📰 eLearn Updates (December 2017)

This is a look at the resources and updates associated with G Suite for December

Updates

• Nine third-party applications added to the G Suite pre-integrated SSO apps catalog – Google is adding SAML integration for 9 additional applications: Dashlane, Docebo, Front, InVision, IT Glue, Pivotal Tracker, Sumo Logic, SurveyMonkey and Zoom.
• Two changes to navigation in Admin console reports – Google are making two changes in the Admin console to improve the visibility of reports for specific G Suite apps: first, they are renaming “Aggregate reports” to “Apps” and second, they are moving all of the app-specific reports previously nested under Reports > Aggregate reports to the left-side navigation
• Changing how you view photos and videos in Google Drive – In early January 2018, Google will simplify Drive navigation by removing the Google Photos tab. Users can continue to access photos and videos in Drive by creating a Google Photos folder in My Drive.
• Changing how you view photos and videos in Google Drive – In early January 2018, Google will simplify Drive navigation by removing the Google Photos tab. Users can continue to access photos and videos in Drive by creating a Google Photos folder in My Drive.
• Embed HTML and JavaScript in the new Google Sites – Google now allows users to embed HTML and JavaScript code directly into new Sites.
• Improving Search and discovery on Google – Google have made three new additions to help you explore further, including expanded Featured Snippets, improved functionality of Knowledge Panels, and suggested content as you search for a particular topic.
• Pivot to the cloud: intelligent features in Google Sheets help businesses uncover insights – Google are making a number of improvements to Sheets, including the ability to easily create pivot tables with Explore and more suggested formulas when you type =.
• Google Keep Integrates with Google Drawings – Tom Mullaney shows that Keep is not integrated into Drawings.
• Shutting down classic Google Calendar Interop tool on February 28, 2018 – As Google continues to provide more features for the new Calendar Interop tool, they will be shutting down the classic version of Calendar Interop on February 28, 2018. Organizations that have previously configured the classic version of the Calendar Interop tool must switch to the new version of Calendar Interop by this date.
• New categories and languages for templates in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides – Google have worked with a range of third-parties to provide access to templates to support project management and human resources.
• Hangouts Meet now available in the Google Calendar API – Google are making it possible to access conference information through the Google Calendar API. With this update, developers can now read conference data associated with events, copy conference data from one event to another and request new conference generation for an event.
• Easily turn apps on or off in the Admin console – Google have made it easier to turn apps on and off within the Admin console.
• YouTube now properly displays vertical videos on iOS – Jacob Kastrenakes provides the news (shared on Twitter) that YouTube on iOS now adjusts the dimensions to remove the black bars.

Resources

Drive

• Collaboration in G Suite – An Overview – Tom Mullaney looks at how teachers can use G Suite for student collaboration.
• A Tip for Unorganized Google Drive Users Like Me – Richard Byrne provides some tips for searching within Google Drive.
• Improving the menus and toolbars in Google Docs and Slides – Google are making some changes to the menus and toolbars in Google Docs and Slides on the web. These changes will make it easier to find certain items and increase consistency across Docs and Slides.
• Privacy Differences between Consumer gMail and gSuite for Education – Jim Siegl unpacks the differences between the consumer Google accounts that are familiar to many parents, and the gSuite for Education accounts that are used in schools.

Chrome

• Coding with Chromebooks – Kern Kelley explains why coding is so powerful and provides a number of options to get started when using a Chromebook.
• Education on Air: Work Smarter: Productivity and Automation – Chris Betcher shows you a range of productivity ideas including gesture techniques, tab management, keyboard shortcuts and automation extensions.
• How to add grid lines to Google Slides – Eric Curts shows how to use the MB-Ruler extension to add grid lines to Google Slides (or any web tool) to help divide up your canvas when creating image and shapes, or when laying out objects.
• How To Avoid Getting Tracked As You Browse The Web – David Nield provides some strategies for protecting your identity and data on line, including various add-ons and additional services.
• Screenshade: An Extension from EdTechTeam – Chris Craft introduces Screenshade, an extension which allows users to cover a portion of the screen and reveal it after a certain time.
• Five Tools for Creating Animations on Chromebooks – Richard Byrne summarises five options for creating an animation on a Chromebook.
• Fit More Bookmarks into Chrome’s Bookmark Bar – Tony Vincent provides a graphic explaining how removing the title associated with bookmarks allows you to fit more.
• 10 Excellent Extensions for Chrome – Eric Curts highlights ten Chrome extensions worth checking out.
• How To Browse The Web As Anonymously As Possible – 2017 Edition – The team at Pixel Privacy have collected a number of strategies to support users with online privacy and security. There are quite a few tips associated with Chrome and Mobile operating systems.
• Seven Ways to Create Screencasts on Chromebooks – With the addition of Screencast-O-Matic, Richard Byrne highlights seven tools that teachers and students can use to create screencast videos on their Chromebooks.
• Fun Ways to Use Book Creator in the Classroom – With the arrival of Book Creator to Chromebooks, Holly Clark documents a number of possibilities for the classroom.
• Chrome OS, Not Android, Is Probably The Future Of Google Tablets – With the addition of Android to Chromebooks, Alex Cranz suggests that Chrome OS may be the domanent operating system for Google tablets moving forward.

