Tag Archives: Chromebooks

Get quizzing with locked mode, and grade away with Classroom

Earlier this year, we announced locked mode—a new way to ensure students are distraction-free when taking Quizzes in Google Forms. We’ve also been working on a better grading experience in Classroom. We’re now opening up locked mode and Gradebook via a beta program, so sign up to express interest.

Show what you know with locked mode

For a lot of teachers, a day in the life might look like this: teach innovatively and creatively, quiz without distractions, grade efficiently, give thoughtful and constructive feedback, repeat. Teachers assess knowledge and check for understanding every single day, and many use Quizzes in Google Forms to do just that. But we’ve heard feedback from teachers that they want to ensure their students aren’t navigating to other browser tabs while taking quizzes. Available only on managed Chromebooks, locked mode prevents students from navigating away from the Quiz in their Chrome browser until they submit their answers. Teachers can enable locked mode with a simple checkbox in Google Forms, giving them full control over assessments.

Built-in Chrome OS accessibility tools such as ChromeVox, select-to-speak and visual aids— including high contrast mode and magnifiers—are all available when using locked mode. And to support students who use Chrome extensions during test taking, teachers can find out which extensions are available with locked mode. Introducing new tools means extra support: we’ve created a step-by-step guide, brief animated tutorial, and new Help Center instructions for Instructional Coaches, PD partners, and teachers to make learning how to use locked mode even easier. Don’t yet have Chromebooks and want to learn more? Get in touch.

To streamline the assignment process, we’ve also added the ability for all Classroom users to create a Quiz directly from Classroom. Instead of creating quizzes in a separate browser, you can create a quiz and assign it directly to your class, or multiple classes.

Better grading in Classroom

Earlier this year, we introduced new grading tools and a comment bank for richer, better feedback. Today, we’re continuing to strengthen the grading process in Classroom with a beta for a new Gradebook to better enable teachers to keep their assignments and grades in one place, and keep this important task more organized. Here are a few things you can do with the new Gradebook:

View grades in one place:A new Grades page lets you can view a grid of submissions across assignments to easily enter grades, saving time and providing a holistic picture of a student’s progress.
Average grades:In the gradebook grid, you can view average grades per assignment and per student, and see the overall performance in your class. You can share progress with students, so they can track their grades and know where they need to improve.
Grade categories & settings:You can select how to calculate grades (weighted average or total points-based), add grade categories to classwork, and choose whether you’d like students to see their average grades. Access these from the Settings page.

Sign up for the locked mode and Gradebook betas today

Locked mode is only available on managed Chromebooks, and you’ll need to make sure your Chromebooks are running operating system 68 or higher. We’ll be slowly phasing the rollout for locked mode and Gradebook. If you’re interested in the new features, all teachers and administrators can express interest in either of the betas.

We’d love to hear all of the ways you’re using locked mode in Quizzes and improving your grading experience during the beta period, so please send us feedback using the “send feedback” button.

Source: Google Chrome

Tools that aim to reach all types of learners, wherever they are

Editor’s note: Before joining Google’s Education team, Morgan Weisman was a kindergarten teacher. Today she is sharing how one of her students inspired her to help build products that aim to meet the needs of all types of learners.

The first time I met six-year-old Jeremiah, he clung to his mom’s leg as he peeked into my kindergarten classroom. Soon he came alive as he talked about his favorite superhero: Spiderman. He ran around the colorful classroom, touched everything in sight and chatted aimlessly. However, when he realized my attention had shifted to his mom, he threw himself on the floor in a tantrum. That’s when his mom told me that they suspected he had autism, but were hopeful that the routine of school would help him focus.

This began a year long journey of giving Jeremiah the educational support he needed, while also teaching 24 other students with 24 different learning styles. Seventy-two percent of classrooms have special education students, and teachers have to work to keep them all engaged and invested in school. For me, I leveraged technology to create differentiated lessons and support each student, especially Jeremiah.

Jeremiah lit up when he had a computer in front of him and headphones on. He could listen, engage and learn without distractions. We had him fitted for glasses, and he learned how to use the screen magnifier to make the words pop on his screen. He learned sight words, numbers and simple addition through songs and videos. Best of all, his social skills developed as he learned to share and take turns with devices.

