One of the latest updates for Google Forms is a new question type. You can now set up a question and allow people to upload files through the form. What is nice about this question type, is that Google tries to organize these uploaded files for you. You will want to create a folder for your form and then create your form inside that folder. Once you select the File Upload question a folder is made that will hold those files. If you have multiple File Upload questions there will be a folder created for each question inside that Response folder for the files. The other nice thing that happens is the student's name is added to the uploaded file. Very similar to what happens in Google Classroom when an assignment is created and the "make a copy of each student" option. The video below shows you how the new File Upload question type works.
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We are a Promethean district. Our teachers LOVE their Promethean boards and ActivInspire. One thing that a few teachers noticed lately is how much PrometheanPlanet.com has changeds. It looks like Promethean is transitioning PrometheanPlanet into ClassFlow.com. Some of our teachers have had a difficult time navigating and trying to find resources to download. They are familar with the old PrometheanPlanet site. The video below shows how to navigate around the ClassFlow Marketplace to find resources and where those resources live one you save them to your "My Resources" folder.
Did you know you can add Google Drawing images directly into a Google Doc with you opening the Google Drawing page? In Google Docs, if you click on Insert and then click on Drawing a Google Drawing window will pop up. You can build your image right in that window and embed the image in your document. The other cool thing you can do is create interactive activities with this trick. For example, you can insert different shapes and then have your students use the line tool from the Drawing window tool bar to show you lines of symmetry. The video below will show you how to set up an activity like this. If you are a HyperDocs fan, this is a great tool to add some more interactivity to your Hyperdocs as well.
One of the really cool things about Google Drawing is you can add hotspot links to an image. In the video below you will see how I created an interactive image for an iPad training session we had this past summer. Each of the images and links work on the Google Sites page. Also, if you change any of the links after inserting the Drawing into your site, the Drawing is automatically update when the webpage is refreshed. Click the image below to go to the iPads in the Classroom page so see how the interactive Drawing image works.
Google Drawing is a very underutilized tool by teachers. Drawing is one of the most versatile tool in the G-Suite. This is the first post in a series explaining how Google Drawing can be used in the classroom and add interactivity to your lessons. One of the easiest student activities teachers can create in Drawing is a labeling activity. Labeling activities in a classroom is a very popular student activity. Here is how you can create this activity in Google Drawing and be done by students on their Chromebook or Laptop. NOTE: There is no Google Drawing app for iOS and these activities will not work on iPads.
Poll Everywhere has been around for a long time. The site allows you to create questions for presentation and the participants can answer the question via a weblink or by texting the answer to a Poll Everywhere number. Now you can integrate (and create) Poll Everywhere questions right into a Google Slides presentation. Here what you do: 1. Download and install the Poll Everywhere Chrome Extension 2. Create a new Google Slides presentation 3. You will see a new menu option: Poll Everywhere 4. Decide which slide you want to insert your question, click on the Poll Everywhere menu and choose create. Your question is then loaded / embedded into your Google Slides presentation. That's it. You will need a free Poll Everywhere account. You can sign-up here. Take a look at the video below to see how this works.
Google announced two updates to Google Classroom recently. Teachers can now add parent's / guardian's emails to their students in a class and those parents / guardians can receive daily or weekly emails showing them what has been posted to the stream. The other update effects items posted to the stream. Teachers can now add topics (or tags) to announcements, assignments, or question activities. Teachers and students can filter these activities by clicking on the topic on the left of the stream. Students can't search the stream but this will help them find activities when their stream gets full. Below are two videos I created showing you the new additions to Google Classroom
At the ISTE conference in July 2016, Google announced a new tool that would allow students to wireless stream or cast their chromebook screen to a teacher computer. This new tool is called Google Cast for Education. I created two videos to show you how this works. The first video is from the teacher side of the tool, and the second video shows you how the students will use the too. Set-Up for Teachers: Teachers need to make sure the following are done before they can start using Google Cast for Education: Can be used with the Chrome browser on a PC, MAC or Chromebook. Must install the Google Cast for Education app from the Chrome Store. Chrome browser or OS must be updated to version 52 or higher. Teachers name their receiving device so students know which device to cast to. Teachers share access with individual students, groups or Google Classroom Classes. Set-Up for Students: Students need to make sure the following are done before they
I noticed something different when I shared a folder this afternoon. No longer is the words "can edit" listed as an option from the drop-down menu. Now you see the words "Can organize, add, & edit". This is nice because this tells you what the people can do to this folder once you share it with them. I've had teachers confused about what exactly other people can do if they give them edit rights to a folder. This helps in explaining, very briefly, what can be done.
Google announced at the ISTE 2016 conference an update to Google Forms. You can now create self grading quizzes for forms. I'm listing some links with more information, and I also created a Versal.com course highlighting the new Forms Quiz. Google Support article with information on how to make a quiz. Blog post showing the differences between Google Form Quiz and Flubaroo
A really cool feature of Google Docs is the ability to publish a Google Doc as a webpage. Also, when changes are made to the doc, those changes are reflected on the webpage. This is an easy way for teachers to have students create simple webpages with links and images, so they can share / present information. The video below show you how to publish a Google Doc as a webpage: >center>
Autocrat is a addon for Google Sheets . This addons allows you to take data from a Google Sheet and populate a Google Doc template. The template could be a form letter or a certificate. The video below shows you how to run Autocrat manually and how the Autocrat job will run automatically if you are using a Google Form to collect the data. I used this video to help me create my certificate, specifically add the boarder around the edge of the document.
In Google Drive you can add a single document / file to two different folders. To do this you select the document / file and hold down SHIFT+Z on your keyboard. This will change the Move To option to Add to. The button will also turn green instead of blue. Any changes made to the document / file will be reflected in both folders, because it is the same file. The video below shows you how to do this:
One of the things that has frustrated me since I've been using Google full time is the inability to copy folders and their content. Recently I came up this post from @MsDrasby . The addon is called "Copy Folder" and it is an addon for Google Sheets. After installing the addon and run it, you select your folder, then you can add a prefix and/or suffix to your folder and files/sub-folders. Then click copy. This is a great easy way to copy contents of a folder that was shared with you, after you move the folder to your drive. It is also an easy way to copy folders to use from one school year to the next without having to copy individual files. This video shows you how the Copy Folder addon works: It's a Breeze to Copy Google Drive Folders https://t.co/WdIXR5jR6H — Ms. Drasby (@MsDrasby) June 18, 2016
One of the huge features that Google Docs doesn't have vs. Word is a built in Clip art Gallery. In recent updates to Word, Microsoft has moved their clip art gallery to the cloud. Google Docs allows you to filter an image search specifically for clip art images. Docs pulls the clip art images from the Google Image database. Also, through the search feature in the Insert Image tool, the results are automatically filtered to show clip art images that can be modified without permission, making these images copyright friendly to use in online documents. Download the step-sheet
About a month ago I purchased 2 sets of Google Cardboard view finders from Google. I've had a lot of fun playing with different Virtual Reality (VR) apps to see which ones would be best for the classroom. Google Street View is hands down the best app I've found so far. I have an iPhone so have not been able to test any Android apps. Below is a handout I created explaining what Cardboard is and how it works.
When we started training teachers how to use GAFE and Google Drive, it became clear that we needed to also show them how to organize their Drive. Many became quickly overwhelmed with the Shared With Me folder and not fully understanding were newly created Google Docs were "saved" after the document was made. We put together this document outlining basic steps of organizing the Google Drive. In each section there is a brief how-to video showing the steps outlined in the document. Link to document