Research

• The Web Is Abundant. Find Another Source – Mike Caulfield explains how in a world with 100s of possible sources, so much of what you do is less about finding coverage than about limiting it through filters. This is why searching Google’s curated news site, rather than running a general search, is so simple , but powerful.
• Year in Search: The moments that defined 2017 in Australia – From from slime to sport, covfefe to cryptocurrency and hurricanes to hot cross buns – Google highlights the eclectic searches done by Australians in 2017.
• How Climate Change Deniers Rise to the Top in Google Searches – Hiroko Tabuchi explains how climate denialist ads are an example of contrarian groups can use the internet’s largerst automated advertising systems to their advantage, game the system to find a mass platform for false or misleading claims.

Docs

• Google Docs: Email as Attachment – Alice Keeler steps through sending a document in a diffferent format via Email.

Gmail

• Sending Email from a Forwarded Gmail Using Mailgun – Jim Groom explains how to use Mailgun to send responses from different addresses through the Gmail client.
• How Hotmail changed Microsoft (and email) forever – Although Gmail may be the most dominant free email client, Sean Gallagher paints a picture of a time when this was Hotmail and the legacy that this set in place.

Calendar

• Update Google Calendar resources using the Calendar Resource APIs – Google introduced the new Calendar experience on the web, including the ability to add more structured data about your buildings and resources. We’re now making it easier to add and edit that information with updates to the existing Calendar Resources API, as well as adding two new APIs: Buildings and Features.

Slides

• Create Your Own Google Slides Holiday Cards – Monica Martinez provides a five step guide for creating holiday cards with Google Slides.
• Mobile Google Slides: Adding Pictures – Alice Keeler breaks down how to add images to Slides on mobile devices.
• How to add grid lines to Google Slides – Eric Curts shows how to use the MB-Ruler extension to add grid lines to Google Slides (or any web tool) to help divide up your canvas when creating image and shapes, or when laying out objects.
• Google Slides: Creating Feedback Slides – Alice Keeler demonstrates how to use linked slides to provides feedback to students. However, as she explains, the trick is to pre-plan, that is, creating enough “blank” slides in presentation A and link them into the student slides to accommodate any potential updates and feedback you may want to share.
• Meet Remote for Google Slides, a new way to control your presentation slides – Henry Lim introduces a new Chrome Extension and a Progressive Web App that allows you to control Google Slides on any device, remotely, without the need for any extra hardware.
• Rockin’ Google Slides Templates – GTT034 – Ryan O’Donnell (Check This Out Podcast) shares insight on Slides and talks about how he adds games to his classroom and presentations.
• Google Slides: Game Board Template – Alice Keeler provides a template for creating board games, including built in dice.

Forms

• EDU in 90: Quizzes in Google Forms – Drea Alphonso and Tim Anderson explore the basics for quiz creation in Google Forms, including set up, question types, and grading.

Sheets

• Introducing Advanced Formulas 30 Day Challenge – My New Google Sheets Course – Ben Collins has developed a new course unpacking a number of advanced formulas associated with Sheets.
• Education on Air: The Tip of the Sheet – Jay Atwood provides a number a tips associated with Sheets, including resisting the erge to merge, think about sheet-scaping and validating data.
• Coding Will Save You Hours Of Your Life – Alice Keeler walks through getting started with Google Apps Scripts, explaining simple tricks such as entering a period to reveal the various options.
• Using IFTTT with Google Apps Script for delayed THAT triggers and more – Martin Hawksey explains how to use Google Apps Script as a time based triggers in IFTTT.
• Adding snow to Google Slides with the help of Google Apps Script – Martin Hawksey adds a bit of Christmas to slides using Apps Script to generate random snowflakes.
• Project Management in Sheets – David Krevitt on designing a suite of Sheets to support project mangement.
• Google Sheets: =UNIQUE() –

Sites

• Google Sites: Embed a Twitter Feed – Alice Keeler demonstrates how to use the new update for Sites to embed a social media feed, this includes steps to setting up your own widget in Twitter.
• The Wonderful World of Web Widgets – Tony Vincent provides a guide to working with widgets on the web, a useful resource with the addition of the option to embed objects in the new Sites.
• Code Font in Google Sites – Alice Keeler explains the difference between code font and a font for code.
• Supersize Learning with Google Sites – GTT035 – Kasey Bell and Matt Miller reassess the new Sites with the addition of HTML and Java Script.

