Category: Google

Some new Google updates and features

slides.google.com released a number of updated templates, in Google Slides, access templates using the top toolbar or by going to Insert > Templates. Visit the Help Center to learn more about templates in Google Slides.

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Star rating in Google Forms – you can now insert a “star rating” question in Google Forms.

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eSignature available to collect in both Google docs and PDFs within Google Drive

eSignature offers a variety of features to help you streamline requesting and capturing signatures, helping you stay organized and keep your work moving along. Specifically, you can:

Request eSignatures, including signatures from more than one user and from non-Gmail users.
View the status of pending signatures and find completed contracts.
Keep contract templates to initiate multiple eSignature requests.
View an audit trail of completed contracts.
Use custom text fields to request additional information from signers, such as job titles, email addresses and more.

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Google Lens now built within Google Chrome allows you to quickly take a snapshot of anything in the browser and get more info (see example at https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J1dQSiBMrPk)

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New Adobe Express Add-on for Google Slides
Install the Adobe Express add-on for Google Slides and get access to lightweight creative tools that let you edit images, visually enhance presentations, and create flyers, infographics, & more. Adobe Express for Education is the quick & easy content creation app from Adobe — free for K-12. visit https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/adobe_express_for_google_slides/682264952061

Introducing: Google Vids

Google Vids: A New Tool for Teacher-Created Videos

Google Vids is an AI-powered video creation app for work that is now available for Google Workspace for Education. While it is not yet available for student use, teachers can use Vids to easily create, edit, and share videos for a variety of teaching and learning purposes.

**It will be available for students in the near future, so take time to try it out for yourself now!

Key Features of Google Vids

User-friendly Interface: Vids is designed with an intuitive interface for creating, editing, and sharing videos. Users can add content including images, video clips from Drive, videos, GIFs, images, stickers, music, and sound effects from the Vids stock content library.
Templates: To help you get started, Vids offers templates that can provide a framework for your videos.
Recording Studio: A built-in recording studio lets users record audio, record themselves, their screen, or a combination.
Collaboration: Users can collaborate with each other on videos in real-time.
Flexible Sharing: Videos can be shared as Google Vids files, MP4s in Google Drive, or downloaded as MP4s for sharing.

Vids in the Classroom: Ideas and Considerations

Since AI capabilities will not be available in the education version, features like “help me create” and read-along teleprompter will not be accessible. However, teachers can still take advantage of the platform’s many other features to create engaging and informative videos.

Here are some ideas for how teachers might use Google Vids in their classrooms:

Create instructional videos: Explain complex concepts, demonstrate procedures, or provide step-by-step instructions for assignments. If you are saying the same thing, the same way to everyone then a video may be your best bet.
Develop flipped classroom content: Prepare video lectures or lessons for students to watch at home, freeing up class time for more interactive activities.
Produce video announcements: Share important information with students and families about upcoming events, deadlines, or classroom updates.
Make explainer videos for parents: Clarify classroom procedures, grading policies, or other aspects of your teaching approach.
Record student projects: Capture student presentations, performances, or other creative work in a polished video format.

Important Notes:

Videos created in Vids have a maximum length of 10 minutes.
While Vids works with many browsers, some features may not be available in all browsers. For example, editing and commenting are not currently supported in Safari.
A variety of audio, image, and video files are compatible with Vids and can be uploaded from your computer or Google Drive.

As Google Vids becomes more widely available in educational settings, it is poised to become a valuable tool for teachers to enhance their teaching and engage their students in new and creative ways.

See Google’s Blog Update and Help Guide for more information to get started.

Google Docs: A New Tab on Efficiency!

Google Docs has just rolled out an awesome new feature that will revolutionize the way you organize your documents. Similar to the tabs you use in Google Sheets, you can now add multiple sections to a single Doc. This means less clutter, fewer files to manage, and a more streamlined workflow. See the image below to locate the feature.

location of doc tabs on menu

Whether you’re a teacher, administrator, or simply looking to boost your productivity, tabbed documents offer a world of possibilities. Imagine organizing lesson plans, student portfolios, or group projects into a single, well-structured document. You can even create separate tabs for different drafts of a research paper or compile past newsletters into a single resource.

If you want to take a look at how it looks, make a copy of this tabbed document demo made by John Sowash, creator of the Chromebook Classroom blog. You can read his post about this feature, here. While you are there, check out his blog, I just learned you can now add a star rating in Google Forms.

Create a Screencast in Google Slides

Google recently added the ability to make a video recording of your Google Slides directly with in their platform. You can record up to 30 minutes, but keep in mind that viewership and attention go down significantly after 6 minutes! After recording you can choose to Re-record or Save to Drive.

Record a slideshow

Important:

There’s a 30-minute limit to every recording.
Information about Slides recordings isn’t available in Revision History.
If you exceed your Drive Storage quota, you can’t create more recordings.
You must have edit access to the slides in order to create a new recording.