As I learned what worked for Jeremiah, I started using the same strategies with other students. As my instructional coach used to tell me: “What works for kids with special needs works for everyone. The strategies that work, just work.”

Since joining Google, I’ve seen even more ways that educators use technology to help students succeed. We strive to support teachers, and one of the ways we are doing that is through built-in accessibility features in our products that aim to support the diverse needs of all students.

Morgan's kindergarten classroom on graduation day — My students on kindergarten graduation day... all decked out in gear from my alma mater, our class' theme.

The ABC’s of Chromebook accessibility

Accessibility settings are built in to all Chromebooks, and more are available through Chrome extensions and apps. No need to change settings when you switch devices because they sync to each student by default. Here are a few useful accessibility settings to get you started:

Visual aids: Increase the size of browser content by pressing Ctrl + Plus to increase, Ctrl + Minus to decrease, Ctrl + 0 to reset. The rest of the desktop is unaffected. You can enable high contrast mode by pressing Ctrl + Search button + H on the Chromebook keyboard. Adjust your font face and size, and install Chrome extensions for custom color support.
Mono Audio:For users who have limited hearing in one ear, there's a Mono Audio option to play the same sound through both speakers. Turn this feature on in Accessibility settings.
Spoken feedback: For users who need synthesized speech on occasion, we offer Select-to-speak. When enabled, press and hold the Search key, then click or drag to select content to be read aloud, and press Ctrl to silence. Change the word-by-word highlight color in Select-to-speak settings. We also have the ChromeVox screen reader that reads all text aloud, a free, browser-based screen reader that users can access from any device and built directly for ChromeOS.
Acapela text-to-speech voices: Now you can purchase and use more than 100 Acapela voices to read aloud text in 30+ languages on Chromebooks, including a variety of childrens’ voices.

The 123’s of G Suite Accessibility

G Suite is a set of tools that help students and teachers collaborate in real time and give personalized feedback. It’s also paperless and accessible from anywhere. Built into our G Suite tools are many accessibility features:

Slides: Turn on closed captions in Slides to support students who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or ENL. Simply use Ctrl + Shift + c in ChromeOS/Windows or⌘ + Shift + c in Mac.
Voice typing, editing and formatting: Use the mic and enable the feature to use voice typing in Docs and Slides to write and edit without a keyboard.
Visual aids:Enable high contrast themes in Gmail and browsing, and use powerful keyboard shortcuts for those who can’t or don’t want to use a mouse.
Collaboration:G Suite works on all different platforms including Windows, Android, iOS devices and even multiple devices at one time. You can all be on different devices and still collaborate in real time.
Braille: Use a Braille display to read and edit Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings.
Screen reader & magnifier:Turn on the features in accessibility settings to zoom in or use the screen reader in Docs, Calendar, Sites, Classroom and even in other browsers.

What else is new?

We’re supporting teachers through our own tools as well as strong partnerships with organizations who share our mission. One such organization is Don Johnston, a company that builds tools for people with all types of learning styles and abilities. We’re excited to announce them as a Google for Education Premier Technology Partner, with new integrations using our Drive API, Classroom API and Google single sign-on. Try out their core products in Chrome, Co:Writer, for word prediction, translation, and speech recognition, Snap&Read for screen reading, & their newest product, automatic quiz generator Quizbot with Google Forms. See how one Indiana teacher uses Chromebooks and Don Johnston tools to improve reading independence in her classroom.

Ready to make your teaching more accessible for all learners?

We have many resources to find out what’s new, and how to turn on and use features included in our Chrome browser, Chromebook settings, and G Suite products:

Learn more about Accessibility at Google, and check out our announcements from ACB & NFB 2018.
Visit our G Suite and Chromebook Help Centers. If you’re a G Suite admin, check out this page.
To customize your Chromebook settings, navigate to Chromebook Settings > Manage Accessibility Features on your Chromebooks.
Attend a free workshop with Don Johnston to learn more about tools for student-led learning.

