You may need to take a slower approach that saves you money. Do this by keeping your data storage local.

To avoid recurring costs and keep your data local, follow these steps:

  • Divide your Google Drive into items a Shared with Others folder, and an Only for Me folder. The criteria I use for the Shared with Others folders is anything that is being shared with others for collaboration or is embedded in a website. Google Sites, Forms, Jamboards, and collaborative docs fall into this category.
  • Run the Google Drive Cleaner (learn more in this blog entry) to get rid of duplicate files. This step alone will save you space.
  • Save the Only for Me folder and its contents to your computer.
  • Get a USB external drive (2 terabytes is plenty. Remember, though, that old adage: “two is one, and one is none” so buy two. USB external drives last three to five years on average). You can use free tools to automate backups. One free automated backup solution is FileFreeSync. Or, take more control of them using tools like Free Commander (Mac alternatives).
  • Put that Only for Me content on both drives. It won’t matter if you have a Chromebook or laptop/desktop with insufficient hard drive space. You will be able to save the contents straight to the external drive (albeit, it may be slightly slower to access).

Once you have a backup of the Only for Me folder on your external drive(s), remove them from Google Drive. This will yield LOTS of space back to you. Worried about recurring costs vs initial cost of an external USB drive and replacement? Consider the following chart and graph.

It’s based off the Google One storage plan and this external drive (although there are less expensive brands available).

See an Google Sheet with cost breakdown and check my math.

After cleaning out my Google Drive, following the process in this blog post, I found myself at 3.1GB of 120 GB of space. That’s enough to walk away from Google One Storage.

True Story: Wedding Photos and Video

My daughter married a few years ago. I had approximately 14GB of wedding videos and pictures stored in my Google Drive for safekeeping. My daughter already had her own offline copy. To get that Drive space back, I saved them to my external drives using the process above. Wow, 18GB recouped! This dropped my usage from 46.9 GB used to 29.2 GB used. Your target number is under 15 GB since that is what you get for free. About 14 more GB to shave off my total storage needs.

Ready to clean out your Google Photos? If you’ve been backing up your smartphone’s photos to Google Photos, you have tons of junk pictures. Junk can include memes, cat pictures, or 52 lousy versions of one beautiful snap. Dump the lousy, keep the best. You will regain gigabytes of space.

chart of total storageDid You Know?

You can get a big picture overview of your Google Drive with Clean Drive.  It offers a seven day, free trial you can use to get a quick look at how your space is filled.  You can use it to find and eliminate duplicate files, find old and/or hidden files that take up space. One of my favorite features is bulk delete. There are other ways to do this, but this may be a solution you want to invest in. In the meantime, be sure to read the rest of this blog entry to learn about other tools that can save you time and money.

Find Google Alternatives

Google has a reputation of letting some of its best products die. Having an exit policy isn’t a bad idea. If you’re going to end up paying, why not choose email, photo, and storage options you control? One big complaint about Google is that you are their product. That’s how they tailor advertisements to your needs and interests.

If you want to find alternative’s to Google’s ecosystem, ease into it. Start with your Google Drive files, then your Gmail and photos. Here are some alternatives I use:

Gmail Alternative: Get a Switzerland-based Proton Mail account. You can start out with a free account with 500MB storage, 150 messages per day. If you practice Inbox Zero, this should work well for most. If you have thousands of Gmails and need to put them somewhere, then you will need ProtonMail Plus.  If you want other alternatives, consider another secure alternative for email. You will probably have to pay to store files online. Make sure you’re storing essential files and not one bit or byte more.

True Story: Over 10,000 Gmails

As a result of an earlier blog post, a Canadian wrote me and asked, “Can I migrate my over 10K Gmails into ProtonMail?” I told him that’s exactly what I had done using the ProtonMail Plus Import-Export app.

With PM Plus ($60 per year), you get 1,000 messages per day, labels, filters, and 5GB storage. What’s more, you can import your Gmail messages into PM Plus. I love the fact I can send encrypted emails, which comes in handy. I use that a few times a year for confidential bank/medical emails. Does this mean I got rid of my Gmail account? Goodness, no. I still give it out as my primary email address to catch spammers and others. I rely on my PM Plus account for family, banking, medical, and secure exchanges.

