New Year of U5 Instructional Tech Updates

 

The end of last year and the beginning of 2024 have been busy to say the least.  January has already consisted of two E-Learning days and a snow day.  I think we will be in person a total of 13 days the whole month!  It is crazy how one month can be so chaotic. 

In this issue of the January Tech update you will find our Institute Day recordings. Many are from our vendors, but Matt and I did a training on AI.    There is also a great video about how AI could save education (not distroy).  It is about 15 minutes, but worth the watch.  

If you got a new phone or device over the holidays you are probably wondering how to connect it to our WIFI.  Check out the how to sheet, which will allow you to connect.  This is great for parts of the buildings where there is no outside signal.   If you are wanting to send your self a digital copy of an assignment, or picture, check out the video that shows you how to do it from our Follow Me printer/copier.  

This year Google is also celebrating 25 years.  Check out the most search items in 2023 in their video.  Also, with the E-Learning going on, we put together a couple of videos on how to generate and update your Google Meet link in Google Classroom.  Last there has been an update to practice sets in Classroom.  You can now use a Google Form to generate a practice set for students! What a great way to get formative feedback!  

U5 Instructional Technology Tips

 In this week's edition of the U5 Instructional Tech Tips:

• Reply to Student Comments from Google Classroom right from email.
• Using Google Citation Tool.  Thanks John Langley! 
• Google Meet Waiting Rooms for P/T virtual Conferences. 

New Google Meet Format

 Wow!  July 7th already; where did the time go?  If you have done any meetings this summer with Google Meet you would have noticed the new layout.  It is really nice and will be nice for meetings and online learning for next year.  While we are going back to in person classes (YEA!), there are still PLC's, meetings, etc, that will most likely be virtual bc of the nature of travel and time restraint's. 

Take a look at the new Google Meet.  Eric Curts does a really nice job explaining the new layout!  

Google Meet Breakout Rooms for Jigsaw Activities

While Google Meet keeps getting better and better, here is a way in incorporate jigsaw activities with breakout rooms.  Take a look at this blog post "How to Use Google Meet Breakout Rooms for Jigsaw Activities" by Caylie Gaccione Curriculum Specialists.

Google Workspace for Education Updates Google Meet Part 3

Google Meet is upping their game in the world of video meetings.  If you want the full story on Google meet you can find it here.  

During this past school year, Google has been catching up with other video conferencing tools and they have taken the feedback provided by the millions of teachers around the world to make Meet a better program for everyone. 

Let's take a look at several of these updates:

Classroom Moderator Controls:  

• 
  End Meeting for ALL -  I have already seen this come through on our domain. When you click on the leave meeting Icon you will see this message.  You will be able to end the call for everyone, preventing students from staying on a call after the teacher leaves. 
• 
  Mute ALL - This one is already available in our domain as well. Navigate to Meeting details and you will find the Mute All button.  NICE! 
  
• Host Controls on Mobile Devices -  If you are a mobile device user in Google Meet, then you will now see HOST controls. This is really nice for those who do not have great internet connections at home but their Cellular is good. 
• CO-HOST - YES!  We have been waiting for this one for awhile.  Coming out later in 2021 we will see all teachers on a Google Classroom will share host controls. Now you will have more control over who is monitoring when one teacher is deep in the lesson. This will be great for those classrooms with Co-teachers!  Teachers will still be able to allow students/admin to join but now both teachers will be able to control these features. 
• Calls starting in Classroom - Any calls starting in Google Classroom, students will not be able to join before the teacher.  This feature has had a few issues, which we are hoping this update will fix.  Only teachers and students within the classroom will be able to join, and anyone else will have to request to join.  This is a little different then setting up your quick access controls from a calendar meeting, or from Meet,google.com. 
• Student Engagement - Students will be able to use emojis and change skin color to interact during a Meet. This is a great way to encourage all students to participate in some way.  Teachers will have full control over when reactions can be used, but it will be a great way to get immediate feedback. 





• Breakout Rooms -  Teachers will be able to set up breakout rooms ahead of time in a Google Calendar.  Allowing for smaller focused student group interactions and less time setting up those breakout rooms during class. 

  

  
  
• Transcripts - Transcripts will be available later in 2021.  Teachers will be able to share transcripts out with students, teachers and admin.  This will allow students and teachers to review lessons from the day and maintain records if needed. 
• Performance Updates:  Meet will update it's Audio/Visual Optimization to allow for it to run better when WIFI is not the best. This will allow for better performance while multitasking and reliability improvements. 

As with all updates, some will hit our domain earlier then others, but many of these will roll out later in 2021. For an easy to use guide take a look at the graphic created by John R. Sowash of Chrmbook.com.

Did you miss Part 1 or 2? Google Workspace for Education Updates Part 1

Google Workspace for Education Google Classroom Part 2

Google Meet “Sticky” Settings for Education Users

Based on feedback from teachers across the world, Google has made some features “Sticky.”  What this means is when you turn on/off certain HOST features, they will remain that way when you start your next Google Classroom meet. Which means, if you turn off the present screen or chat for one class, it be off the next time you open that same meet link.

Another feature that started rolling out on Jan 7, 2021 was additional features off of the Google Meet landing page. https://meet.google.com/ When you create a new meeting you will have the following three options:

• Create a meeting for later:
• Start an instant meeting:
• Schedule in Google Calendar:

These feature have yet to hit our domain, so be on the lookout if you use the Meet landing page.  I use it a lot to create meetings for teachers and students to pop into, if they have questions. 

Windows Video Editor for Teachers

Using Windows video editor is pretty easy to learn and use. The question is, why?  Well take a look at this video and find out why you may want to use this handy tool during our Remote/Hybrid learning days.