New Products from Google and their Implication for Educators

Google's much anticipated October 4 product launch matched many leaks and rumors leading up to the event and features 4 new products, 1 product refresh, and several new connections points between new and existing hardware.

Google CEO Sundar Pachia kicked off the event by saying Google anticipates the next big advancement in technology will be in the area of Artificial Intelligence. Google has been working hard to develop their own AI capabilities which, for the consumer, is most visible through the Google Assistant already built into several Google products such as Google Voice Search and Allo.

Google also recognizes that as each of us continue to create and store more personal digital information (music, photos, documents, email, etc), we have a greater need for personal search, not just general searching of the web. AI tools will help us find and organize this information more efficiently.

Google has been working to improve artificial intelligence in three specific areas:

• Image Captioning - 94% accuracy. Helps with search accuracy in Google Photos. 
• Machine Translation - switching from sentence translation to phrase based translation which is more accurate. 
• Text to Speech - Using "wave net" to analyze audio input rather than recorded phrases.

Google believes that in order for AI to take off, it must be combined with high quality hardware. Which is why they launched 4 new hardware products.

New Product - Pixel Phone

• Pixel comes in two sizes - 5" and 5.5"
• Three colors, white, black, blue (limited edition)
• Improved battery life with rapid charging- 7 hours of power in 15 minutes. 
• Ships with Android Nougat
• Updates and patches directly from Google. 
• New updates are installed and updated in the background without a restart. 
• Pixel includes 24/7 live customer support with screen sharing. 
• New tool to transfer content from an old phone to Pixel. Supports iOS and includes a "quick switch" adapter.

Purchasing and Availability:

• Available from Verizon or unlocked via the Google Store. 
• Works with ProjectFi
• Starts at $649
• Pre-order starting 10/4/2016

Five Key Components of the Google Pixel

1. Google Assistant is built into Pixel

• Google Assistant understand context and work with the existing apps on your phone. 
• Test is out by installing Allo on your existing Android or iPhone. 

2. The best mobile camera available in any smartphone. 

• Highest camera rating on the market. 
• 12.3mp rear facing camera
• Smart burst
• HDR+ (used by default)
• Video Stabilization

3. Google Cloud prevents running out of storage

• Google Photos is built in. Photos are automatically uploaded to the cloud. 
• Purchase of a Pixel includes unlimited full resolution storage via Google Photos. 

4. Talk with anyone on any OS: Pixel comes preloaded with Allo and Duo

5. Pixel is designed for Virtual Reality: First phone to be DayDream VR ready

New Product: Daydream View

The Daydream View is Google's VR headset that couples high quality hardware such as the Pixel phone with a VR headset that is comfortable to wear. It also introduces a new remote which enables a user to interact with VR content without the need to touch their phone. 

• Optimized for individuals who wear glasses. 
• Includes the new Daydream controller
• First daydream experience lets you explore the world of Harry Potter
• Working with Netflix, Hulu, and HBO to bring their entire libraries to Daydream.
• 50+ partners will launch content to Daydream in 2016.
• Google Play video, Photos, Street View, and YouTube will also be Daydream ready.
• Viewer launches in November for $79

For Educators, the Daydream View indicates Google's commitment to the VR platform. It is unlikely that schools will have the financial means to purchase large quantities of this headset which would also require a Daydream compatible mobile device. VR is still a developing technology which educators should observe and watch closely. I would not recommend heavy investment in VR technology at this time. Purchasing Google Cardboard is a reasonable investment which allows exploration of VR without a long-term commitment. 

New Product: Google Wifi

• Multiple routers can be connected to cover the entire home. 
• Optimizes wifi signal behind the scenes. 
• Provides family access controls via a smartphone app
• Pre order in November
• $129 for individual router
• $299 for a twin pack

Product Update: Chromecast Ultra

• 30 million Chromecast devices sold
• Chromecast Ultra - supports 4K streaming
• Google Play movies will support 4k starting in November
• Performance and reliability improvements for wifi and connection stability
• Chromecast Ultra includes ethernet port 
• Launches in November for $69

New Product: Google Home

• Play Music: YouTube Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora, Tunein and iHeartRadio
• Get Information: uses Google knowledge graph and snippets to provide relevant information. 
• Manage your Day: provides weather, traffic, and appointment reminders. 
• Control your home: currently works with Nest, SmartThings, iFTTT, and Philips Hue
• Also supports casting video (YouTube only) to Chromecast throughout your home. Netflix support is coming soon. 
• Supports searching and viewing photos via Google Photos via Chromecast on your TV. 
• Supports voice casting your your speakers via Chromecast Audio or speakers with Chromecast support. 
• Multiple Google Home devices can be setup in a single house. Only the device that is closest to you 
• Google Home is available for $129. Includes a 6 month trial of Google Red
• Shipping and available in retail stores on November 4.  