If Google were to suspend my email account, the loss wouldn’t be so great.

Drive Alternatives

Google Drive is unique in the quality of its collaboration options that you can pick from. Those aside, only put items you plan to share into your Shared with Others folder. These items include Google Sites, Google Docs (e.g. Slides, Sheets, Forms, Docs) that you will work together with others on, and/or Jamboard.

Working on a spreadsheet to calculate your expenses, use OnlyOffice or LibreOffice on your computer. Both are free for Mac/Windows/Linux and allows you to take advantage of your USB external drive for backup. You can even set up Portable Apps on your USB external drive so you always have access to the programs. Use Google Drive only for activities that need data collection or collaboration.

Cleaning Out Google Photos

monster octopus

Google Photos may be a monster with thousands of images to sort through. For some people, it may be easier for them pay the monthly fee for Google One storage. If that’s not you, then there are at least four steps I recommend to clean out Photos.

Cleaning out isn’t easy, but it’s doable. Be aware that you will have to deal with countless folders and images. Let’s review those four steps to clean out Photos.

Tip #1: Download and Organize

Manual movement of photos and videos can take a long time (days, weeks, years). Tools like Free Commander can make the job easier. Once cleaned up, you can use a no-cost, free, open source tool, DigiKam, to organize your photos. This provides better control of your photos than Google Photos online.

image editor screenshot digicam
Image Source: DigiKam

Tip #2: Remove Videos in Google Photos

To get more space back, remove videos stored in Google Photos. This is easy since you can type “video” in the Google Photos search bar, and you’ll get a list of videos. You can select them one at a time or by date and then use the MOVE TO TRASH option. When I cleaned out my Google Photos, I dropped 400 videos in the trash. That saved some space, I am sure.

photos in google video

It didn’t take too long to get rid of the videos shown above. Make sure to check and rid yourself of video space hogs.

Tip #3: Get Rid of “Unsupported Videos”

Go into the SETTINGS for Google Photos and manage “Unsupported Videos.” Trash those since Google can’t play them for you and they are just taking up space.

settings for google photos

Tip #4: Archive Images

Images like screenshots, memes, etc. take up space. But you don’t need them since you can find them online. Be sure to use Google Photos’ Archive option to dump these pictures. In that way, you get rid of images that are automatically backed up from your smartphone. These are images that can include memes, cat pics, and more.

google photo archive meme

Tip #5 – Storage Manager

Think you got it all? One final way to double-check is to use Google’s Storage Manager. You’ll be able to clean out discarded items (such as deleted and spam emails) and Google Drive deleted files. You will also be able to see large items and remove those.

manage your account storage

Whew, that was a lot of work. Ready to try some alternatives to Google products? Remember, this time, go lite. Only inlcude online items you need to share or collaborate with others.

Have Amazon Prime? Try Amazon Photos

One alternative to Google Photos is Dropbox. Others include  SmugMug  and Flickr. Remember, although you can back up every photo on your phone, you could also make another choice. That is, back up only those photos I want to share with others.

Wait, what if I want to back up my photos (cat pics included) off my phone? If you still want to do that, you can. Use an app that makes it easy to copy photos/videos from your smartphone. For iOS, use Readdle Documents. For Android, use WiFi File Transfer (shown below) to back up your photos to your computer. Both apps are available at no cost. What’s more, they force you to be more selective of the content you choose to back up.

wifi file transfer screenshot

Split Your Usage Among Many Accounts

What some of my friends and colleagues have decided to do is split their usage among several Google accounts. That is, they use one Gmail account with 15GB of free space for personal/family. They use another for professional/work communications. This results in a lot of Google accounts to manage (Bitwarden.com makes it easy to manage multiple usernames and passwords), but it does have a positive effect. You aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket.

transfer your content from google drive

How do you move content that ends up in the wrong space? It’s easier than you might think. You can use Thunderbird email program to move emails from one Gmail account to another via IMAP, if you need to. Tools like CloudHQ, MultCloud, and Google Takeout make it easy to save or move stuff. That stuff can include Google Drive files or emails. And, with those tools, you can move content between them. If you are moving Gmails and Drive content from Google Workspace (f.k.a. G Suite EDU), then Google Takeout Transfer is a must-have tool.

