Google – Year In Search 2021

Google produces one of these videos every year. You can explore more trends from the year at https://yearinsearch.google.

Copy a single page or subset of pages in Google Sites

Google have added the ability for editors to copy a single page or subset of pages into a new site. Previously, it was only possible to make a copy of an entire site. This feature gives site editors more control, allowing users to reuse part of a site or easily break up a large site into smaller sites.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Copy a single page or subset of pages in new Google Sites

Request and review formal document approvals in Google Docs

Once a document is sent for approval, reviewers get email, browser or Google Chat notifications, based on where they have selected in Google Drive’s web settings to receive notifications. They will then receive a link they can follow directly to the document. 

If you set a due date, your reviewers will receive email reminders that their approval is needed or past due.  

If you request approval from multiple people, the document is considered approved once all reviewers approve the file. If an edit is made during the approval process, all reviewers will need to re-approve the latest version of the file and will receive email notifications in those instances. The document approval request is rejected for all reviewers if a single reviewer rejects the file. 

Once all reviewers approve the document, the file will be locked.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Request and review formal document approvals in Google Docs

New ways to customise tables in Google Docs

Google have added several new ways to customise tables in Google Docs.

You can now:

• Pin a table header row to repeat on each page
• Designate that a row should not be split across pages
• Quickly add, and arrange columns and rows
• Sorting tables to better organize data.
• Use a new table sidebar to manage table properties

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates → New ways to customize tables in Google Docs

Google Docs has been around for 15 years

Starting as a service called Writely in 2005, Google Docs was officially launched a Google product in 2006.

Read more about 15 Google Docs milestones here → Google - The Keyword - 15 milestones, moments and more for Google Docs’ 15th birthday [11 October 2021]

Google Docs - Add a page break before paragraphs in Google Docs

You can now mark a paragraph to always begin on a new page with the new “Add page break before” option in Google Docs. This is particularly useful if you want certain paragraph styles to always create a new page such as titles, subtitles, or headings.

To insert a page break before a paragraph:

1. Select the entire paragraph or click anywhere into the paragraph.
2. Select an option:
     • In the toolbar,  go to Line & paragraph spacing   Add page break before.
     • At the top, go to Format  Line & paragraph spacing   Add page break before.

Tip: To have a heading stay at the top of a new page, you can select it and use Add page break before.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Add a page break before paragraphs in Google Docs [19 October 2021]

Google Docs - Easily add to Google Docs with the new universal @ menu

Google have added a universal insertion menu to easily add things like tables and images, in addition to smart chips, directly in Google Docs. Simply type “@”, and you’ll see a list of recommended files, people, meetings, as well as different content elements and formats to insert into your document. You can also search all available components.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Easily add to Google Docs with the new universal @ menu [19 October 2021]

Google Docs - More easily add citations in Google Docs with new search and automated entry function

When adding citations in Google Docs, you can now search for books and online sources, then automatically populate some attributes for those sources.

[This feature may not be available yet - it could take until the end of the month.]

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - More easily add citations in Google Docs with new search and automated entry function [2 November 2021]

Add a co-host to a Google Meet

You can now assign co-hosts in a Google Meet.

Why would you want to do that? Maybe you are presenting to parents or a large group of students and you want somebody else to take the lead in admitting participants, muting etc. so that you can focus on what your the message you are sharing. If this is the case - you need a co-host!

Read more here → support.google.com - Add Co-hosts in Google Meet

Add a watermark to a Google Document

You can now add image watermarks directly into Google Docs. This watermark image will repeat behind the text on every page of your document.

Read more here → support.google.com - Change page settings on Google Docs

Soundtrap Academy

All staff and students in the secondary school at the International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations have access to a Soundtrap account.

Soundtrap is a very capable online application - but should also be your first stop for recording simple audio clips for classes etc.

Soundtrap offers the Soundtrap Academy where you can "learn to use Soundtrap to the fullest, empower your students, and become a Certified Soundtrap Educator."

Is it just me?

It might be...

If you are experiencing a problem with a Google Workspace application it can be worth checking the Google Workspace Status Dashboard to see if it something 'bigger than just you'.