At Google for Education, we're passionate about building tools that make teaching and learning better for everyone. We love hearing stories of how technology is changing students’ lives, so please share ways that you’re using accessibility tools to support all types of learners.

Source: Google Chrome

All Kiwi schools get the license to Chrome

Schools tell us that Chromebooks fill three big needs: they’re easy for students and teachers to use, they’re easy to share and they’re easy to manage. Today, we have some exciting news about the management of Chromebooks that will make the Chrome Education license—our cloud-based device management console—more accessible to schools across New Zealand. This follows on theannouncementlast year that Chromebooks are the number one device used in New Zealand schools, and is great news for schools and families using Chromebooks or considering investing in them.

Starting on November 1, as part of an agreement with Google and the New Zealand Ministry of Education, all state and state-integrated schools across New Zealand will be able to start claiming Ministry-funded Chrome Education licenses to manage new and existing unmanaged Chromebooks. The Chrome Education license was developed to make device management in schools a breeze, so that teachers and students can focus on what’s most important—teaching and learning. Equipped with the Chrome Education license, schools can utilize essential education features to better support the many ways Chromebooks are used in the classroom.

“This is fantastic news for the Manaiakalani Schools,” says Mrs. Dorothy Burt, Education Program Lead in the Manaiakalani Innovation team, “we have been using Chromebooks since they first became available to New Zealand schools in 2013 and have relied on the devices having the Chrome Education license to ensure the focus remains on learning and teaching.”

Schools of all sizes can benefit from the Chrome Education license, as Mrs. Burt points out— “the positive impact of the license to schools is experienced in our big schools, with large fleets of Chromebooks to manage, and equally in our very small rural schools where the sole charge teaching principal has more important matters to focus on than the status of learner devices.”

Point England School, part of the Manaiakalani community of learning, have been using the Chrome Education License to manage their Chromebook fleet since 2013.

Most importantly, quality teaching and learning is safely brought to the forefront, underpinned by our commitment to providing the best security measurements protecting teacher and student privacy “With this in place we have the confidence that our move to having young people learning on personal devices in a digital environment is well managed and safe. Expectations of whānau are easily applied across all devices. Teachers can spend their time where it counts—on children and their learning—rather than managing devices.”

The Chrome Education license allows schools to update any number of Chromebooks (once they are enrolled)—without touching a single one. In the simple cloud-based management console, there are over 200 policies that schools can apply to manage their fleet of Chromebooks. You can learn more about them here, but for now, here are three of them that are sure to be the teacher’s pet!

Give teachers and students confidence that during class, they’re all the on same webpage!

The Education license lets school admins and teachers customize the user experience. This is a handy feature that can automatically load frequently used websites—such as Google Classroom, Khan Academy—on boot-up, as well as adding custom bookmarks, pinning apps and extensions, and blocking distractions.

Lead students right to most used apps and extensions, such as WeVideo, Khan Academy, Pixlr, and the Google Classroom extension

The multi-tasker for school and family use
The “off-hours device policy” feature is particularly helpful for Chromebooks that are used at school and as the family device. For example, school admins can set a weekly schedule so that school settings are in place when students are using Chromebooks in class but, these same settings can be scheduled to turn off after school hours so they don’t apply when a parent might be using the device.

Spark school spirit
You can use the Education license to display digital signage, keeping students and parents informed. It’s simple to set up school-wide displays on computers in the library and monitors around the school to advertise of key school events and moments, like parent/teacher evenings, carnivals and assessment times.

We’re excited to see the growing number of countries like New Zealand partnering with Google to support teachers, schools and families to improve the use of technology in education.

Source: Google Chrome

See how the Night King uses Chromebook

“Winter is coming.”

You’ve heard it countless times. But what you don’t hear much about is the effort that goes into planning the attack on Westeros during the winter—it’s a real operation. There are new recruits to onboard, wargs to avoid, and 700-foot walls of ice to break through. Under these circumstances, a little organization and a Chromebook go a long way.

The Game of Thrones' army of the dead is collecting everything new recruits need to know into a single Google Slides presentation made with Chromebook. Now you can learn a few things about collaboration from the way they work.