Need to copy a folder or migrate your Drive only? You might try those solutions.

google drive storage and file size limits

Image Source: Google’s Drive Storage FAQ for Admins

What Google’s New Storage Policy Means for Educators

Google’s new policy, going into effect July 2022, limits Google Workspace for Education users to a total of 100 terabytes of pooled storage. That means, if you have ten thousand students and three thousand staff, they will all share that 100 terabytes. This makes saving unlimited number of videos and content for free in Google Workspace for Education’s Drive storage a thing of the past. A few specific points from Google’s new policy for storage:

  • Education Fundamentals and Education Standard editions offer pooled storage of 100 terabytes, although institutions with greater than 20,000 students, faculty/staff will be provided additional storage. The process for requesting more storage becomes available at the end of 2021.
  • Your school district or organization can get additional storage through Education Plus and/or the Teaching and Learning Upgrade.
  • With the Education Plus upgrade, you receive an additional 20 GB for each paid license on top of the 100 TB of pooled cloud storage shared by your organization (source).
  • With the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, you get an additional 100 GB for each paid license in addition to the 100 TB of pooled cloud storage shared by your organization (source).

Worried that you will be running out of storage? You may want to get the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. One thing is for certain, teaching your faculty, staff and students how to manage their data has taken on some urgency. Share this blog entry to get them started.

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napkin pd
Google Tips and TricksProfessional Learning

Napkin PD: G Suite-Powered Learning Activities

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Ready to make G Suite-powered learning a reality in your district’s classrooms? It’s easy to start with a how-to about the G Suite tools. What if you could introduce them to inquiry-based learning as they learn the how-to? One approach that works is the use of hyperdocs. In my workshop session, G Suite Powered Learning, here are some activities I rely on to introduce teachers to ideas.

Activity #1: Multimedia Text Set (MMTS)

After ten minutes of introducing Google Classroom, teachers often look for a way to explore it on their own. One way to focus their efforts involves using a multimedia text set, like the one below. The following MMTS was adapted from one a colleague shared with me.

(View Link | Make a Copy for Your Own Use)

In using this activity with teachers, I have found them captivated. Some educators may prefer a more lengthy activity set.

Activity #2: Google Quest Hyperdoc

This hyperdoc quest has multiple phases. Each phase allows educators to plan their use of Google Suites tools in their classroom.

  • Phase 1: Introduce student to an intro video of Google Classroom. After watching it, they formulate a question as to how they would use Google Classroom in their situation. With a partner, participants discuss their answer.
  • Phase 2: In this phase, participants explore resources from the amazing Alice Keeler. Participants are challenged to find other resources that showcase the use of Google Classroom.
  • Phase 3: Participants view different sections of Google Classroom. Each participant shares how he uses Google Classroom, or how he has seen other teachers using it. They discuss their concerns about Google Classroom while a mentor provides solutions/suggestions as needed to problems. The mentor also discusses the basics of getting Classroom up and running.

Explore additional phases in the linked hyperdoc (click the link to get your own copy of the hyperdoc).

Activity #3: Google Sheets

In this set of activities, participants explore how Google Sheets add-ons can make email merges a cinch, as well as many other exciting possibilities.

