Upcoming Changes to Google Products: CS First and Applied Digital Skills

Here are some updates regarding the future of two Google for Education resources many of you may be familiar with: CS First and Applied Digital Skills. Please read carefully to understand how these changes might affect you.

CS First is Being Turned Down

After many years of supporting computer science education, Google’s CS First will no longer be available after June 30, 2025.

  • Access to the website will end after June 30, 2025.
  • All data on the CS First website will be permanently deleted after this date. This includes account information and project data.
  • To preserve your work, you can save CS First projects by moving them to a personal Scratch account. Instructions on how to do this can be found in the CS First Help Center.
  • You can also download your course data as a JSON file via your CS First Profile before June 30, 2025.

Looking ahead, Google is supporting the Raspberry Pi Foundation in the development of a new curriculum called Experience CS.

  • Experience CS will be available to teachers in time for the 2025/2026 school year.
  • It will offer Scratch-based learning units in a safe and scaffolded environment for students aged 8-14 and will always be freely available.
  • The Raspberry Pi Foundation is committed to creating 18 new project-based learning units covering various topics and skills, aligned with national and state standards.
  • They will also provide professional development and support for teachers using Experience CS.

Link to FAQs

Applied Digital Skills Lessons Are Moving to a New Platform

Google’s Applied Digital Skills, which has provided valuable technology skills since 2017, is transitioning to a new Google for Education learning platform on June 30, 2025.

  • The existing Applied Digital Skills website will no longer be available after June 30, 2025. It will automatically redirect to the new Google for Education Learning Center.
  • No Applied Digital Skills accounts or data will be transferred to the new platform.
  • All account and data on the current site will be deleted after June 30th.
  • If you wish to retain any account information, you must download your data in JSON format before the transition date. You can do this by signing into your Applied Digital Skills account, selecting the “Profile” tab, scrolling down, and selecting “Download”.
  • Data being deleted includes teacher, student, and learner profiles, quiz and survey responses, created classes, class membership, certificates, and Google Classroom rosters synced with Applied Digital Skills.
  • Importantly, any projects students created using Google tools (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.) will not be deleted.
  • While most popular lessons will be available on the new platform, some will be discontinued for quality purposes. A list of migrated lessons will be shared in the coming months.
  • You may want to download materials like lesson videos, starter projects, lesson plans, rubrics, or certificates from your favorite lessons on the current site before June 30, 2025.
  • The current teacher and student dashboard will not be available on the new website. Users are encouraged to use Google Classroom or their preferred Learning Management System (LMS) to share lesson links.
  • After June 30, 2025, you will be encouraged to create a new account on the new platform.
  • More details about the transition and getting started on the new platform will be shared in the coming months.

Link to FAQs

Please take the necessary steps to save your data and prepare for these changes before June 30, 2025.

New in Chrome – Customize your toolbar!

A new way to customize your toolbar in Chrome!

Pin your favorite features and shortcuts as toolbar buttons.

  1. At the top of your browser, select Chrome menu  > More Tools  > Customize Chrome  .
  2. From the side panel, review the list of toolbar buttons that make it easy to quickly access things like bookmarks, print, Search with Google Lens, and more.
  3. Choose the toolbar buttons you want to pin and they will appear in your toolbar.

 

Did You Know? Focus Mode in Chromebooks

Chromebook focus mode

Distractions are a major challenge for students. Chromebook’s built-in Focus mode can help. This simple tool minimizes interruptions, creating a dedicated work environment.

What Focus Mode Does:

  • Sets a timer for focused work.
  • Silences notifications.
  • Integrates with Google Tasks (optional).
  • Offers calming sounds (optional).

How Students Can Use It:

  • Study Sessions: Block out distractions during homework or test prep.
  • Writing Time: Concentrate on essays or creative writing.
  • Project Work: Deep dive into research or project development.
  • Reading: Focus on comprehension without interruptions.

Tips for Teachers:

  • Demonstrate: Show students how to access and use Focus mode.
  • Encourage Regular Use: Suggest incorporating Focus mode into daily routines.
  • Discuss Benefits: Talk about the positive impact of focused work on learning.

Focus mode is a simple yet powerful tool to help students develop concentration skills and improve their academic performance. Encourage your students to give it a try! Here’s a guide from Google on how to activate it. https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/15642977?hl=en 

focus mode

Save Time with Chrome Toolbar Customization

Chrome toolbar customization

Chrome 132, the first major update of 2025, brings a long-awaited feature: customizable toolbars for desktop users.

How to Customize:

  • Access Customization: On the New Tab Page, click “Customize Chrome” in the bottom right corner.
  • Choose Your Tools: Select the buttons you want to appear to the left or right of the address bar from the following categories:
    • Navigation: Home, Forward
    • Your Chrome: Password Manager, Bookmarks, Reading List, History, Delete Browsing Data
    • Tools & Actions: Print, Search with Google Lens, Translate, Create QR Code, Reading Mode, Copy Link, Send to your devices
  • Rearrange and Enjoy: Drag and drop icons to organize your toolbar. Most will open in the convenient side panel.

menu to customize Chrome toolbar

Teacher Tips:

  • “Send to your devices” is helpful to send links from your phone to your laptop (if both logged into Chrome)
  • “Search with Google Lens” provides quick access to visual information, perfect for exploring images and concepts.
  • Create QR Code: No need for a fancy extension, Chrome can generate a QR code for you.
  • Enhance Workflow: Pin frequently used tools like “Bookmarks” or “History” for easy access.
  • Translate: Support multilingual learners with quick access to translate materials.

Note: Toolbar customizations sync across all your desktop Chrome browsers.

To Update Chrome:

  1. Click the three-dot menu in the top right corner.
  2. Go to “Settings.”
  3. In the left sidebar, select “About Chrome.”

By customizing the Chrome toolbar, teachers can create a more efficient and personalized browsing experience.

Important Note: This is available on desktops and laptops but is not currently available for Chromebooks. Hopefully, it will be incorporated soon so students can take advantage of these features.

Google Forms Now Require Publishing

Prior to the update: You could potentially share a form link even before “publishing” it, which might lead to unintended access. Additionally, you would turn on, “Accepting Responses” to allow people to respond. Now, you Publish the form to accept responses.

location of publish button in Google Forms
Location of new Publish button in Google Forms. In order to get responses, you must publish it.
screen options when publishing
When you click Publish, you will see this screen. The form will default to anyone in Plymouth-Canton can respond. Click “Manage” to adjust this.

After the update: You must explicitly “Publish” the form before it becomes accessible to others, even if you have shared the link. You can share editing access to the form from the traditional, share icon. visual of share icon

Preview of sharing and collaborating options for forms.
When you click the share button, you will be able to update collaborators on the form and responder permissions.

Enhanced Security: This update adds a layer of security by requiring a deliberate action (publishing) to make the form accessible. This helps prevent accidental sharing or premature access.

Better Control: It gives form creators more control over when their form goes live and who can access it.

 

For additional support, see Google’s guide.

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

Title image

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

introducing 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.

Location of record button

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.
  1. To open your presentation, go to Google Slides.
  2. To record your slideshow, in the top right, click Rec  and then Record new video.
  3. 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

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

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

Slides recording options

Share your recording

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

  1. On your computer, go to Google Slides.
  2. Open the presentation where you created the recording.
  3. To share your recording, click the title of the recording from the list.
  4. The video in the full-screen player layout appears.
  5. 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:

An 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 Jamboard now View Only

Google Jamboard End of life, try lucid for education

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: