11 Tips When You're New to Google Apps for Education (GAFE)

From Alice Keeler at Teacher Tech:

Essential Getting Started with Google Apps

Google Apps for Education (GAfE) encompasses several products. Typically this starts with a branded Gmail account, specific to your school district. If email is turned off the account sign in appears to be an email address on the schools domain, but is used only for accessing other Google products.

1. Start with Google Drive

Google Drive is online storage. This will replace your thumb drive. Files saved in Google Drive can be accessed in the web browser or through the mobile Google Drive app.

drive.google.com

Suggestion to make your Chrome browser home page Google Drive. Create Google Docs files in Google Drive. Locate all of your files in your Google Drive.

2. Create Google Docs

Google Docs encompasses Google Text Documents, Google Sheets spreadsheets, Google Slides presentations, Google Drawings and Google Forms. Create Google Docs straight from Google Drive. Click on the “New” button.

3. No Save Button

Google Docs save automatically to Google Drive. No save button required.

4. Blue Share Button

Google Docs is a collaboration suite. By default the documents are private. Locate the blue sharing button in the upper right hand corner.

Type the email address of those you wish to give access to the document.

Get Shareable Link

Share the Google Doc more generically by clicking on “Get shareable link” in the sharing settings. This gives view only access to the document to those on the domain (at your school.) Click on the drop down arrow to give others the ability to comment or edit the Google Doc. To give viewing or editing access outside of the domain, click on “More” at the bottom of the sharing options. Click Here for more details.

Sharing a Document

The URL at the top of the document can be copied and shared with others as a means of distributing the document. Paste into an email or post on a website. Prior to sharing a Google Doc with the link, check the blue sharing button to ensure permissions are set. Sharing a link to a private or restricted document will show an error to the potential viewer.

5. One Version

Collaborators edit the same document. When using Google Docs there is no need to save or make multiple copies of a document. Documents saved in multiple folders are the same document, simply linked from multiple locations. This avoids version confusion.

6. Revision History

Google Docs records edits in the revision history. You are able to see what was contributed to a document when and by whom. Use the File menu in the document and choose “See revision history.”

Revision history provides a list of edits. Click on a revision to view what the document looked like at that moment. Edits are color coded to show who made the edits. Click on “Restore this version” to roll the document back to an earlier revision.

7. Insert Comments

One of the most powerful elements of Google Docs is the ability to collaborate on documents through comments. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings all allow for inserting comments. Highlight a word or portion of text to reveal the comment icon in the right margin. Click on this to insert a comment. This allows you to give students specific feedback on the exact portion of their work you are commenting.

Commenting in a Google Doc takes feedback from being a one way note to being a conversation. Students can reply to the comment to gain clarification. This is especially powerful when utilized prior to the due date.

8. Apps Chooser

In Google Drive and in Gmail a 3 by 3 grid of squares can be located in the upper right. This icon is known as the apps chooser (or informally as “the waffle.”). Click on the grid to reveal additional Google Apps. This is one way to locate Google Drive; use the apps chooser from Gmail.

____.google.com

Most Google products are the product name dot google dot com. For example GoogleDrive is drive.google.com. Google Maps is maps.google.com. Google Books isbooks.google.com. Google Scholar is scholar.google.com. Google Classroom isclassroom.google.com. Google Calendar is located at calendar.google.com.

It is recommended that you learn this pattern to quickly locate Google Apps. It can be quicker to type the product name and add dot google dot com to the end. Google text docs can be created at docs.google.com. Google Sheets at sheets.google.com. Google Slides can be created at slides.google.com. It is my opinion that Google Forms is the greatest thing since sliced bread, you should use this data collection tool often. Create and locate your Google Forms at forms.google.com.

A notable exception to this pattern is YouTube, which can be located at youtube.com.

9. Folder Permissions

Organize your Google Docs in Google Drive by creating folders. Use the “New” button to create a new folder. Right click on the folder to set the sharing permissions on the folder. Choose “Share” from the options. Explicitly share the folder with specific individuals by typing in their email address. Share more generically by clicking on “Get shareable link” in the sharing settings.

