Tag Archives: G Suite

Choose your own adventure with 13 Google for Education tools

Editor’s note: This week, we’re joining thousands of educators and students at BETT in London. Visit us at booth C230, where you can demo a range of Chromebooks designed for education, including the brand new Chrome OS tablet. Follow along on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates.

Power up a Chromebook and watch as it transports students to the Taj Mahal, the Great Barrier Reef or a state-of-the-art science lab. It’s like magic, except the magicians are the teachers who inspire engaged and focused learning. As the leaders of these journeys, teachers give students the opportunity to explore the limits of their imagination—all on a device that’s simple to use and easy to navigate. While we’re here at BETT, we’re exploring more ways to bring magic moments to the classroom. So open up a Chromebook, and try out a few of the things it can do.

Secure and accessible, out of the box

1. Learn with adaptable Chromebooks:We’re launching more devices for education, with 25+ new devices in 2019. Choose from tablets like the Asus Chromebook Tablet CT100, convertibles like the Acer Chromebook Spin 512 with a 3:2 screen ratio for a taller display to see more content, the Lenovo 300e Chromebook, and clamshells like the Dell Chromebook 3400. Chromebooks aren’t just for students—educators are turning to high performance devices like the Google Pixel Slate, Pixelbook and HP Chromebook x360 14.

2. Explore built-in security and accessibility features:When you customize your security settings with multi-layered security, automatic updates, individual profiles and data protection, they’ll follow you no matter what device you log into. Learn more about customizing settings in G Suite and on Chromebooks to support all learners—including those with visual aids, auditory aids and more.

3. Become an Internet Legend:With our online safety program developed in partnership with the experts at Parent Zone, all Key Stage 2 primary school teachers can now order the Be Internet Legends curriculum pack for free. It’s available in new languages, including Arabic, Belgian, Italian, Polish and will soon be available in Turkish.

Chromebook accessibility features

Plan with efficiency, collaborate & explore, check for understanding

4. Plan with Classroom and Course Kit:In addition to the new Classwork page, Classroom has a refreshed look and feel. And if you love G Suite but use a different LMS, you can now use Course Kit, a free toolkit that incorporates G Suite into your existing LMS.

5. Collaborate with Jamboard: Create, edit, and view Jams (a “Jam” is a collaborative whiteboard space) on your Chromebook or from a Chrome browser with Jamboard or the Jamboard app. You can now modify frames, switch quickly from selection to drawing and use familiar keyboard shortcuts when jamming. Soon, you’ll also be able to add images. Head over to Workbench for a new course on student agency and engagement using Jamboard.

6. Explore the world in Augmented and Virtual reality:Now students can create VR tours using Tour Creator on their Chromebooks, and view them together through a guided experience using the Expeditions Android app (coming soon to iOS). We’re also translating our most popular VR and AR tours into Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

7. Sign up for the locked mode and Gradebook betas:On managed Chromebooks, locked mode prevents students from browsing away from the Quiz until they submit their answers. The new Gradebook in Google Classroom lets you check grades, see average grades by student or assignment, and choose to calculate grades by weighted average or total points-based.

Classroom 101

Bringing learning to life with STEAM

8. Code with CS First: We recently introduced CS First + Scratch 3.0, the latest version of the coding language designed for kids. The 3.0 version is complete with new videos and digital materials, plus lesson plans easily shareable in Google Docs. Check out the CS First Starter Guide and learn more about Scratch 3.0.

9. Prepare for the future with Applied Digital Skills: Students learn critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity and digital skills with new lessons mapped to the UK Essential Digital Skills Framework and the Computing National Curriculum in England, all on the new UK English Applied Digital Skills website.

10. Get hands on with Science Journal:Now, you can sign in with your G Suite for Education account to save and access your experiments across your devices using Google Drive. Check out new training modules and lessons on the Google for Education Teacher Center and Scholastic. For more hands-on science, order the new Science Kit from Arduino for middle school science classrooms, or try out Science Journal’s Android app with Vernier's new Go Direct line of classroom sensors.

11. Travel the globe with Google Earth:Bring the whole world to each desk in your classroom, no download required. Students can quiz their animal knowledge in Street View, learn about weather, volcanoes and sea surface temperature with map layers, measure area and distance, and see 3D views of buildings and landmarks.

Science Journal

Supporting educators through professional development


12. Learn with the Teacher Center:We’ve added new trainings on Jamboard, CS First, Applied Digital Skills and Science Journal. To support educators globally, the Teacher Center is now localized in 17 languages, with Italian coming later this year.

13. Engage with the education community:Looking for an expert? Coming soon, an updated Google for Education Directory can help you find a local expert to assist a school in any number of areas including teacher trainings, transformation support and advice from other schools. Looking for in-person interaction?  We just announced our 2019 Innovation Academies, with more locations including Stockholm and London, so apply now.