Google Sheets brings a host of powerful features to users. But you can enhance Google Sheets with a variety of add-ons that automate the repetitive tasks spreadsheets have, including enhancing styles, splitting names, generating QR codes, and much more. Some of my favorites include:

  • FormMule – Allows you to quickly add create information in Google Sheets, then “email merge” it together.
  • Yet Another Mail Merge – Allows you to quickly “spam” or bulk email people.
  • Styles: This add-on allows you to customize the look and feel of your spreadsheet, adding headers, coloring rows in alternating colors (e.g. row 1 is grey, row 2 is white, row 3 is grey, row 4 is white, and so on).
  • QR Code Generator: This is an easy way to generate QR codes for students or to inventory items. This add-on also makes it easy to create a text label for each QR code generated so you are not left guessing as to what you are looking at, or trying to scan it with your smartphone’s cross-platform (e.g. Android, iOS, Blackberry) Inigma QR Code Reader app.
  • Split Names: This is an absolute must-have add-on. Although you can use complex formulas to split names (e.g. “Juan Guhlin” to “Juan” and “Guhlin” in different columns), Split Names makes it a cinch. You are also able to separate out salutations and other elements commonly included.
  • PowerTools: This particular add-on has so much to offer, you probably will want to read the website for it. Some of its best features include making the process of dealing with extra spaces, formulas and data in the wrong format, inserting or deleting cells and shifting adjacent data, changing case, or swapping values easier.

Find more online at my Google Sheets Magic page.

Napkin PD: G Suite-Powered Learning Activities

These are only three activities of all of those available. There are many more that introduce teachers, and students, to G Suite Powered Learning. Remember to have fun when using or redesigning these for your own use.

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Chromebooks

Best Practices for Learning in a Chromebook Classroom

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

As we all have discovered by now, Chromebooks can be an amazing tool for students of all ages. But to make sure that they help kids learn what they need to, take a look at these best practices.

Best Practice #1 – Establish procedures before issuing Chromebooks.

“Figure out which toys your friends can play with,” I remember my mom saying to me before a sleepover with classmates. “And put the ones you don’t want to see damaged, lost, or stolen away.” It’s advice that I took to heart and shared with my own children before they had friends over.

Setting ground rules can certainly help you avoid trouble and heartache down the line. The advice is definitely worth taking when it comes to inviting students and staff to use any kind of device, even durable Chromebooks, in your classroom, library, or school. TCEA member Erin Laughlin (@MrsErinLaughlin) recommends that you consider your responses to questions like the ones below:

  • How will students be issued Chromebooks?
  • How should students be advised to transport Chromebooks?
  • What happens when there is a substitute teacher in the room? Will students be permitted to take advantage of the Chromebook?
  • What should be done when a Chromebook suffers damage?

In response to the last question, one teacher in Fairfield ISD during their Eagle Leadership Academy,pointed out that damage had occurred to a school-owned Chromebook issued to a student. “What did you do?” I asked, wondering if the student was to be forced to reimburse the district or forced to replace the device. “We made sure it wasn’t malicious and then just worked to get it fixed or replaced. No action was taken since this was an accident.” Erin also suggests having rules like these in place:

  • No food or drinks should be in sight when Chromebooks are out.
  • Carry Chromebooks with two hands at all times.
  • Do not get a Chromebook if teacher is out of the room.
  • Nothing should be on the desk except the Chromebook unless told otherwise.
  • Students should only be on websites assigned or approved by the teacher.
  • Have students and parents sign a statement saying they will abide by the rules.
  • Have reasonable consequences for students who aren’t following the rules; taking away the Chromebook should be your last resort.

As you might imagine, some common-sense suggestions include assigning a student to be in charge of the Chromebooks, ensuring monitoring of issuance and receipt of devices by class members. Consider including a Google Form to let students report how a Chromebook was damaged. Be sure to label your class Chromebooks so they will be easy to locate in case they leave your classroom. Finally, Kim from Fairfield ISD suggests that the teacher and students get in the habit of plugging in Chromebooks correctly so they are charged for the next group.

Best Practice #2 – Teach Chromebook basics along with digital citizenship.

“You can’t issue students devices until they’ve had digital citizenship lessons required by E-Rate.” These lessons also ensure that you can discuss important issues about caring for other people’s equipment.

In my experience, students often take great care of equipment issued to them when there is a culture of care cultivated in the school as a whole. Keys aren’t ripped off keyboards in classrooms where the teacher makes every effort to care for his/her technology and assigns students the jobs of cable management, removing dust from devices, and cleaning keyboards/screens.