Disappointed with your team’s performance? Tell them exactly where they fell short with a comment in Google Slides. Stuck in another meeting about scheduling an invasion? Start doodling alternate routes in Evernote. Need your headshots to look professional, yet terrifying? Make photo adjustments in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC to give yourself that icy edge. You can do it all on Chromebook.

Here are a few especially important slides:

New recruit orientation
Job candidates are on the rise, you can be one of them.
Values
Who are we? What do we stand for?
map
Map it out with diagrams and charts in Slides.
Benefits
There are real benefits to joining the army of the dead.
New Recruit Orientation
The Night King does it all on Chromebook.

The army of the dead had a few thousand years to learn these tips, and now you can discover them all here: chromebook.com/whitewalkers

Source: Google Chrome

Schools in London give new life to old computers

Replacing aging computers with new devices can be a strain on school budgets, which means that schools often find themselves with out-of-date hardware sitting in cupboards, collecting dust. However, there’s a way to give old devices new life—by replacing their current operating system with one that’s easy to use, manage and is ready for the cloud.

We’re partnering with London Grid for Learning, a nonprofit organization focused on improving schools’ access to technology and Neverware (creator of the CloudReady operating system), to help schools across London extend the life of their old devices. LGfL has committed to purchasing CloudReady licenses for over 85 percent of London’s schools so they can transform their slow, older hardware into fast, nimble devices that run just like Chromebooks. As CloudReady is based on Google’s Chromium OS, it perfectly complements a cloud-first digital approach, such as using G Suite for Education.

At Connaught School for Girls in East London, pupils and teachers were struggling to use old and slow machines, especially once the school started integrating more digital tools, including Google Classroom. Tight budgets hindered replacement of the devices. The school saw Neverware as a budget-friendly way to revive its old laptops for the Google Classroom adoption, without purchasing a fleet of new devices or paying for laptop disposal.

The results were transformative as the students started using the devices more. ‘’In the last academic year, the devices were booked four times. Now the laptops are booked 21 out of 25 periods per week, creating better access to IT for our students,’’ Silk says. “The beauty of Neverware is that it just works and your older devices are no longer a liability; they can be an asset again.”

Given current budgetary pressures and compliance demands, it’s more important than ever to find practical solutions that increase secure, affordable access to technology in schools. By partnering with London Grid for Learning and Neverware, Google for Education is improving access to education technology in London schools, whilst also contributing to the sustainability of older technology. If you are an LGfL school, visit go.neverware.com/LGfL to learn how you can use CloudReady by Neverware to refresh your underperforming or underutilised devices. All other schools in the UK can check out CloudReady directly at their website.

Source: The Official Google Blog

When Octoberitis spooks your students, we’re here to help

It's October. Pencils—once sharp and eager to write in August—are starting to dull. Students are gazing out the window, and it's not just because of the falling leaves—this happens every October, when the newness of the new school year has worn off.

To fight this Octoberitis, some educators get students moving by doing a gravity experiment in the stairwell, or role play activities during history. While you’re experimenting in the classroom, we’ll be launching new tools to help you keep the learning spark alive, and make the longer days feel shorter.

And want to know something that’s made our October a bit brighter? We’re excited to announce that over 40 million students and educators are now using Google Classroom, and 30 million are using Chromebooks, on top of 80 million using G Suite for Education globally.

Bring the outside world into the classroom

Back when we learned with just pen and paper, math class and functions could seem dull. But now, augmented reality can add another dimension to your lesson. With the latest update to the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, it became the first ChromeOS device to support ARCore, Google’s platform for building augmented reality experiences. Developers can build AR experiences for classrooms, like GeoGebra, an interactive geometry, algebra, statistics and calculus app. Students can toggle between 2D screens and AR in the 3D app as teachers guide them in exploring math in new ways.

Using the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, educators can bring everything from a skeleton to the solar system into the classroom with the help of Expeditions AR. With content from partners like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Oxford University Press, the world comes to you when you can drop the works of Van Gogh into the middle of your Art History lesson, or a great Kapok tree when studying the rainforest. To unlock the power of AR, ask your IT administrator to enable these Android apps, and make sure your tablets are upgraded to the latest operating system.