Visit us at BETT this week to check out the entire ecosystem of our tools, and if you’re not able to be with us in London, stay tuned on Twitter for more news.

Source: Google Chrome


Around the world and back with Google for Education

Editor’s note: This week, we’re joining thousands of educators and students at BETT in London. Visit us at booth C230, where you can demo a range of Chromebooks designed for education, including the brand new Chrome OS tablet. Follow along on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates.

It started with an idea in 2006: how might teaching and learning improve if we brought Google’s suite of productivity tools to schools? 13 years later, there are 80 million educators and students around the world using what has become G Suite for Education. 40 million students and educators rely on Google Classroom to stay organized and support creative teaching techniques. 30 million more use Chromebooks to open up a world of possibilities both inside and outside the classroom. We’ve introduced new devices to adapt to the needs of educators, schools and students, and created features that work across our products, like locked mode in Quizzes through Google Forms. As we kick off the week at BETT, let’s take a look at how classrooms have used Google for Education across the globe over the years.

Global growth of Chromebooks

Asia Pacific collaborates and prioritizes CS education on Chromebooks 

In Japan, public schools are using G Suite and Chromebooks to help meet the nationwide goal of teaching computer programming to all children by 2020. In all 139 high schools in Saitama Prefecture, Chromebooks aren’t just helping students learn programming—they’re also fostering better collaboration between students and teachers when combined with G Suite tools.

Down under in Australia and New Zealand, schools are also using Chromebooks in the classroom. All secondary students in Canberra were provided with Chromebooks in 2018. In New Zealand, Chromebooks have been the top choice for schools since 2017. To keep devices secure while saving teachers and IT administrators time and money, the Ministry of Education in New Zealand began providing Chrome Education licenses to all state and state-integrated schools in November 2018.

St. Thomas More School

Making technology more accessible in Latin America

Schools across Latin America are making technology more accessible to more people in the region. Recently, the Secretary of Education of Bahia, Brazil partnered with Google for Education to make computers accessible to all students and teachers in public schools across the state. Now, dozens of states and municipalities are following in Bahia’s footsteps. Brazil is also home to the first-ever Google reference University, UNIT, where 23,000 students are using G Suite and Chromebooks to build and learn.

Many different states in Mexico are choosing Google for Education’s tools for schools, too. @prende, an office in the Ministry of Education, chose to implement Chromebooks because of the Chrome Education license. The license gives teachers an easier time managing their classroom, thanks to features like the shared identity model (where multiple students can use the same device, while ensuring workspace and data isolation). Opting for a simple solution helped the Ministry make teacher training a priority.

Brian, #inovarparami

Improving engagement in European classrooms

In Europe, Filey Junior School and Leeds City College brought Chromebooks into the classroom as they were trying to improve student retention and engagement. Students at Leeds College, who range from being full-time parents to Olympic divers, balance their studies with outside of school commitments since they’re able to use their Chromebooks no matter where they are. To work on improving their writing skills, Filey Junior students used Google Docs to review one another’s work. They focused on peer editing, giving constructive criticism and experimented with writing styles—while also learning how to communicate in a new format.

Elsewhere in the UK, we’ve been working with London Grid for Learning to help over 90 percent of schools across the city bring technology to more students. The project includes free training in Classroom, G Suite and other tools to upskill teachers.

Chromebook popularity continues to grow in the Nordics—for instance, the city of Vantaa, Finland adopted 13,000 devices in March 2018. The Director of Education cited the user-friendliness as a reason why they implemented Chromebooks. And in Trondheim, Norway, the Trondheim Kommune adopted the new G Suite Enterprise for Education as a result of the additional security features offered, for all 40,000 students and educators.

Chris Lickold, Tring School

Preparing U.S. students for the future with 21st century skills

In North America, we’ve been improving our products and spending time in schools. Down in Texas, Burleson ISD has a vision for every learner to graduate with 21st century problem-solving and reasoning skills. This led them to redesign their learning spaces—they replaced traditional desks with work spaces to encourage the collaborative and self-directed ways students learn today. They also created makerspace areas, where students can learn about 3D printing, engineering and other STEM activities.

In South Carolina, students who recently graduated from Fairfield County School District feel that they have a competitive advantage in college and the workforce from having used G Suite and Chromebooks throughout middle and high school. Even at the college level, schools like Lafayette College are beginning to use the enterprise-grade capabilities within G Suite Enterprise for Education. And with the addition of Dartmouth, all eight Ivy League schools now use G Suite for Education as a productivity tool of choice for their faculty, staff and students.

Fairfield County School District

To teachers, administrators, and students around the world, thank you for continuing to inspire us, learn with us, and grow with us.