Every device brings its own challenges, and Chromebooks are no different. Providing an overview of Chromebook and Google Apps tips ensure that students feel confident in using new technologies, rather than frustrated.

Best Practice #3 – Promote collaboration.

“My two favorite tools for a 1:1 classroom,” I shared at the recent Tots and Technology Conferences that took place in Galveston and Frisco this past summer, “include Nearpod.com and Seesaw.com.” Each provides tools for sharing your screen with students and collecting their work.

Nearpod serves as a presentation and eyeball management tool for you, pushing your screen out to all student Chromebooks. Seesaw serves as a digital portfolio that collects students’ digital and physical work in one virtual space that is easily shared but manageable.

Let’s quickly explore some other top tips for promoting collaboration:

  • Quiz tools: Other ways to engage students include quizzing tools like Quizizz.com and Kahoot.com. Quizizz allows students to log in with their Google account and all completed assignments are reported and available in Google Classroom.
  • Easy video assessment: Use tools like EdPuzzle and/or FlipGrid to take already existing videos from YouTube, Khan Academy, etc. You can also put your own online, adding your voice and questions to create an interactive video lesson. You’ll be able to see how many times your students watch the video or attempt a question, as well as the responses given.
  • Share web links with Google Tones: Facilitate the sharing of complex uniform resource locators (URLs) using Google Tone.
  • Take screenshots or record video screencasts: Use tools like the Nimbus Screenshot/Screencast extension for Google Chrome to quickly capture your screen for a flipped lesson or explanation.
  • Use Google Classroom to create a virtual classroom presence for students, blending in Google Calendar and YouTube videos to facilitate online learning.
  • Use badges in your classroom: TCEA member Joe Camacho (@CamachoEdTech) recommends setting up and issuing badges to celebrate student learning and sharing. Students can learn Google Apps tools such as Sites, Classroom, Forms, Docs, Drawings, and Slides, as well as other tools in use like DocHub, Flubaroo, Edpuzzle, Kahoot, Quizizz, creating screencasts, and Padlet.

Another neat tip for promoting collaboration and sharing comes from Erin Laughlin again. She suggests creating a “shark tank” in your classroom, having older students create products that are evaluated by younger students serving as “the sharks.” Older students pitch their solution to a problem using Google Hangouts, bridging the distance between their classroom at one campus and another. Of course, this activity can also be done at even greater distances. If that is of interest, consider the Connecting for a Cause website, where students create a Google Sites web presence that represents their cause.

Interested in learning more ways students can collaborate in a Google Apps-powered classroom? Drop me a tweet @mguhlin and request an in-person workshop.

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backup
Google Tips and Tricks

Three Easy Ways to Backup/Migrate Your Google Drive Data

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

At a recent TCEA Google Educator Level 1 Boot Camp session, someone asked, “We have a teacher who is leaving and wants to make a backup copy of everything she has in Google Apps for Education Drive to her personal Gmail/Google Drive account. How can we help her do this?” Having successfully done this with my own data in multiple situations, I thought I would share my top three go-to tools for getting the job done.

Multcloud.com, a free solution that supports multiple cloud storage solutions including Google Apps and Google Drive.

When to Backup or Migrate Data

Some situations where this may arise include:

  • A classroom teacher or staff member is leaving the school district and needs to make a backup of data from her work account to her personal account.
  • A staff member has spent considerable time developing and archiving resources on her personal Google Drive and she now wants to copy it en masse to her district Google Drive account.
  • A graduating high school student with a district-issued Google Apps account needs to quickly move his/her Google Drive data to a personal Google Drive account, Dropbox, or OneDrive account.
  • You have archived video on your Google Drive and you want to migrate it to another Google Apps account.
  • You want to transition someone from Evernote, a note-taking service, to Google Drive.
  • A staff member is leaving and someone else is taking on the responsibility of maintaining documents.