To conduct a science experiment, the only equipment you’ll need is a Chromebook. Students can complete more than 40 science labs which map to high school biology, chemistry, and physics standards with Labster Chromebook labs. These online labs allow schools to offer unlimited lab practice time without needing to buy any extra equipment. Not only that, but these labs can also be assigned and graded with the Classroom integration, and teachers can track how students are progressing. To get labs at your school, visit labster.com/chromebooklabs.

Collaborate to reach every learner

You spend hours planning and customizing lessons to engage every learner in your class, but it can be difficult for students to follow along in rigorous and fast paced learning environments. To support students and faculty who are deaf or hard of hearing, we built closed captions in Google Slides (only available on Chrome web browsers), which uses machine learning to turn on automated closed captioning when presenting. Captions are currently available for U.S. English language only, but stay tuned as we explore adding more languages. Learn more about accessibility features in G Suite and ChromeOS.

We’ve launched new Docs updates to make writing a paper in MLA format a smoother process. You can already set left and right indentations as well as set hanging indents via a dialog box. Now, students and faculty can also adjust the margins of headers and footers, and use a vertical ruler to adjust placement of table rows and header and footer margins.

Educators can also give feedback to students in Classroom or Course Kit, our free toolkit that allows instructors to use G Suite within their existing LMS. Using the new grading tool, educators can leverage the comment bank to give feedback on Docs and PDFs. Use G Suite for Education but have a different LMS? Request access to the Course Kit beta today.

Jamboard - the collaborative whiteboard app - can also help shake things up. We’re bringing the jam to the web, where anyone can create and collaborate on jams from individual Chromebooks, no Jamboard hardware required. And with the new View Only mode, teachers can share jam sessions from their lessons that day while restricting edit access. Have a BYOD policy, or enabling Device Off Hours? Jamboard on the web is an easy solution for collaboration.

If you’re interested in trying out a Jamboard device in your classroom, you can apply for the new Jamboard Learning Space Transformation program. Continental U.S. based G Suite for Education customers can submit a proposal on how you’ll transform your learning space with Jamboard today.

Hopefully these new features and product tips are the antidote you need to the Octoberitis that’s bound to hit your classrooms. If not, you have Halloween to look forward to...

Be sure to follow along on Google for Education’s Twitter and Facebook pages. We love hearing from you, so please share your tips for the best October yet.

Source: Google Chrome

Helping more families set digital ground rules with Family Link

Parents constantly tell us that they want their kids to experience the best of what tech has to offer–while also developing a healthy relationship with technology. Giving parents the tools they need to make the choices that are right for their families is critical, and we take our role here very seriously. Last year we launched the Family Link app to help parents stay in the loop while their kids are using Android devices. Family Link helps parents keep an eye on screen time, manage the apps their kids can use, and more. Over the coming days, we’ll make Family Link available to more families, on more devices, and in nearly every country in the world.

Family Link can now help parents with teens manage technology

Family Link originally launched for kids under-13, but we’ve heard overwhelmingly from parents that the app is still useful as their kids enter their teen years. This week, parents around the world will be able to use Family Link to supervise their teen’s existing Google Account for the first time (see applicable age for a teen in your country). There are some differences when supervising a teen’s account with Family Link. For example, teens are free to turn off supervision if they choose to, but we let parents know. Ultimately, it’s up to each individual family to have a conversation and decide what’s right for them.

Better Chromebook support for kids and teens

The need for supervision doesn’t end with mobile devices. Now, Family Link is available for Chromebook for kids and teens, allowing parents to manage website restrictions and account settings for their child from their device. Soon, parents will also be able to set screen time limits and manage the apps their child can use on Chromebooks.

Continuing to grow together

With more parents in more places able to use Family Link, we want to hear your thoughts on how we’re doing. If you want to share your ideas with us, just open the Family Link app, click the menu in the top left corner and tap “Help and feedback.”