Docs Inherit Folder Sharing Settings

Any documents placed in the folder will automatically inherit the sharing permissions of the folder. If the folder is shared with person A, then all docs inside the folder are shared with person A. If the folder is set so that “anyone with the link can edit,” any documents in the folder are also “anyone with the link can edit.”

It is recommended you set up a folder with individuals you collaborate with frequently and share the folder with them. Open the folder in Google Drive prior to creating a Google Doc using the “New” button. This will create the document in the folder and automatically share it with collaborators.

It is also recommended that you set up a view only folder. Create a folder where the sharing settings are “anyone with the link can view.” Creating documents in this folder will ensure that the documents are visible by parents or anyone else you share the link to the document with.

10. Search Google Drive

Google Drive is a Google product so of course one of the things it does well is search. Use the search box at the top to quickly locate documents. Google Drive searches the ENTIRE document, not just the document title. The search box contains a drop down arrow to allow you to filter your search. Search for documents you own or that were edited within a certain time frame.

11. Shared With Me

When opening Google Drive, notice on the left hand side is a filter for “Shared with me.” Quickly find documents others have shared with you. Note that this is a filter and not a folder. You can not organize the shared with me view. When someone indicates that they have shared a Google Doc with you, click on “Shared with me” to easily locate it.

Shift Z

You will want to organize this file in your “My Drive” so it is easier to access. Single click on the file and use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT Z to ADD the file to one of your folders or “My Drive.” A file can easily live in multiple folders. Each appearance in a folder is simply a link to the document. Double click on the file in a folder to open the document.

Recent

Like “Shared with me,” “Recent” is a filter in Google Drive. Make it your habit to go to Google Drive and immediately click on “Recent” to get back to files you were recently working on.

4 Tools for Creating Screencasts on Chromebooks

From Richard Byrne at Free Technology 4 Teachers:

In response to my latest Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week I received a bunch of requests for comparisons of screencasting tools that work on Chromebooks. So yesterday I made three screencast videos using three different screencasting tools. Add that to the one that I made on Friday with another screencast tool and you have four options for creating screencasts on a Chromebook. The four options are Nimbus Screenshot, TechSmith Snagit, CaptureCast, and Screencastify. My comments on each are listed below. The list is ranked according to my preference.

Nimbus Screenshot:
Nimbus Screenshot is my favorite tool on this list because of its ease of installation and it is the only tool on this list that provided a customizable countdown timer. I like the countdown timer because it gives me a few seconds to prepare to start talking over my screencast. The other tools just started recording the second that I hit the record button. Nimbus Screenshot was also the easiest to install and configure on my Chromebook.

Screencasts recorded with Nimbus Screenshot can be saved to your local drive or to an online Nimbus account. I chose to save to my local drive then upload to my YouTube channel. You could also save to your local drive then share to Google Drive or another online storage service.

Take a look at the video I created with Nimbus Screenshot.



TechSmith Snagit:
TechSmith's Snagit tool is a close second to Nimbus Screenshot. The only reason that I ranked it slightly lower is that it takes a bit of reading to understand how all of the features work, but that is to be expected when a tool has lots of options. The advantage of Snagit is that you can save your recordings directly to your Google Drive account or YouTube account. Snagit also benefits from being backed by TechSmith who is arguably the leader in screencasting tool development.

From a recording standpoint, I wish that Snagit would include a countdown timer before I started to record. Check out my screencast made with Snagit for Chrome.



CaptureCast:
CaptureCast is the tool that I featured in a post last week. I put it on the same level as Snagit. CaptureCast was rather easy to install. Your recording length is unlimited. You can record your webcam while recording your screen which you cannot do with the Nimbus tool or Snagit. Set-up of CaptureCast is easy too. For folks who don't want to use YouTube to share recordings, CaptureCast lets you share directly to a Vimeo account. See my CaptureCast sample in this post.