How to Backup or Migrate

There are several ways to accomplish this:

  1. Use CloudHQ.net. It does a great job of copying/moving content from Google Apps for Education or Gmail to a private/public Gmail account and vice versa. It can also move Dropbox to Google Drive or any supported cloud storage or vice versa. You can sync content back and forth between a variety of services, which makes it a pretty neat deal at $9.90 per month (if you need that level of redundancy). CloudHQ.net also offers the opportunity to have a 15-day free trial, which works well for staff who are leaving and may just need a one-time task. However, you can obtain additional days of usage by referring CloudHQ.net to friends and colleagues. Another benefit is that you can set ownership for documents that are transitioned to a new location.
  2. Try MultCloud.com. Using MultCloud.net, you are able to “transfer, migrate, backup, sync, move, integrate, manage many cloud drives such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, MEGA, SugarSync, Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon S3 as well as FTP, WebDav, etc. And, transfer files across different cloud drives, such as transfer data from Dropbox to Google Drive.” MultCloud.net has also created a Chrome add-on that you can use to easily move/copy content. Earlier this week, after introducing Multcloud to teachers in a school district, they immediately began using it to backup their GoogleApps for Education information from GoogleDrive to their personal Gmail/Drive account!
  3. Explore Google TakeOut. Rather than directly copy files from one Google Drive to another (e.g. school/organization Google Apps to a personal Google Drive), you can save a complete copy of your Google Drive to your computer. I would only use this option if you are NOT sharing documents with collaborators, collecting information via Google Forms, and have Google Docs/Sheets/Slides that are embedded in web pages online.
  4. Use Google Takeout Transfer on any device with a web browser to back up your email and Google Drive from G Suite EDU to your personal Google email and Drive.

Update 12/09/202020:  Blog entry updated to include Google Takeout Transfer. Also, take a look at CloudGopher, which also offers backup capabilities at a cost. Another option is Drive Migrator, a free Chrome add-on.  Drive Migrator allows for “…transfer your Google Drive files or documents from one account to another or to make a copy of a Drive folder.”

Parting Thoughts

Making backups of critical data is important. These tools make accomplishing that easy! They are also a great way to enable students or staff to backup their data from one cloud storage solution (e.g. Google Suites for Education) to another (e.g. Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, personal Google Drive account).

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Google Animated Book Cover
Google Tips and TricksLibraries

Google-Animated Book Display for Your Library

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Google Animated Book CoverKrista Welz (@kristawelz) has shared an incredible use of Google Slides to create what she calls, “animated book displays.” This allows you to feature your school library’s new books or a specific genre collection. She has even created a template to go with it. Krista describes it in this way:

Feature your school library’s brand new books or a specific genre collection with this animated book covers display. The display is made on Google Slides – yes, Google Slides. It is a slideshow with preset animations on each book cover.

She offers this template for download; when you click it, you will be given the option to make a copy of it into your own Google Drive (you will want to be signed into your Google account).

google animated bookSee it in action

Here are her step-by-step instructions with some minor edits.

  1. Create a new Google Slides file. Set your background to white.
  2. Create a list of the books you want to display on your animated book covers slideshow. You can type them in a list on Google Docs or use any list-maker method you prefer.
  3. Create a folder on your desktop titled “book covers.”
  4. Go to www.goodreads.com and search for a book on your list. Right-click on the book cover image and save it to your desktop folder labeled “book covers.” Repeat this step for every book cover you need to save. Once you have saved all the book covers to your folder, you will start inserting them into the slideshow.
  5. The animating book covers slideshow is set up with two rows and five columns. You are going to start inserting your book cover photos and arranging them in two rows and five columns. All book covers have to be resized to the same height and location. They need to be consistent and match each other. Once the books are perfectly resized and aligned correctly, you will add the animations to them.
  6. Now you are going to animate each book cover in a zigzag pattern.
    1. If you click on the first book cover labeled #1, you are going to add an animation to it by clicking on the Insert menu and choosing Animate. The Animation window pane will pop up on the right of the screen.
    2. The animation you want to choose is “Fade In – After Previous.”
    3. Next, choose the book labeled #2, click on Insert, choose Animation, and then set it to “Fade In – After Previous.” You are going to do this for all 10 books.
    4. There is only one change to the animation that you are going to make. The change occurs on your sixth book. Instead of choosing the animation “After Previous” – you will choose “With Previous.” This change in animation reduces the choppiness, giving it a smoother flow.