Staff familiarisation with C13 Chromebooks

Forty teachers at International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations Secondary are starting the academic year using Lenovo C13 Chromebooks as their personal devices.

The slides below are what was used at the familiarisation session →

Use lucid.app for all your Lucidpress and Lucidchart needs

Lucid have brought all their services and you files together in a very 'Google Drive' style approach.

To start a document or find your exiting ones - start of lucid.app.

Do you get students to produce notes in Google Documents?

If you allow your students to make digital notes in your lessons consider the use of a Google Documents.

A single document, per student, per subject structured with uniformly formatted headings (using H1, H2, H3 etc) and bookmarks produces a well structured document that increases in usefulness as more content is added.

The Social Dilemma is now available on YouTube

If you haven't seen it - it is worth a watch. I think there are some great sequences in it. I particularly like the ones that 'show' a characters attention being kept by a social media platform.

Google Docs - Smart chips for files and meetings

Google is currently working on a whole set of enhancements to Google Workspace that will make the collaboration and project management even easier.

Smart chips are already available when you mention a person in a document, displaying additional information such as the person’s location, job title, and contact information.

Google have expanded this functionality to include the ability to insert smart chips for files and events.

1. Open a document in Google Docs.
2. Enter "@."
3. Select from the list of suggestions or enter letters, numbers, or symbols to narrow your suggestions.
4. Hover over the smart chip to view related information.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Insert smart chips for files and meetings, create checklists in Google Docs [18 May 2021]

Google Docs - create checklists

It is now possible to add checklists to Google Documents.

1. Click a Google Doc page where you want to add a list.
2. In the toolbar, choose a list type → Checklist.

Read more here → support.google.com - Add a numbered list, bulleted list, or checklist

Add audio to Kahoot! questions

You can now add audio to questions. Just type a short text in one of the supported languages and it’ll be read aloud to players before they answer the question!

Based on Microsoft Azure’s Text to Speech service that converts text to lifelike speech, this media type supports text in the following 37 languages:

Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Read more here → New: add audio to Kahoot! questions to power up listening comprehension and language learning [14 June 2021]

Replace your background with a video in Google Meet

In addition to replacing your Google Meet background with a static image, you can now replace your background with a video. At the moment, you can select from three Google made videos: a classroom, a party, and a forest — more options will be available soon.

Just because you can - doesn't mean you should!

Richer information on the edit history of a Document

You can now view richer information on the edit history of a particular range of content in Google Docs. Simply highlight and right-click on a range of text and select “Show Editors” from the dropdown menu. Here, you can view a list of editors and their latest edit along with time stamps.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - “Show Editors” provides more context on changes made in Google Docs [3 May 2021]

How to Find Public Google Docs, Slides, Forms, Sheets, and Drawings

Another useful video from Richard Byrne that demonstrates how to use Google's advanced search function to find publicly shared Google Docs, Slides, Forms, Sheets, and Drawings. 

Four new types of citations in Google Docs

Now you can add these four additional citation source types in Google Docs:

• Film
• TV Series
• TV Episode
• Miscellaneous

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Add and manage four new types of citations in Google Docs [31 March 2021]

Google Sheets: Every Keyboard Shortcut You Need for Windows and Mac

Useful post listing all the Google Sheets keyboard shortcuts, including a free cheat sheet PDF, from makeuseof.com.

Adobe Flash Player is dead!

Adobe stopped supporting Flash Player beginning December 31, 2020, as they previously announced in July 2017.

In addition, to help secure users’ systems, Adobe blocked Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021. Adobe strongly recommends all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to help protect their systems.

If you believe that some of the teaching resources you reply upon are Flash based - now would be the time to explore alternatives!

Read more here → adobe.com - Adobe Flash Player EOL General Information Page

Google Earth skills progression

Recently the Individuals and Societies department have been integrating Google Earth Projects into various units. Year 9 students are using Google Earth to design and document a flight from Southampton to Cape Town in 1937. Some Year 11 students will be using Google Earth to present their knowledge and understanding of glacial landforms.

The Google Earth skills progression that has been developed to support the integrations can be found in the Campus des Nations Digital Toolbox.