Google Home is obviously targeted at the consumer market, however it could prove to be a powerful and very useful tool for the classroom. Such a device would allow teachers to "Cast Susan's Chromebook to the TV" or "show us pictures of the Great Wall of China" without the need to pick up a device. 

Google also announced a developer APK for Google Home, allowing anyone to integrate their product with this voice-activated device. This would allow tools such as PearDeck, Remind, or Newsela to integrate with Google Home, allowing teachers to launch content using voice commands. This is the ultimate goal of technology in the classroom - seamless integration that focuses on people, not devices. I will be watching the development of Google Home 

What does this mean for the Classroom? 

Overall, these product launches will not have an immediate impact on the classroom. The products launched today are designed for the consumer market, not for the classroom. 

There are some long term implications for educators, however. 

1. Google is committed to artificial intelligence - Google is working very hard to help provide contextual information to people where they are, on the device they are using. This lends further important to educators helping students understand how to use and apply information rather than teaching them how to find information. 
2. Google is committed to virtual reality - VR continues to be the new technology that everyone (Google, Microsoft, Facebook) are talking about. Each of these companies is investing tremendous amounts of money and development resources into designing and launching a comprehensive VR platform. This is going to change how we interact with and consume information. VR is here to stay, but in its present for it is very unstable. Educators should watch and observe VR develop, but I do not think it is ready for large scale adoption at this time. 
3. Google is committed to hardware - Google has historically been a software company. That has been slowly changing over time, starting with the Chromebook. Google recognizes that their software tools work best when carefully matched with the right hardware. I anticipate significant improvements to hardware that runs Google software (specifically Chromebooks and Android Devices). Look for rapid improvements on both fronts in the next 12 months. 

Google Admin Console Configuration: Core G Suite Apps

The Google Apps (G Suite) administrator console is what makes Google Apps an outstanding solution for K-12 schools. The ability to configure and adapt the settings for each core Google service to the unique needs of your district is worth every penny of the...O, wait, it's free!!!

While the admin console is very powerful and helpful, it can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you don't have a ton of experience with enterprise controls in general or Google Apps specifically.

There are a LOT of configuration options within the admin console. The reality, however, is that there are only a few settings that are critical. This is the first layer of settings and policies that you should consider. There is more that we can do to ensure that students and staff are working in a safe and secure environment.

Here is the list of policies that you MUST review and adjust according to the policies of your district. Failing to do so can open you up to serious problems and issue down the road.

These settings can be found by logging into the admin console and click on Apps > G Suite.

Gmail

• Are you going to setup restricted mail access / delivery for students (e.g. only able to email teachers or other users from withing your district) 
• Have you configured the "dirty word list? (content compliance) to prevent inappropriate mail from being sent? 

Contacts 

Do you want a shared address book for your entire domain? Unfortunately, this is a setting that applies to everyone and can't be configured based on organizational unit. Enabling contact sharing makes it easier for students to find and email large numbers of people within your district.

Google Hangouts

• Are you allowing voice and video calls for students? 
• Are you forcing chat conversations to be "on the record" (this will ensure that they are in Google Vault and can be retrieved)? 
• Are you allowing external (outside your domain) chat conversations?

Calendar

Can users share their calendar outside of your domain? By default, they can not, but this may cause issues for teachers who want to share a homework calendar with parents.

Drive

• Will you allow students to share outside of your domain? 
• Will you allow offline drive access (only recommended for 1:1 programs)  

Google Vault

• What is your email retention period (5 years, 7 years, indefinite?)
• Will you remove emails from user inboxes if they are older than the retention period?

Google Sites

• Are you going to allow students to create Sites? 
• Can Google sites be share outside of your domain?

Google Classroom

Have you identified your classroom teachers and added them to the Google Classroom group? This will prevent students from taking on a teacher role and creating their own courses.

Interested in learning more? Attend the Google Admin Bootcamp, a 2-day deep dive into the Google Admin Console. The Admin Bootcamp takes place around the country. You can even host an event at your school! Visit gEducator.com/admin to learn more!

Have you Selected an Anchor Technology?

Earlier this week I was sent to the grocery store by my wife to get some butter. A simple task; or so I thought. Do you have any idea how many different types and styles of butter you can purchase? Completely overwhelming. And no, I did not get the right one!

When it comes to Educational Technology, it can feel a little bit like trying to pick from the butter isle.

Want to incorporate formative assessment into your classroom? There are about 100 options!

Interested in using a learning management system? Another 100+ options!

Choice if usually heralded as a good thing. But if there are too many options, two things can happen:

• Some people get overwhelmed and choose nothing. 
• Some people get excited and try everything

Both responses are bad and will not lead to lasting change and impact that we are seeking. 

If you plan on using technology in your classroom, you need to pick an anchor technology. This is the tool or platform that will serve as the foundation for your classroom and will help guide future decisions. 