Source: Android

How Fairfield County students got a head start for college

When Trace Swann, Kashinda Sims, and Mercedez Carpenter accepted their diplomas in May 2018 at Fairfield Central High School in South Carolina it was the culmination of thirteen years of hard work—and community effort. Enrolled in the school’s STEM Early College Academy, they were among the first students to graduate not only from high school, but also from Midland Technical College. Now Trace, Kashinda, and Mercedez are moving on to four-year colleges—with associate’s degrees in hand along with their high school diplomas.

Five years ago, when Fairfield County School District provided each student in grades 3-12 with a Chromebook equipped with G Suite for Education tools, we interviewed Trace, Kashinda, and Mercedez—who were still in middle school—about their hopes and goals. This past June we went back to Fairfield to interview them at their graduation about what they’ve accomplished and what’s next for them.

Unlisted 19 views 0 0 SHARE Google for Education Uploaded on Aug 17, 2018 Fairfield County School District students and teachers began using Chromebooks and G Suite for Education in the classroom in 2013. Five years later, Fairfield has transformed with the help of technology, and the graduating seniors are ready for college and prepared for the workforce. 6:35 SUMMER (Original Full-Length Album Version) - War Kandyman1028 Recommended for you 31:26 we broke up Domo and Crissy Recommended for you 4:23 Future Islands - "Seasons" @ Letterman 3/3/14 Alex F Recommended for you 2:06 Shut It Down xrichybluex Recommended for you 3:24 John Legend, Cynthia Erivo - God Only Knows (Audio) ft. yMusic John Legend Recommended for you

Connecting people, places, and ideas

Fairfield County is a close-knit but sprawling community, with a population of 24,000 spread out over 700 square miles. Many residents only have internet access at schools or libraries and over 85 percent of Fairfield Central’s students qualify for free or reduced lunch. STEM Early College Academy includes several students who are the first in their families to graduate from college. Trace, who will attend the University of South Carolina to study Mechanical Engineering, believes technology can help bridge the digital divide.

We’re becoming a more technologically-proficient society, but a lot of people still have to catch up to that. Providing students with Chromebooks will put them on an equal playing field with people from wealthier areas. Trace Swann

By using G Suite for Education tools like Gmail, Google Docs, Classroom, and Hangouts with mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, students can connect with other students to collaborate on assignments even when they are far from the classroom. They can get help from their teachers from anywhere and at any time—or work on job searches and college applications. Dr. Claudia Avery, Deputy Superintendent of the Fairfield County School District, believes access to technology also impacts the whole community in unexpected ways: “we recognized that we could empower an entire family because not only does the student have access to a Chromebook, a parent can use it to complete a resume for an upcoming job interview. When adults observed students using technology, they immediately became more comfortable with it. Teachers are starting to follow their students. They now use G Suite tools to increase their productivity and efficiency in the classroom.”

At STEM Early College Academy students use Hangouts to help each other with assignments posted on Google Classroom, and that taught Kashinda the life lesson that “it’s okay to depend on others, it’s okay to ask for help.” Now she’ll learn how to help others as a social work student at Brigham Young University. That’s exactly what Jeanne Smith, science teacher at Fairfield Central, loves about education: “as you teach, you should learn, and as you learn, you should teach,” creating a ripple effect for positive change in the world.

Giving students a competitive advantage

As she heads off to study Communications at Coastal Carolina University, Mercedez believes that “the exposure to technology and having Google tools and Chromebooks allows us to be prepared for college and for the workforce.” Mercedez admits that she had to adjust her time management to handle the increased load of juggling college classes in high school along with a part-time job. She credits G Suite with helping her became more productive so she could access all her work in one place from anywhere to get it done “easier, faster, and more efficiently.”

Dr. Avery sees all of this preparation as a solid foundation for their futures: “when they go to college, and a teacher asks them to complete an assignment, we want them to be able to say, okay, these are tools that I know how to use. Then they'll be able to carry those skills with them, whether it's to the workforce, their technical school, or even the military.” For Trace, his experience at STEM Early College Academy is the first step on a longer inspirational journey: “the power of education is the ability to go out and get a job and raise your standard of living. That’s the American Dream, you know—always going upwards.”