Screencastify:
Screencastify might have the most name recognition in this list, but I like it the least of the four tools in this list. In fact, it's definitely the last one that I'd recommend to new Chromebook users. The set-up process asks a lot questions that could confuse new users. The free version limits recordings to ten minutes and puts a watermark on the recording. I was also not impressed with quality of the video recording. Seemy Screencastify sample to see the watermark and recording quality.

CaptureCast - Record Screencasts on Your Chromebook

From Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers

CaptureCast is a free Chrome extension that enables you to create screencast videos on your Chromebook. With CaptureCast installed you can record everything that you display on your Chromebook's screen. The CaptureCast extension gives you the option to record your sound. An option to record yourself through your webcam is also offered in CaptureCast. In fact, you could choose to just record your webcam and sound to make a video blog entry.

Recordings made with CaptureCast are saved on your Chromebook under the "manage media" tab in CaptureCast. From there you can upload your video directly to YouTube or save it to Google Drive.

Applications for Education

I used CaptureCast to create the video in my earlier post about VideoNot.es. CaptureCast is good for that kind of tutorial video. You might also use it to record a short lecture over slides that are in your Google Drive account.

As I mentioned above, CaptureCast could be used to create video blog entries by just selecting the webcam and sound options instead of the desktop recording option. Video blogging can be a good way to get students to share observations about what they have learned in your classroom without the pressure of having to write.

GAFE Smashing with Google Apps

Google Apps are powerful classroom tools by themselves. When you smash multiple apps together in one activity, magic can happen. Here are some examples. (Public domain image via Pixabay.com)

Google Apps make so many fantastic classroom activities possible.

When you smash together multiple Google Apps to create one big activity, those possibilities grow exponentially.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “We’re better together”? That’s the way Google Apps are.

This idea was discussed by the moderators of the #DitchBook Twitter chat (held Thursdays at 10 p.m. Eastern / 9 p.m. Central / 8 p.m. Mountain / 7 p.m. Pacific). We started brainstorming and came up with lots of ideas!

This is the first in a series of several blog post outlining how you can use multiple Google Apps together to create exciting classroom activities. Today’s post focuses on activities that utilize Google Docs.

Most of the apps mentioned here are core Google Apps that should be usable by any student at a Google Apps for Education school. Some Apps (like Keep in the second example) aren’t core apps and should be used as permitted by your school or district’s policies.

Docs and Drawings

Submitted by Karly Moura (Twitter: @karlymoura / Blog: http://karlymoura.blogspot.com/)

How to do it: One of my favorite ways to use Google Drawings is to embed a Drawing in aHyperDoc (What’s a HyperDoc? Click here) that students can edit by double clicking. This allows you to have something such as a graphic organizer, virtual math manipulatives or even a sort in the doc for students to complete. When the HyperDoc is copied or assigned in Google Classroom the drawing is also copied so that each student gets their own copy of your template automatically embedded in the doc.

To insert a Google Drawing into a HyperDoc or any Google doc (how-to image below)

• Place your cursor where you would like the drawing to be embedded.
• Click on “insert” then “Drawing”.
• Create your template by inserting images and/or text boxes.
• Click “Save and Close”.

To edit the drawing your students will double click, make their changes, then click “Save & Close”. When they turn in the document their saved drawing will be embedded. A great way for students to show what they know!

Application for class: 

