Google Meet Companion mode

Companion mode allows you to connect to a Google Meet without video and sound.

Why might this be useful?

You could connect a second device to a Google Meet - giving you more options in terms of presenting from one device and see all the participants on another. Using Companion mode means there is no chance of audio feedback.

If you had a group of students, in a classroom with their devices, but you wanted to use some of the tools that Meet offers such as the chat or rolls, you could get the students to connect to a Meet using Companion mode.

To join a Meet in Companion mode → In a Google Meet Invite, click Join → On the meeting landing page, under Other joining options, click Use Companion mode.

Read more here → Google Workspace Learning Center → Companion mode quick start guide

Text watermarks in Google Docs

You can now add a text watermark to your documents in Google Docs.

Text watermarks will repeat on every page on your document, making it useful for indicating file status, such as “Confidential” or “Draft” before sharing more broadly.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - Create or import text watermarks in Google Docs [24 January 2022]

Changes coming to Gmail

Google are introducing a new, integrated view for Gmail, making it easy to move between applications like Gmail, Chat, and Meet in one unified location.

Beginning 8 February 2022 you should be able to opt-in to test the new experience.

By April 2022 users who have not opted-in will begin seeing the new experience by default, but can revert to classic Gmail via settings.

By the end of Q2 2022 this will become the standard experience for Gmail, with no option to revert back.

Read more here → Google Workspace Updates - New integrated view for Gmail features email, Google Meet, Google Chat, and Spaces in one place [31 January 2022]

EDU in 90

New Year Resolution - Get Organised with Google Tasks

The capabilities of Google Tasks are ever growing and worth a look for anybody thinking about using a digital 'to do list manager'.

There is a useful guide to Google Tasks, by Jeremy Badiner, here.

Useful tip → Link directly to text and quotes

Rather than sharing a link to a whole webpage - you can now easily share a link to a certain line of text.

To create a link that opens directly to highlighted text: 

1. On your computer, open Chrome. 
2. Go to a page with text you want to share. 
3. To highlight the text you want to share, click and hold, then drag your mouse.
4. To open the context menu, right-click on the highlighted text.
5. Select Copy link to highlight. 
   • If you can’t select this option, this feature may not work for the selected content.
6. Paste the link anywhere, like an email or message thread.

Read more here.

Google Meet updates - some super interesting!

Live translated captions

Live translated captions are now available for our Google Workspace editions. It's not (yet) perfect but it is certainly an interesting development. Read more here.

Up to 500 participants

Users can now host meetings in Google Meet with up to 500 participants. Read more here.

New immersive backgrounds and styles for Google Meet on the web

Five new immersive backgrounds have been added for Google Meet on the web. The backgrounds feature "subtle animation that give your background life or change your lighting." Just because you can doesn't mean you should! Read more here.

Automatically move breakout room participants back to the original meeting

There is now the ability for meeting hosts and co-hosts to automatically move participants back to the main meeting room once breakout rooms end. The visual indicators have been improved for breakout room participants to indicate this movement. Read more here.

Using Jamboard with Project Zero thinking routines

If you already are using See Think Wonder, hang around. Cause Google Jamboard and STW were made for each other.

Glenn Wiebe

Super post from Glenn Wiebe at history TECH those has many applications outside of the 'history' classroom.

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'.

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!

Automated live captions in five languages

[Not as new as the other updates mentioned here - but worth a reminder!]

You can turn captions on to view subtitles as everyone speaks during a video call. They are not a translation but sub-titles of what is being said.

You can use captions in English in all geographical locations. As we are in Europe, we can use captions in: English, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain).

Read more here → support.google.com - Use captions in a video call

Improved screen layout

When viewing and sharing content with any group of people, you will now have more space to see the content and others’ video feeds through the refreshed new look and improved ability to pin and unpin content.

Hover over your video feed for options between a tile in the grid or a floating picture. You can also resize, reposition, and hide it to concentrate on the call. Your self-view appears in the bottom right of the grid to put more video feeds at eye-level as you look into the camera.

The bottom bar

The bottom bar is always visible, while not covering cover captions and bottom video feeds. Meeting dial-in codes, attachments, the participants list, chat, and other activities have all moved to the bottom right to create more vertical space for seeing people and content. Controls have been consolidated in one place with descriptions available when you hover your mouse pointer over them. The leave call button has been moved away from the microphone and camera buttons to prevent accidental call hang-ups!