To open your presentation, go to Google Slides.
To record your slideshow, in the top right, click Rec Record new video.
To start recording, in the middle, click the red record button.
- To start over, pause and click Re-record.
- To save your recording, pause and click Save to Drive.

Find your recording

On your computer, go to Google Slides.
Open the presentation where you created the recording.
Click Rec .
Select your recording from the list that appears.

Tip: Recordings are saved into a My Drive folder called Slides recordings.

Share your recording

Recordings can be shared to collaborators on the document immediately after creation.

On your computer, go to Google Slides.
Open the presentation where you created the recording.
To share your recording, click the title of the recording from the list.
The video in the full-screen player layout appears.
In the top right, you can find the option to share.
- Select the user, audience, or URL visibility rules.

Tip: Alternatively, you can share a recording like you would share any file in Drive. Learn how to share files from Google Drive.

Teacher Usage Ideas

Record yourself giving directions that you would give the same way to the entire class
Record yourself going through your daily agenda slides and post for absent students
- Tip: If you post the link in Canvas, make sure you click the spacebar so you have a clickable link! Avoid this unclickable link:

Note: Students do not currently have access to this feature–stay tuned

Have students insert a picture of their work on a slide and record themselves reflecting on their work
Students can record a presentation they created for class

Tip: If you want to embed videos in Canvas, then Canvas Studio is a better option. Canvas Studio Guide – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Elementary students can utilize Seesaw’s recording tools.

Google

Google Jamboard now View Only

Reminder: As of October 1, 2024 your existing Jamboards are view-only. On December 31, 2024 you will no longer be able to access the Jamboard app or your Jam files.

What should you do? P-CCS recommends Lucid for Education as a Jamboard replacement. They offer a tool to import your Jams to Lucidspark. Lucid also has strong integration with Canvas, you can embed a collaborative board directly on a page or you can assign each student their own copy of one of the existing Lucid templates.

Resources to Help:

Create a blank Lucid board tutorial
P-CCS Lucid for Education Guide–as we dive deeper this month, we will add to it
- Find plenty of info on integrating with Canvas
- Slide 5 has many more resources for those who were heavy Jamboard users!
Tutorial: Import existing Jamboard files into Lucidspark

miGoogle Conference on November 5

Each year, the “Google expert of Michigan.” John Sowash puts on a conference called miGoogle. This has been hosted in several locations and this year it will be at Northville High School. Even better, it takes place on November 5th, a non-school day. The day will feature workshops led by local educators on a variety of Google topics related to education. Lunch is also included. The keynote is Dave Stuart Jr. speaking on “The Will to Learn: Cultivating Student Motivation in a Hyperconnected, AI-powered Age.” The keynote topic is described as:

“Students only learn when they do work with care. Whether that work is listening, or writing, or reading, or creating — the work, done with care, is what produces transformation. So, here’s the question: as we continue teaching in an AI-powered, hyperconnected age, how do we cultivate a genuine, strong care for learning in our students’ hearts? In this keynote, we’ll explore the Five Key Beliefs and how to cultivate them in the classroom.”

While the district is looking into ways to send some P-CCS educators, if this feels like a “can’t miss” opportunity then you might consider submitting a proposal to present at the conference! Approved speakers can get free admission to conference and a t-shirt, plus a bag full of goodies. Submit your session proposal by October 1. https://www.miedtech.com/rfp/

Learn more here: https://www.miedtech.com/

Goodbye Zoom, Hello Google Meet!

Important Announcement: District-Wide Transition to Google Meet

We’re excited to announce that our district is transitioning to Google Meet as our primary video conferencing platform. To streamline operations and enhance our digital learning environment, we will no longer be utilizing paid Zoom accounts.

Google Meet offers a user-friendly interface, seamless integration with Google Workspace, and robust collaboration tools, making it an ideal platform for our classrooms. Whether you’re hosting a live lesson, meeting with families, or collaborating with colleagues, Google Meet provides the features, including breakout rooms, polling and more, you need to connect and engage effectively.

We understand that this change may require some adjustment, but we believe that Google Meet will work well for our needs.

Please review our Google Meet Teacher Guide for information on how to set up and use Google Meet. Canvas offers an integration with Google Meet that allows for easy student access, when needed. The guide will also show you how to set up a Meet with students without the Canvas integration. We recognize that your Google Meet use cases may be with families or colleagues, so the guide shows you how to set up a Meet through Google Calendar or creating an instant meeting.

If you have questions about Google Meet, please submit a tech ticket.

Google Meet

Some Google for Education newsletter highlights

Stay Connected Over Summer Break with Applied Digital Skills
Our Stay Connected Over Summer Break Collection features engaging lessons that include creating a digital scrapbook, a vision board and much more. While on summer break, this collection helps students learn valuable digital skills while having fun!

Arts & Culture: Portland
Explore the history and culture of Portland in an extensive new resource launched in collaboration with 16 local cultural organizations.