Cloud Covered: 6 things you might have missed from Google Cloud last year

What was new with Google Cloud in 2018? Well, it depends on what particular cloud technology you’re interested in. There was plenty of news on the AI and machine learning front, along with developments on a variety of enterprise cloud components. The open cloud community continued to be a thriving place to collaborate, and Google Cloud user productivity and efficiency grew, too.

These popular stories from last year illustrate some of what you can do with Google Cloud technology.

  1. Machine and deep learning made leaps. On the hardware front, special chips designed for high performance, called Cloud TPUs, are now broadly available to speed up machine learning tasks. And we partnered with NASA’s Frontier Development Lab to use ML to build simulations and algorithms to answer one big question: Is there life on other planets?
  2. Organizations are starting to extract more value from their data. Tools like BigQuery and the Ethereum digital currency dataset, which we recently made available to everyone, help businesses find insights from their data. And The New York Times is digitizing its huge photo archive, along with all its associated data, using Google Cloud storage and database technology.
  3. There’s a new way to keep your information secure. The Titan Security Key arrived in the Google Store in 2018. Use these security keys to add two-factor verification to your Google Accounts and other services. They’re designed to defend against attacks like phishing that steal user credentials.
  4. The cloud opened the door to creating all kinds of applications and projects. For game developers, the OpenMatch open source project cuts down on development time for building multiplayer games with its matchmaking framework. And a novelist is using the new Cloud Speech-to-Text API to add visuals to poetry readings.
  5. Productivity gains with cloud came in all shapes and sizes. Check out the new developer hub for G Suite, providinglots of pro tips for developers to create, manage, and track their projects, including this tip on automatically adding a schedule from Google Sheets into Calendar.
  6. You can build on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) even more easily. A new type of containers called gVisor arrived to give developersmore options when building applications. Plus, we brought the infrastructure that powers Google Search to developers with Cloud Source Repositories for easier code search. And the Cloud Services Platform arrived in 2018—this integrated family of cloud services lets you build an end-to-end cloud while removing manual tasks from the daily workload.  

For even more of what was popular last year in Google Cloud, take a look at the top Google Cloud Platform stories of 2018. And if one of your goals this year is to start using cloud more, mark your calendar to attend Google Cloud Next ’19.

Stay organized in 2019 with new features in Classroom

A new calendar year brings an opportunity for a fresh start. One resolution we often hear instructors make is that they hope to keep their classrooms (both physical and virtual!) organized and clean. While we can’t help with those lockers and backpacks, we can help teachers online. So to start the year off on the right foot, we’re introducing updates to help you stay organized and revealing a fresh new look for the Classroom you know and love. Check out our brand new videobelow for a quick look inside Google Classroom.

Google Classroom 101

Drag and drop on the Classwork page

Last fall, we rolled out the new Classwork page, where instructors can stay organized and map out their classes. But, we know that teachers organize their classes in distinct ways and need additional flexibility in their classroom tools.

So now, you candrag and dropentire topics and individual Classwork items, rearranging them easily on the page. You can drag an entire topic to a specific location on the Classwork page, or drag individual items within—and in between—topics. This functionality launched last year on mobile, and now it’s time for it to hit the web.


Drag and drop on the Classwork page

A fresh new look for Classroom

Starting today, you’ll also see that Classroom has a fresh new look and feel, first on the web, and soon in the Classroom mobile apps. Back in 2014,  we introduced Google’s new material theme to have more consistency across Google products and platforms.  Among the changes, you’ll see a more intuitive design flow—plus a new approach to shape, color, iconography and typography, on both the web and the mobile app. We’re also making the class code easier to access and project so students can easily find and join. And finally, we’re introducing 78 new themes with custom illustrations, ranging from history to math to hair dressing to photography. Now, you can customize your Classroom more than ever before.


Material Design in Classroom

New tools, new trainings

With new tools and changes comes the need for more support. In the Teacher Center, you’ll find updated videos in our First Day of Classroom trainings with the new design and features we rolled out in 2018. While we’re at it, we built a new and improved Help Center, combined with our Community and product forum.

New themes in Google Classroom

We’re always listening to ways teachers customize and personalize Google Classroom, so follow along on Twitter and Facebook and share your ideas. We’re also getting ready for BETT in London—come visit us at stand C230. From all of us at Google for Education, we wish you a happy and organized 2019!

Share files more easily with non-Google accounts in Drive Beta

Soon, people without Google accounts will be able to view, comment, suggest edits to, and directly edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files.

Organizations often work on documents with external vendors, partners, contractors, and customers. When these partners don't have Google accounts, it is a significant barrier for collaboration.