Expiring Meet codes

Google Meet meetings can be scheduled across Google Workspace products, such as Calendar, Gmail, Google Chat, and more. This means your unique meeting code and its expiration are based on the product that your meeting is created from.

Most meeting codes will expire 365 days after the last use, but there are instances where the meeting code will expire instantly once the meeting ends →

A digital decency manifesto

Do we need a digital decency manifesto?

Set up Google Meet breakout rooms via Google Calendar

It would seem that this is now available for our @ecolint.ch accounts.

Rich text in now available in Google Classroom

Alice Keeler is worth following for edtech ideas and updates.

Audio tour of an African and Japanese collection via Google Arts & Culture

The virtual exhibition space of Jean Pigozzi’s Pocket Gallery invites you to discover highlights from its African and Japanese collections  featuring 40 of its most important artworks ranging from renowned painter Chéri Samba to emerging new talent. These treasures are frequently lent to museums across the globe, but until now have never had a dedicated building of their own, making this Pocket Gallery a truly unique space.

A new audio guide for our Augmented Reality Galleries

Find the galleries in the Camera Tab of the free Google Arts & Culture app for Android and iOS and jump inside to explore each one from there.

Using Google Chat more for internal communication and customizing notification frequency

Google has added more options for notification settings in Google Chat and Chat in Gmail.

These additional notification settings give you more control over the amount of notifications you’ll receive based on your level of engagement or involvement in specific conversations.

I believe that Google Chat (as a version of instant messaging IM) could have more of a role to play in our internal communication practices.

Chris Baker shares an interesting approach here → We need to talk about e-mail and meetings: Planning your school’s internal communication.

Read more about the changes to Google Chat notifications here → Google Workspace Updates - Customize notification frequency with more options in Google Chat and Chat in Gmail

A guide to Google Meet for parents and guardians

Google has recently released a useful guide to Google Meet for parents and guardians.

Pastoral leaders may want to share th guide with parents. Even though we are not following the remote-learning path currently Google Meets are still being used by staff with students and parents.

Edpuzzle

We are exploring the potential of Edpuzzle. Edpuzzle enables you to easily edit videos and turn them in engaging quizzes. The process is simple - find a video, add questions and assign it to your class.

If you would like to be part of the Foundation's subscription and associated network which enables easy sharing etc - please drop me an email and I will send you the necessary 'special' link.

A bit of educational technology history

Does anybody remember the BBC Micro? Those of you who do will be 'pleased' to know that it having it's 40th birthday this year! There is a video from the BBC News about it here.

My parents had one when I was a child. It was less for coding and more for playing Chuckie Egg and Arcadians.

On the subject of educational technology history there was a related Instagram post from the Foundation recently →

Replace your background in Google Meet

It would seem that this feature appeared for us this week.

You can now replace your background with an image of your choice. To get the best results you should sit yourself quite close to a wall behind you. The plainer the wall the better the results.

Waffle, hamburger, snowman and the shish kebab

There are no official names for the various icons that access menus in Google Chrome. Therefore we should adopt our own!

The waffle - the 3 by 3 set of 9 dots, found at the top of the screen in Gmail, Drive etc that brings up the matrix of other G Suite application.

The hamburger - the three horizontal lines like the bun and patty of a hamburger, found throughout Chrome to access settings.

The snowman - the vertical line of 3 dots, like the 'buttons' upon the chest of a snowman. Usually used to view additional configuration options - such as in Google Meet.

The shish kebab - the horizontal line of 3 dots like pieces of meat on a kebab. Not as common as the 'snowman' but also gives you access to more settings and commands.

[Credit for this idea → Chromebook Classroom - Those Crazy Chromebook Icons]

Google Meet now has a 'green room'

A Practical Guide for Teaching Summarising and Note-Taking

Not strictly a digital things - but with definite overlap with research skills and approaches to learning.

If found the Delete, Substitute and Keep: A Practical Guide for Teaching Summarising and Note-Taking post from David Rodger-Goodwin super interesting.

David is certainly worth a follow.

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!