Arts & Culture: Musical Canvas
Encouraging creativity through drawing and music: Musical Canvas is a new experiment by Google Arts & Culture which will generate a soundtrack to your drawing with the help of Google AI.

Arts & Culture: America’s Chinatowns
Discover a new cultural hub celebrating the heritage and impact of Chinatowns with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and 14 cultural organizations , on Google Arts & Culture.

Generative AI for Educators is Now Available

In collaboration with MIT RAISE (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education), Grow with Google created the Generative AI for Educators course to help teachers save time and enhance student learning with generative AI tools. Learn more.

Explore AI with Applied Digital Skills

We’ve refreshed our Discover AI in our Daily Life lesson by integrating new generative AI concepts throughout the lesson to enhance student engagement! Additionally, we made the popular Verse by Verse extension a core video in the lesson, allowing students to flex their creativity and compose an AI-generated poem.

Arts & Culture: Freshwater, Our Most Precious Resource

Discover startling facts about freshwater, explore an interactive experiment created with data from NASA, and learn how our shared heritage is affected. Understand how we can use water more wisely and how to help protect the planet’s life sustaining ecosystems.

Arts & Culture: Kelp, The Invisible Forest

Discover the underwater ecosystem, home to endangered Giant Kelp forests filled with an array of unique species and wildlife. Expert stories, scientific research, stunning photographs, videos and a lesson plan, makes this an underwater journey for the whole class to explore.

Arts & Culture: Food of Egypt

Explore Egyptian culture and history through its culinary heritage with this new immersive digital experience for those hungry for a taste of Egypt, featuring high-resolution photographs, dozens of expert stories and videos.

Arts & Culture: Rewild the World

Learn about wildlife conservation with Rewild the World, an interactive game developed with the World Wildlife Fund and bringing focus to four threatened species and their habitats: tigers, gorillas, polar bears, and sea turtles.

Black Culture and the Performing Arts

Explore Google Arts & Culture’s new Performing Arts hub, which celebrates Black excellence in the performing arts, from dance to music to theater.

Arts & Culture: Embark on an art-filled quest in The Forever Labyrinth

This new immersive experience invites learners and players to explore and learn about art up-close and to discover unexpected cross cultural connections within an interactive world.

See past issues or sign up for the Google Education Newsletter.

Heads up Google users, Google is changing the look of the sign-in page:

What’s the same

The steps to sign in haven’t changed. You enter the same information you usually do, like your email address and password.
You use your account to sign in securely to the same Google services as before.

Why the page changed

The new sign-in page has a better layout for all screen types, which includes large and wide screens. The sign-in page adjusts to your screen’s size.

Where the change happened

The new sign-in page shows up on:

Computers
Phones
Tablets

You can find it when you sign in to a Google app or a Google service on a browser, like Chrome.

If you use an older version of a browser, you may still find the old sign-in page.

How to help keep your account secure

To take extra steps to strengthen your account’s security:

Do a Security Checkup to review security settings and activity.
Visit the Safety Center to find out about online security and privacy tools.

If you sign in on a device that’s not yours, learn how to browse in private to help protect your account.

New Ways to Use the Address Bar to increase your Productivity!

If you’ve ever found yourself lost in a sea of open tabs or struggled to locate a bookmark buried in folders, Google Chrome’s latest update is here to rescue you. The Chrome address bar on desktop has received a significant upgrade, empowering users to search through tabs, bookmarks, and history directly from the address bar.

@Tabs: Taming the Tab Chaos

For those moments when your tab count resembles an explosion, the new @tabs shortcut becomes your trusty companion. Simply type “@tabs” in the address bar, hit the “search tabs” button, and start typing the title. Watch as Chrome intelligently sifts through your tabs, presenting matching suggestions. Whether you’re planning a trip with numerous tabs about flights, hotels, activities, and rental cars, or you’re managing work projects, @tabs, coupled with tab groups, simplifies the process and helps you stay organized.

@Bookmarks: Navigating Your Bookmarked Universe

If you’ve bookmarked a crucial webpage months ago and now need quick access, the @bookmarks shortcut is your solution. By typing “@bookmarks” in the address bar, you can efficiently locate the bookmark you’re looking for, even among folders of bookmarks. Whether it’s checking the availability of a hotel or revisiting a bookmarked article, @bookmarks streamlines your browsing experience.

@History: Revisiting the Past

Sometimes, the information you seek might not be bookmarked, but fear not. The @history shortcut allows you to search through your browsing history directly from the address bar. Whether you need to find an old website for hiking trails or revisit a page you stumbled upon, @history comes to your rescue.

In the address bar, simply type the desired shortcut, enter the relevant details, and witness the suggestions appear directly, making your browsing experience more efficient and enjoyable.

The Chrome address bar – now referred to as the OMNIBOX – is no longer just a URL input – it’s your gateway to a more organized and accessible browsing experience. Try out these shortcuts today and take control of your tabs, bookmarks, and history like never before.

Happy browsing!