Here are some popular technology anchors: 

• Google Apps for Education (now called G Suite for Education)
• Office 365 from Microsoft
• iOS from Apple
• Moodle

This is NOT an exhaustive list; just a few representative tools.

Google Apps for Education is my anchor technology. Anytime I am looking to solve a classroom problem I first look to see if there is solution within the core products of Google Apps (Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Sites, Etc). If not, I look for external products that integrate with Google Apps. I rarely use a product that does not somehow integrate with Google Apps.

Don't wander around the web looking for the next big thing or get distracted by something new and shiny. Figure out what works for you and use that as the filter for future technology decision.

What's your technology anchor?

First Look: Explore in Docs, Sheets, and Slides!

This past week Google announced several updates and changes to their suite of tools. The most notable was the name change - previously called Google Apps for Education, that same collection is now called G Suite for Education.

In that same announcement Google rolled out a new feature called "explore" for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This feature puts computer intelligence (machine learning) to work for you making it easier to find trends in data, create a stunning presentation, and find relevant material for your document. According to Google, the Explore feature can reduce the time it takes to create a Doc, Sheets, or Presentation by 30%.

Here's a quick overview of what Explore does.

Explore with Google Docs

Explore in Docs will scan the content of your document and suggest relevant websites, images, and other content from your Drive Account. The idea is to present and provide information relevant to your current topic of work so that you don't have to leave the Doc to open a new tab, search for an image, etc. Explore is essentially a unique Google Search within the document.

Educators familiar with the "research" feature of Google Docs will be quite disappointed to discover that it has been replaced by "explore" but is missing many of the much loved and used feature of the research tool. Citations are no longer inserted as footnotes and can not be configured from MLA, APA, or Chicago style. The ability to search creative commons images has also been removed.

Unfortunately, I have to give the explore feature of Google Docs two thumbs down. The features is has don't seem all that useful to me and the features that were eliminated were some of my favorites. 

A grassroots petition is currently underway to have Google bring back the research features that were eliminated. To add your voice, open a Google Doc, click on Help > Docs Help > Send Feedback. 

Explore with Google Sheets

The Explore function of sheets will be particularly helpful for individuals who don't consider themselves to be "spreadsheet people." If you aren't comfortable running formulas and functions, you will love the Explore feature. Simply type in a question and Google's machine learning engine will attempt to answer it for you.

I am particularly impressed that not only can Google answer your data related question, they also show you the formula that was used to get the answer so that you can replicate it on your own. Kind of like Wolfram Alpha for your Google Sheet!

Take a look at the video below for an easy example!

Explore for Google Sheets gets two thumbs up from me! It adds functions and makes working with spreadsheets easier for adults and students. 

Explore with Google Slides

The explore feature in Slides is particularly interesting as it is designed to help you improve the visual appeal of your presentations. Click on a slide and the Explore window will show suggested layouts for your content. I tested several existing slide decks that I had created and some of the suggestions were really bad, but others were decent. 

Explore in Slides also includes the same content search features found in Google Docs. However, like Docs, the beloved Research tool is no longer available. I am particularly disappointed that the ability to search for and insert video into my presentations is no longer available. 

I give the Explore feature in Slides one thumb down. It does provide some new and helpful functions, however it is a shame that those new features cam at the expense of the research tool. If you would like to send your suggestion to Google, you can do so by opening up a presentation and visiting Help > Slides Help > Send Feedback. 

Does your Chromebook have a Virus?

No. The answer is no. But there are a LOT of people who would like you to think it does! 

It all starts when you end up on a sketchy website and are immediately greeted with a very scary looking warning that indicates your system has been infected, locked, disabled, etc. You are warned against turning off or restarting the computer (to prevent "data loss") and are urged to call a number or visit a website and complete some sort of form.

The scary part is that you usually can't get the warning message to go away. Clicking "okay" just brings it back again. This can cause some people to think that they do actually have a virus. 

If you are on a Chromebook, I am 100% sure that you do NOT have a virus, because there are NO known viruses for ChromeOS. This is the result of ChromeOS "verified boot" which ensure that the ChromeOS operating system can't be modified from the official release from Google.

Furthermore, any warning that indicates your disk drive, memory, or storage has been compromised can't be true because data is not locally stored on a Chromebook (for the most part anyway!).  

The message that you are receiving is a "Phishing" attack that is designed to make you nervous enough about this "virus" that you provide personal information to someone in order to get them to help you remove the "virus". Some scams will provide you with a tech support phone number (don't call it!) or suggest that you visit a certain website and enter your personal information (don't do it!).

What should you do? Here are the steps you can take:

1. Prevent more warnings - ChromeOS usually provides a small check box on pop-up notifications to "prevent this page from creating additional dialogs." Click this box and press okay. You won't see any more warnings from this site.