Classroom

• Using Google Classroom to Teach Coding and Programming – The TechEducator Podcast take a look at how general education teachers can infuse Coding and Programming lessons into their curriculum and package them neatly to be distributed through Google Classroom.
• Unbury a Google Classroom Post – Tony Vincent explains how to move a post in Classroom to the top of the list.
• Google Classroom: Hold Down the Control Key – Alice Keeler demonstrates some benefits of holding down CTRL when clicking on links in Google Classroom.
• Google Classroom Top New Features to Learn with Alice Keeler – On Vicki Davis’ podcast, Alice Keeler discusses the addition of the return count, private comments and signing in with a Gmail account.

Drawings

• 3 Tools for Making Memes in School – Eric Curts unpacks three ways to create memes, including both Google Drawings and the new Meme Buddy Tool.
• Safe For School Meme Generator Google Drawings Template – Meredith Akers has created a template with word art text boxes, instructions off the canvas on the left side of the screen and numerous images to choose off of the canvas on the right side of the screen.
• Crash! Bang! Boom! How to add Google Drawings comic strips to your class – Matt Miller and Cori Orlando demonstrate how to use Drawings to create comics

Geo Tools

• A crabtivating journey: Street View joins a crab migration of millions on Christmas Island – Street View is venturing to Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, to join more than 45 million local residents for their annual trip from the forests to seas. Christmas Island’s famous, endemic red crabs have begun their once-a-year migration.
• Google Maps’s Moat – Justin O’Beirne discusses the addition of ‘Areas of Interests’ to Google Maps and explains that the challenge for Apple is that these AOIs aren’t collected—they’re created. And Apple appears to be missing the ingredients to create AOIs at the same quality, coverage, and scale as Google.

Connecting Classrooms

• New Google+ community metrics for G Suite admins and community moderators – Google are continuing the effort to manage Google+ communities by introducing Google+ community metrics, surfaced in two places: the Admin console and in the Google+ community dashboard.
• My Top Two #EdTech Tools of 2017 – Richard Wells reflects on two tools, voice typing and Google Cardboard, that have aided his way of working this year.

Keep

• One OneNote Feature I Wish Google Keep Had – Richard Byrne identifies a missing feature to Keep, the ability to clip full pages directly into a notebook.
• 5 Features of Google Keep – Alice Keeler unpacks five features worth knowing in Google Keep.

YouTube

• It’s time for #YouTubeRewind: Celebrating what you watched, shared, and created in 2017 – #YouTubeRewind is back looking at top trending videos of 2017.
• Shortcuts When Playing a YouTube Video – Tony Vincent provides a graphic summarising three key shortcuts associated with playing video on YouTube
• How to Apply Blurring to Faces in YouTube Videos – Richard Bryne highlights the blurring tool in YouTube’s video editing tool.
• 2017 Was YouTube’s Best Year Ever. It was Also Its Worst. – Ben Popper explains that this last year on YouTube shows what happens when your structure is the total opposite, when you combine accessible monetization at a massive scale with a very young audience and largely automated editorial oversight.

Blogger

• A Glossary of Blogging Vocabulary – Richard Byrne provides a vocabulary for unpacking blogs. Although not explicitly about Blogger, it still provides a useful reference.

Hapara

• The Evolution of Monitoring – Hapara has compiled a resource bringing together a number of educators to reflect upon their experiences of monitoring.

General

• Oops. Another 39 #Txed Schools Suffer Data Breach #cybersecurity – Miguel Guhlin shares a recent data breach and explains what to do about it.
• Support G Suite Learning with GIFs – GTT033 – Jake Miller joins Matt Miller and Kasey Bell to share the power of GIFs and how to support users of G Suite.
• Education On Air Australia and New Zealand – An online conference organised by Google looking at learning, technology and the future. Beginning with a series of keynotes from prominant figures in education, such as Jonathan Rochelle, Jan Owen and Dr Simon Breakspear, it is then followed by a number of breakout sessions exploring transformation in education.
• Education On Air : The Challenge of Leading Change – Chris Harte explains the potential of GSuite and the importance of starting with why.
• Top 16 Edtech Podcasts – Jennifer Snelling collects together a number of edtech podcasts recommended by the wider ISTE community.
• We’ve Moved! @GoogleFont – Google have moved the location of its font collections.
• 7 Helpful Hacks for Google Tools – Eric Curts takes a look at seven helpful hacks to get more out of your Google experience, including putting emojis in the title of folders and changing the YouTube playback speed.
• EdTechTeam Teaching and Learning Live: Accessibility for All – Lisa Thumann leads a webinar discussing strategies and tools to meet the needs of all your students, especially those with learning disabilities
• EDU in 90: that’s a wrap on season one – Tim Anderson reflects on the first season of EDU in 90, the Google in Education update vlog.
• Open Source — Google Boardgame.io – Check out Google’s boardgame.io on GitHub if you want to code turn based board games with JavaScript!
• 12 things you may have missed from Google this year – Emily Wood takes a look back at 2017 from the perspective of Google.