• Have students sort words by moving them into the column they belong. In this Food Chain HyperDoc students are categorizing organisms as either “producers, consumers, or decomposers”. Google Drawings can be a great way for students to sort words for your word work time. Another great way to incorporate word word is to have them create “magnetic” poetry. Check out Kasey Bell’s Collaborative Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings(refrigerator image included =) ). She has a link to a template ready for you to use in your next poetry unit! 
• Bring math into your Doc with virtual math manipulatives. In this Fifth Grade Geometry, Measurement and Coding HyperDoc students are using Eric Curts’ protractor template and moving the arrows to make an angle they worked with previously. You can find TONS of great math manipulatives in his Teaching Math with Google Drawings doc that you can make a copy of and then use to hack your math HyperDoc! Want even more math manipulative Google Drawings goodies? Check out Alice Keeler’s post Using Google Drawing for Math Manipulatives 
• Have students read a text, watch a video or view an image in a HyperDoc then use a graphic organizer or note taking template for brainstorming, drafting, taking notes, or responding. Lots of graphic organizers and templates are already shared and ready for you to copy make your own. Eric Curts has 40+ Graphic Organizers in this Templates folder! Once in the folder be sure to click “Add to Drive” (how to GIF) so that you can make a copy of all the templates. Matt Miller shares 15 FREE Google Drawings graphic organizers in this Ditch That Textbook post.  Barbra Drasby @MsDrasby has an awesome Story Creator graphic organizer that includes links to Help Hotline for students when they get stuck.

Templates/resources: Padlet FULL of Google Drawings resources — http://padlet.com/mourakd/myy4dcmlkgy8

Docs, Keep and Classroom

Submitted by Sean Fahey (Twitter: @SEANJFAHEY / Blog: http://faheystech.blogspot.com/)

How to do it: Within the past year my school corporation has gone 1:1 with Chromebooks, Android Tablets, and Google Apps for Education. What I quickly realized is that while I have ditched textbooks and continue to infuse more technology into my classroom, I was still hand writing my daily agenda on the oversized poster copy of the student issued agenda book and requiring my students to copy it down to help communicate with home what the class work and happenings were for the day.

Why? Students despised having to write down the agenda, so after the first few weeks of school students struggled completing this task. Agendas started getting lost or left at home. Many agendas weren’t getting signed by parents or guardians at home to acknowledge they have reviewed it as required.

• Using Google Docs, create a template that will serve as your daily agenda to be shared with students. Use tables, colors, and images to help organize your subjects or class periods.
• Place your Google Doc agenda in the “About” section of Google Classroom to be viewed by your students.
• When students open the Doc, they need to click the Drive icon and Save iit to their own Drive.
• Every day or week you’ll update your shared agenda Doc for your students which will be viewable to them through Google Classroom or Drive.
• In Google Keep (keep.google.com) a new note needs to be made for each student. This note will be shared between you and your student so it doesn’t matter if you create it or the student creates their own.
• Give the note an appropriate title. For me I just did something simple like “Johnny’s To-Do List”, but you may want to have something more specific especially if you have multiple subject or class periods.
• Enable the checkbox feature for the newly created note.
• Once created, share the note with your student or if the student created it, have them share it with you.
• After sharing the note, an email notification will be sent or if you go directly to Google Keep you’ll see the note on the home screen.

Application for class: Some of the benefits of using this smash to replace the agenda are:

• It saves time! No more wasting class having students write down notes for their own agenda. It’s already done and everyone can view it.
• Everything in one place and accessible anytime, anywhere. By having students add the Agenda Doc to their Drive it will automatically sync for offline viewing. Also, Google Keep does the same thing! So this way whether or not students have internet access outside of school, they will be able to view the agenda and check off or add items to the To-Do list.
• Its Interactive! For me there is something satisfying about being able to check off something on my to-do list and see it become crossed out. Students will get a thrill out of it too!  
• Student Accountability. Your students To-Do list is shared with you so you can help keep student accountable in real time and this also means you can add to the list or mark things off. This could be really helpful for when students are absent!
• Share with parents! Change the share setting of your Agenda Doc to “anyone w/ link can view” and give it to your parents in a shortened URL or a QR code. Also, not only can the note on Google Keep be shared between you and your students, but it can also be shared with a parent that has a Google account. Another option would be to just notify and instruct parents how to access these two things on the student’s device.
• It teaches 21st century skills. Ok, let’s be honest. How many of you still use some sort of physical planner book, whether for personal or work use? Probably not many. If you are like me, my school uses Google Calendar and my personal schedule is on my smart phone. This way of scheduling and organization is not going away, so what better way to prepare students for their future than to have them start using these type of tools now!
• Get organized. Some of the features of Google Keep that can be more beneficial to both teachers and students are: being able to color code your notes, add a label (which I liken to a hashtag) to help with sorting, set reminders, or with the checkbox option selected in the note, reorder the to-do list to reflect order of importance by just a quick click and drag.
• Go Mobile. Like almost every other application in the digital world, there is an app for Google Keep for all popular platforms. Go to www.google.com/keep to find out more.

