Weekly post #46 - Cursive, Focus time and teaching with Google Arts & Culture

January 27, 2022 · 7:31 pm

Richard Allaway

Chromebook users - it's time to have another look at Cursive

Those teachers who are luckily enough to have a C13 Chromebook should take a moment to explore Cursive again.

To launch Cursive go to → https://cursive.apps.chrome

The initial pen input lag issues that we present at launch seem to have been fixed.

Google Calendar - Set aside time for focus

Google has added the ability to add 'Focus time' to your calendar "so you can block out and protect your time for heads-down individual work".

Similar to the Out of office event type, focus time has a different appearance on your calendar and includes the option to automatically decline conflicting events.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Set aside time for focus in Google Calendar [20 October 2020]

Google Sheets - New intelligent suggestions for formulas and functions

You’ll now see in-line, sequential, context-aware suggestions for formulas and functions when working with data in Google Sheets.

Formula suggestions will make it easier to write new formulas accurately and help make data analysis quicker and easier.

Simply begin inserting a formula in Sheets—suggestions will be automatically displayed and as you continue to type. You can view additional incremental suggestions in the drop-down menu.

Teaching with Google Arts & Culture

Google have releasing a new Teacher Guide – "a dedicated resource for educators to make learning with Arts & Culture and using the platform in class easier than ever".

"It includes ready-to-use handouts and customizable activity templates, and compliments other popular experiences on Google Arts & Culture that were designed with educators in mind. "

In my opinion Arts & Culture is one of Google's best kept secrets. It is a huge resource of super cool stuff. It is well work 10 minutes of a teachers time - whatever the subject they teach!

How about →