Great news from Google! Earlier this month, the district’s technology committee voted to make Google Classroom our preferred learning management system. Classroom helps teachers to manage classes and to communicate with students. Teachers can easily post assignments, provide feedback, publish announcements, and launch discussions—all essential for creating a digital learning environment.

Classroom also organizes folders in Google Drive. As an additional benefit, Classroom’s smartphone app will push out announcements to students.

Google has been busy with tools other than Classroom. This month’s newsletter highlights the many recent updates to Google’s apps.

If you would like assistance with any of Google’s tools, please contact us. We’re here to help.

Steven Albrecht - Educational Technology Curriculum Specialist

Ed Duclos - Technology Coach

Debbie Matchett - Technology Coach

Below is a highlighted list of beneficial updates for both the teacher and student. If you would like to see the complete list of updates made to Google Classroom, you may access them here: Google Classroom Updates

Move a post to the top of a class stream: Teachers can change the order of posts in the class stream by moving any item to the top of the stream to give it priority.

Google Calendar: Each class has a Google Calendar. Every assignment that is posted with a due date is added to this calendar. Students and teachers are able to view the calendar within Classroom or Google Calendars. This feature enables a teacher to embed this calendar onto their Google Site so that parents can view homework assignments for the class.

Customize Assignment Point Value: Previous to this update, teachers could only choose between three different point values for a graded assignment. Now a teacher can create any point value for an assignment.

Share to Classroom Extension: Teachers and students can use this extension to share web content. Teachers can use this extension to push a web page to students instantly. Teachers can also assign an assignment or announcement using this feature. Note: Both the teacher and student must have this extension added to their Chrome Browser in order for it to work correctly.

Student class stream: Students will see only their unfinished assignments in the class stream. This feature removes clutter from the class stream and allows the student to focus on what is due.

Voice Typing: Under "Tools" in the menu bar, there is an option for voice typing. Select this option and begin dictating. Google Docs will convert your voice to text within the Doc. Note: Need to use within the Chrome Browser.

See New Changes Button: This button is located to the right of the "Help" menu. With this feature you will be able to see the latest updates that have been made by collaborators when you open a doc.

The NEW Google Forms: Google has revamped the platform of Google Forms. The new appearance mirrors the look of Google Classroom. If you would like to learn how to create and manage a form using the NEW Google Forms, see the following instructional handout: The NEW Google Forms.

Google Forms Templates: In addition to the new appearance of Forms, Google has added 20 templates that an individual can choose from to assist them in creating a Form. You can access the templates from the Google Forms Home screen. These templates are broken into three categories: Education, Personal and Work. Within the Education you will find templates for an Exit Ticket, Assessment, Work Sheet, and Course Evaluation. These can be used as a great starting point or as a resource to devise your own Form.

View Responses: You are now able to view responses within edit mode. You can view a summary of responses or drill down and view each individual response.

Response Notifications: Users can set up a Form so that each time someone responds the owner will be notified via email. By default, this option is turned off.

Add-Ons and Google Apps Scripts: Form Add-Ons and Google Apps Scripts are now supported using the NEW Google Forms. Some examples of these include: g(Math) and Choice Eliminator.

Explore Button: The Explore button is an extremely useful tool that has been added to Google Sheets. This button is located in the lower right hand corner of a workbook. This button quickly analyzes a spreadsheet of data and builds charts to help you visualize the data. You can also highlight a range of data that you want to look at specifically and the charts will update automatically. Depending on the data selected, the Explore button will also calculate the following functions: Sum, Average, Min and Max.

See the video below to gain a further understanding.

Convert text to columns: This new update allows you separate delimited data (data separated by commas) that was pasted into a worksheet across columns.