We are introducing a beta for an easy pincode identity verification process that will enable G Suite users to invite non-G Suite users to collaborate on files as visitors, using PINs (Personal Identification Numbers). Below is an example of how it works:



File owners and admins are in full control of sharing 

File owners can view all the detailed activity on their files and see where it originated, and revoke access from the Drive sharing dialog at any time. Admins can manage all external sharing and audit usage. For more information on sharing settings, check out this Help Center article.

Apply to join Pincode Sharing in Drive Beta 

Pincode Sharing in Drive is launching initially in beta. If you're an admin, see more details, review the eligibility requirements, and apply to join the beta.

Launch Details 
Editions: 
Beta is available to all G Suite editions

Impact: 
Admins and end users

Action: 
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information 
Help Center: Set Drive users' sharing permission
Join the beta

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Better information on spam messages in Email Log Search

As a G Suite admin, you can now get more detailed and helpful information in the Admin console about emails that have been marked as spam. The Email Search Log tool will now show the reason an email was flagged as spam, as well as other warnings users may see about suspicious emails.

This new information will help you understand the steps that our spam classification system takes to protect end-users and will assist in managing email traffic. To access the tool, from the Admin console Home page, go to Reports > Audit > Email log search. See our Help Center to get more details on the Email Log Search tool.

Digging deeper into spam 

When using the Email Log Search to locate spam, you’ll now receive detailed data about the spam and annotations about the messages, including:
  • The reason an email was or was not marked as spam 
  • When anomaly banners are triggered by suspicious attachments or a phishing attack 



See the Help Center to learn how you, as an admin, can download Email Log Search results to a CSV file or open them in Google Sheets for easy viewing.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions: 
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact: 
Admins and end users

Action: 
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Interpret Email Log Search results

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More ways to collaborate using Box for G Suite

 We’re making Box for G Suite available for all G Suite customers, bringing Google's rich content creation and editing experiences directly into Box so that companies can stay productive and accelerate their work.

Admins can enable the integration from within the Box Admin Console.

Check out this blog post and the Box Community for more information.

Launch Details

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace: 
Gradual rollout to all Box users through mid-January 2019

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Admin action suggested/FYI

More Information 
Box Community
G Suite blog post

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Launch detail categories
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ICYMI in November: here’s what happened in G Suite

Sorry we missed you these past two months. Next Tokyo and London were at the top of our to-dos. Check out the keynotes to catch the highlights.

In case you’re curious, we improved the G Suite Developer hub this past month to make it easier for developers to track projects from one place. We also launched a way for you to integrate content from third-party apps directly into your email drafts. With Compose Actions in Gmail, you can do things like add attachments from other apps into emails.

Subhead 1 ICYMI G Suite

Now you can make a Google Doc even faster. Type in “doc.new,” “docs.new” or “document.new” into your web browser and a new Google Doc will appear. Less clicks!

google_docs.gif
Subhead 2 ICYMI G Suite

→With one click, you can get others to join your meeting as you’re hosting it. Click “add people” at the top of your participant list in Hangouts Meet—up to 100 people can join now. Bring your friends!

Hangouts Meet.png

→ Admins can make even stricter password requirements for users. Check it out.

→ Formatting presentations takes time, but we’re making it even easier in Slides. Now, you can double-click the tool icon to enter “persistent” mode to make changes all at once.

Formatting presentations.png

→ You might’ve noticed a new icon at the top of your Google Docs, Sheets, Slides or Drawings. Use the squiggly-line icon to access the activity dashboard—a great place to see stats or adjust privacy settings in documents.

activity dashboard.png

Check out the full recap of product updates in November. See you next month.

Sync Google Drive files to apps using the Drive REST API, bidding farewell to the Drive Android API

Posted by Remy Burger, Product Manager, Google Drive

If you're looking to make Google Drive files accessible from within your application, chances are you might use the Google Drive REST API or the Google Drive Android API to help. Both tools allow users to download or upload files from Drive from inside of another application.

Starting today, we're simplifying options for developers by retiring the Drive Android API. We will focus solely on expanding functionality for the Drive REST API.

If you're new to the Drive REST API, it offers all of the same functionality as the Drive Android API, including ways to:

If you use the Google Drive Android API, you will need to migrate your existing applications to other services prior to December 6, 2019, when all calls to the API and any features in your applications that depend on it will be shut down. Note: if you've been using the Drive Android API for its offline sync capability, you can continue to provide an offline-first model by using a SyncAdapter with the Drive REST API.

What to do if you currently use the Google Drive Android API

We want to make it easy for you to migrate your applications to use the Drive REST API. To get started, reference this migration guide which details replacements for each of the major services fulfilled by the Drive Android API. Additionally, check out this sample app, which demonstrates each of these proposed replacements. If you have any issues, check out the google-drive-sdk tag on StackOverflow.

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.

Locked mode in Quizzes in Google Forms

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.

Gradebook in Classroom

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