Ever wondered about Google Earth imagery? This video does a good job in explain it all.

Smart compose and spelling autocorrect available when adding comments in Google Docs

Smart compose and spelling autocorrect are now available when adding comments in Google Docs. These features help you compose comments quickly and with confidence by reducing the chance of spelling and grammatical errors and suggesting relevant contextual phrases. 

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates Smart compose and spelling autocorrect available when adding comments in Google Docs

Anki flashcards are part of an 'active recall' and 'spaced repetition' revision approach

Anki is a free to install (Windows and Mac) application that is used to make and review flashcards. The application, which is popular with university medical and law students, is based upon enabling spaced repetition. As a user reviews a deck they indicate how easy or hard they found the content. This will then determine how soon after the user sees that card again.

Read more here → Using Anki flashcards as an IB DP Diploma student

EDU in 90: The Latest, January 2021

A couple of useful Google Meet updates in this latest video from the Google for Education team.

Additional language support for live captions in Google Meet

Live captions are the automatically generated subtitles as everyone speaks during a video call. Google have expanding live captions in Google Meet to French, German, Portuguese and Spanish (Spain and Latin America) speakers. They were previously only available in English.

Live captions allow deaf and hard of hearing users, users with different primary languages, and users in noisy environments to participate more fully in meetings.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Additional language support for live captions in Google Meet

Create and work with documents that contain multiple page orientations in Google Docs

For documents created in Google Docs, you can now change the page orientation on a per-section basis. This will allow you to make room for wider content such as tables and images that can benefit from extra horizontal space.

You’ll also be able to edit, import, and export Microsoft Word documents that contain both portrait and landscape oriented pages.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Create and work with documents that contain multiple page orientations in Google Docs

Upgrade your worldview

A little something from me with my 'geography hat' on →

Gapminder Worldview Upgrader is a fun educational tool created to help people rid themselves of common systematic misconceptions about global development.

Have a go → test yourself and see how you do!

Read&Write for Google Chrome quick reference guide

EDU in 90: What's New in Docs

Converting PDFs to Google Docs

You can convert image and PDF files to text with Google Drive!

1. On your computer, go to Google Drive.
2. Right-click on the desired file.
3. Click Open with → Google Docs.
4. The image file will be converted to a Google Doc, but some formatting might not transfer:
   • Bold, italics, font size, font type, and line breaks are most likely to be retained.
   • Lists, tables, columns, footnotes, and endnotes are likely not be detected.

Read more here → Improvements to PDFs imported to Google Docs

Group conversations in Hangouts will begin to appear in Google Chat

Starting December 3, 2020, Google are making changes to how group conversations work in Google Chat.

One of of the key changes for us is the compatibility with classic Hangouts. Group conversations in Hangouts will begin to appear in Google Chat over the coming weeks. This will allow your users to move from Hangouts to Chat without losing context. In addition, 1:1 messages, updated group conversations, and unthreaded rooms from Chat will begin to appear in Hangouts - however I would recommend moving your focus to Chat.

Read more here → Changes to Google Chat group conversations and classic Hangouts coming December 3, 2020

Accept 'knocks' in bulk

You can now accept all pending 'knocks' in bulk into your Google Meet. Admitting students all at once helps limit interruptions during the video call.

Read more here → Accept knocks in bulk in Google Meet

Editing Office files from your Drive

Google have changing the default editing mode for Microsoft Office files in Google Drive on the web. Now, when you double-click on an Office file, it will open directly in Office editing mode.

Read more about 'Office editing mode' here.

New study modes in the Kahoot app

Study modes in the Kahoot app for iOS and Android a brings a new, self-paced study experience to learners with four different ways to review content, get more practice with difficult topics and prepare for tests. These modes can be used with both previously played kahoots as well as new kahoots.

Read more here → Study with Kahoot!: New modes in the Kahoot! app empower learners to self-study

Linking to a text fragment

This rather useful Chrome extension allows for easily creating a special link to the currently selected text on a page via the context (right-click) menu. When opening such a special link, the browser will scroll the selected text into view and highlight it.

Install the Chrome extension from here → Link to Text Fragment