Please take note of the animations listed on the right-side of the Google Slides slideshow. You must follow this exactly as it is shown to have a beautiful, flowing animated book display.

Some other points that Krista makes:

  • Once you access the slideshow, all you have to do is right-click on each book image on each slide and then choose Replace image.
  • You will then select Choose an image and then upload the book cover(s) from your desktop folder of saved book covers. All the animations and slide transitions are already timed for your convenience.

 

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Google Tips and Tricks

App-Smashing Google Tools

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“How do you blend tools to solve a real-life problem?” That’s a question that pops up often for me. A popular concept from using iPads is “app-smashing,” which involves taking what you made in one app and dropping it into another. Usually, this results in a refinement of the initial product, enhancing it with audio or video. You can do the same with Google Apps tools.

Let’s consider these real-world scenarios which may all be solved by combining key Google tools such as Sites, Forms, and Sheets:

Classroom Scenario:

Students have asked how they can know who else has signed up to attend an after-hours, academic field trip. To automate the process, create a Google Form to capture student registrations, which are saved to a Google Sheet, and those responses can be displayed on a Google Sites location.

District Scenario:

Staff have a variety of questions regarding a new initiative. They want to make sure you, the administrator, are getting the responses. To eliminate email traffic (after all, who needs more email?), you want them to fill out a Form with their question. Then, you and your team are able to record your response in an additional column. Both their questions and your responses appear in a Google Sheet housing the responses.

Solution:

Create a sample Google Sites location that provides some background information on the event, has the Forms link, and displays the responses (as well as any additions you have made). Share the link via social media or email the link to the Sites location to those who need it.

Let’s walk through what this might look like:

Step 1 – Create the Form and Sheets spreadsheet for responses.

To begin, develop your list of information queries. For example, in the case of the classroom scenario, you might want to include queries like the following:

  • Your First Name
  • Your Last Name
  • Your District Email
  • Staff or Student?
  • Attend Field Trip?

Once the person has completed the form, they would be shuttled off to the Google Sites location that is to be created in Step 2. In truth, you could probably complete Step 2 first to get the link or just come back and edit the form. Another key component of this step is to create the Responses form and designate where those responses will appear in a Google Sheet. To verify the form is working, submit a fake response. Once the response has been submitted, you will notice that the Responses Google Sheet has placed your responses beneath a column corresponding to the information queries.

After the last column in your responses, add another column entitled “Status.” In this column, you and/or your team will update the status of each form submitted. In the case of questions, you can type a short response, being sure to set the format for the column to “wrap text.” You will also want to set up notifications on your Google Sheet featuring the responses to the Form so that you receive an email every time the form is completed. Here’s one example with data partially blurred to protect the innocent:

Step 2 – Create the Google Site

Create a Sites location with three tabs to include the following:

  1. Home – This tab is your “Welcome” screen that allows you to provide background information for visitors to the Google Sites location.
  2. Ask for Help – This tab includes a link to the “Ask for Help” Google Form. The form is actually embedded in the Google Sites page, enabling visitors to fill it out and submit it without having to leave the Sites location.
  3. Check Status – This tab features an embedded copy of the Google Sheet which houses your responses.

Once your Google Sites location has been created, you can share it with others, even using a URL shortener to make it easier to share.

As you can see, you can add even more information to your Google Sites. But this makes it easy to quickly capture and share information and questions without being inundated via email with people’s requests for assistance. It also more quickly organizes the information for your review and externalizes it so that anyone you designate can look it up via Google Sites. This eliminates people calling or emailing you repeatedly to ask for the status. And it helps create a knowledge database that facilitates information sharing with interested individuals.

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