Although Google Keep is not a GAFE “core app”, it is still accessible with your Google account and can be great tool for both teachers and students. Replace those student agenda books with this Google Apps Smash to help keep students organized and help communicate class work with parents.

Need help getting started with Google Keep? Check out Matt’s post Meet Google Keep and 6 Ways it can Help Schools.

Templates/resources: Check out Sean’s step-by-step screenshot directions in this slide presentation.

Sync Your Google Classroom Roster with Quick Key

Now You Can Sync Your Google Classroom Roster With Quick Key:  From Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers

Quick Key is a free app that turns your iPhone or Android phone into a bubble sheet scanner. It has two parts to it that when combined make it very easy for you to quickly grade multiple choice and true/false quizzes. This week Quick Key introduced the option to sync your Google Classroom rosters to your Quick Key account.

Here are the basics of how Quick Key works; create your quiz on the Quick Key website then print and distribute a bubble sheet. After your students have completed the bubble sheet you simply scan the sheets with your iPhone or Android phone and the grading is done for you. From the app you can send grades to the classes that you have created on the Quick Key website. If you enter students’ email addresses into your class rosters on Quick Key, you can have grades emailed to students. Google Classroom users can sync their rosters with Quick Key for distribution of grades. Watch the video below to learn more about Quick Key's Google Classroom integration.

Quick Key: Sync Rosters with Google Classroom from Quick Key on Vimeo.

Applications for Education
Tools like Quick Key don't directly change the way that we teach, but they can give us more time to actually teach and build relationships with students instead of spending time manually grading tests and quizzes.

JoeZoo Express Makes It Easy to Grade in Google Docs

Richard Byrne from Free Technology for Teachers

JoeZoo Express is a free Google Docs Add-on that could change the way that you grade students' work in Google Documents. JoeZoo enables you to give feedback on students' Google Documents by simply highlighting text then selecting feedback statements from a huge menu of options. For example, in my sample document I highlighted text then chose the category of "structure" within the structure category I then chose to tag the sentence with the comment "awkward." When a student sees the feedback he or she will also see an explanation of "awkward" and how he or she can fix it.

JoeZoo Express doesn't limit you to using just feedback phrases that they have listed. You can create your own feedback phrases and explanations.

Teachers who want to use rubrics to give feedback and grades can do so withinJoeZoo Express. JoeZoo offers a free rubric builder tool. You can customize the rubric to meet your specific needs. The rubrics that you create can be saved and inserted into students' documents when you are grading their work.

Applications for Education
JoeZoo Express could save you a lot of time when you're giving feedback and grading students' work in Google Documents. The initial set-up of JoeZoo, including creating rubrics and custom feedback phrases, could take a while but should prove to be a time-saver in the end.

JoeZoo Express does integrate with Google Classroom. You can import your Google Classroom rosters into JoeZoo to streamline the process of returning work to your students.g

Google My Maps: Lesson Ideas from Teacher Tech

My Maps Lesson Ideas

Google My Maps allows students to create using customized maps where they create the content. Students can they locate places around the globe and see them at street view. Students can drop markers onto the map and embed text, photos or YouTube videos into the markers. Create a route. Measure size and distance.

Contribute to My Maps Lessons

This collaborative spreadsheet was crowdsourced and lists some My Map lesson plan ideas. Add your own ideas for using MyMaps.

Sample Map

Review this sample map that Donnie Piercy helped contribute to.