Source: Google Chrome

Your Google for Education Guide for Back to School

This back to school season, inspire creativity, and run at maximum efficiency with the latest features and tools from Google for Education. We’re rolling out new features in Classroom and G Suite for Education, AR and VR on Chromebooks, Google Earth and Science Journal updates, and new trainings from the Teacher Center and Applied Digital Skills.

New tools in Classroom and G Suite

Google Classroom is getting its biggest refresh yet. We’ve added a Classwork page to help teachers and students stay more organized. With Classwork, teachers can easily group assignments into units or modules, and reorder work to match their class sequence. We’re also introducing a new grading tool, which lets educators quickly toggle between student submissions when grading, and save commonly used feedback. The tool improves the grading workflow, so that educators have more time to spend personalizing feedback. Finally, we’ve made it easier to setup classes and manage information. Read more here, and check out the Back to School 2018 FAQs for full details.

In addition to using a Learning Management System (LMS), many schools use G Suite to collaborate. Until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to integrate G Suite with many LMSs. That’s why we introduced Course Kit in July, a free toolkit that allows instructors to use Google Docs and Drive to collect assignments, give faster and richer feedback to students, and share course materials within the LMS they’re already using. It’s built using the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard so it's easy to set up and works with all LMSs that support LTI. If your institution uses G Suite for Education, you can get started by requesting access to the beta.

We heard from educators and students it can be challenging to format in Google Docs when writing and assigning papers. That’s why we’re sharing new Docs updates focused on margins and indentations to improve the overall writing experience, especially when making MLA style citations. Now, you can use hanging indents and set specific indentations using a dialog box. Be on the lookout for customizable header and footer margins, and a vertical ruler coming to Docs this fall.

Bring learning to life with Daydream, Google Earth, and Science Journal

Your student explorers can show and tell in 360-degree VR, because Tour Creator now allows photos taken on your own device with the free Cardboard Camera app (available on Android and iOS) to be added to tours. And coming soon, you’ll also be able to add VR180 photos to tours which can be easily taken from any VR180 camera. Have curious students wanting to explore ancient ruins, swim in the Indian Ocean, and save the endangered elephants in Africa? Coming this fall, ARCore will run on the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 so students can experience Expeditions AR and other AR apps directly on their tablets.

Adventures continue with 30 newly released activities and lesson plans, in 8 languages from Google Earth. Students and teachers can explore Mars, the world’s oceans and protected environments with NASA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, The Ocean Agency, and the National Geographic Society.

Student scientists wanting to test hypotheses can use the Science Journal website, which has been updated with new content, including activities from the band OK Go in the OK Go Sandbox. Coming this fall, the new Google Drive integration will also allow students to conduct, document and access science experiments from any device running the free Science Journal app.

Innovative training with the Teacher Center and Applied Digital Skills

We heard that first time G Suite users and educators looking for a refresh found our #FirstDayofClassroom resources to be helpful, and now we’re expanding to include our other products, starting with Google Forms. Our new trainings in the updated Teacher Center are curated video trainings made by educators, for educators, with actionable steps to get started with G Suite for Education. We want to hear from you as we add more trainings and products, so submit your favorite Google for Education tips here.

Based on one of the top requests from teachers last year, the free video-based curriculum Applied Digital Skills site now enables instructors to assign lessons through Classroom. Students can share in the excitement too, with the ability to track their classes, lessons and the last video they viewed in the new Student Dashboard.

Previously announced in June, at ISTE

We shared that the first tablet running the same reliable operating system as Chromebooks, the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, is now shipping, and also announced a new affordable, no charging or pairing required stylus by STAEDTLER which will soon be available. Educators will soon have the ability to create a Quiz in Google Forms from Classroom and enable locked mode for distraction free testing, only on managed Chromebooks. And for all of the admins out there, make sure to check out Device Off Hours and subscribe to our revamped release notes.

From all of us at Google for Education, welcome back to school. We can’t wait to see what you accomplish during this upcoming school year. Be sure to follow along on Google for Education’s Twitter and Facebook pages for more information and resources for you and your students.

Source: Google Chrome

Your Google for Education Guide for Back to School