2. Re-trace your steps - How did you end up on the phishing website? Usually there are two options:

•  You clicked on a link from an email, social media post, If this is the case, notify the person that sent it to you so that they don't continue passing it on. No other action required. 
• You recently installed a new Chrome Extension. Sadly, there are some Chrome Extensions that are designed to take people to websites with phishing scams. Google does its best to review and prevent such rogue extensions, but it happens. If this is your situation, you will need to uninstall the extension by visiting chrome://extensions/ and deleting the extension that is causing trouble. If you aren't sure which one it is, disable them all and turn them on one at a time until the problem occurs again. 

3. Powerwash - this step is only necessary if the recommendations above didn't work. Powerwashing restores your Chromebook to factory default settings, eliminating any issues you are having. Because all of your data is stored "in the cloud" (except your download folder) you don't have to worry about backing up data prior to powerwashing your Chromebook. To powerwash your Chromebook visit Chrome settings and look for the powerwash button (at the very bottom). 

If you are really in bad shape and can't even get to the settings menu due to constant pop-up notifications, you can powerwash your device from the login screen. Turn off your Chromebook (hold down the power button) and restart. When you get to the sign-in screen, press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R to initiate the Powerwash process. 

Here are the important things to remember from this situation: 

1. Your Chromebook does NOT have a virus. 

2. Do NOT provide any personal information (credit cards, phone number, etc) to someone to "fix" this issue. 

If you or your students have experienced an issue like this please leave a comment and let us know how it happened and what steps you took to eliminate the issue. Hopefully we can put together a collection of bad extensions to avoid.

Grading and Feedback tools for Google Docs

Lots of resources are available on using Google Docs to assign student work, but there isn’t much regarding grading student work electronically.

Here are three strategies for providing feedback to students. 

Suggest an Edit

To identify mechanical changes (grammar, spelling, punctuation) use the “suggestion” feature available for Google Docs.

As you mark corrections to the student’s work, they will be automatically represented by green correction marks. The student will see your correction and will need to “approve” the revisions before they are made permanent in the document.

Tracked changes can be accepted or rejected by document owner and collaborator.

Note: this feature is only available for Google Docs. This is also a great tool for peer editing. 

Leave a Comment

For remarks related to style and content, use the commenting feature. Comments are like little “sticky notes” that you can attach to an part of a document, presentation, or spreadsheet.
Highlight a word, sentence, paragraph or image and add a comment by “right clicking” and selecting “comment"

Tag someone in a comment by typing @ and their email address. Tagged individuals will receive an email notification prompting them to open the file and reply.

Use the Checkmark Chrome Extension

Use the free Checkmark Chrome extension to add common corrections (spelling error, run on sentence, missing punctuation, etc) as a comment.

Watch this video for instructions on how to setup and use Checkmark.

Other Grading Tools

There are several Drive Add-ons that can help with the grading and feedback cycle:

Orange Slice Teacher Rubric Add-On for Docs
Orange Slice makes it easy to create grading rubrics for projects. They also have a student edition which allows students to see their rubric score.

Grade Proof Add-On for Docs
Grade Proof can identify spelling, grammar, and phrasing errors and will also suggest improvements to your sentence structure. Grade proof is a freemium tool, but the free version is still helpful.

Sentiment Analysis Add-On for Docs
Words have an impact. Sentiment Analysis will help you determine if your writing is overall positive or negative.

Docutus Add-on for Sheets
Doctopus is a complex add-on for Google sheets that provides a variety of assessment tools for any Google Drive assignment. Doctopus works well with Google Classroom.

10 Google Forms Tricks!

Google Forms is great! You can use it to create a survey or a quiz, or collect registrations. But there is more to it than you might think. Here are 10 tricks to help you get more out of forms!

1. Limit response length

When using short answer or paragraph text question types, turn on data validation to limit response to within a certain character limit. Note that this is a character, not a word limit. Turning this feature on does not provide users with a character count, but they will see an error message if they exceed the limit.

This feature can be used to limit responses on forms such as a call for speakers or to ensure that complete sentences are used on a student quiz.

How: Read this post!

2. Validate Email Addresses

For some reason, people have a hard time typing in their own email address. It is not uncommon to get email addresses with accidental spaces, commas, or incomplete information (i.e. no .com). You can eliminate this issue by using the data validation tool for email address on a short-answer question. This ensures that the information provided will fit username@domainname.com/net/org.

3. Shuffle option order

Preventing cheating is a concern of teachers who use tools such as Google forms to deliver assessments. While it is impossible to eliminate all possible methods of academic dishonesty, you can certainly make it harder to cheat! Turn on “shuffle option order” for a multiple choice or checkbox question to randomize your assessments. This feature can be used inplace of the “shuffle question order” option or in conjunction with it. Using this feature will NOT impact the use of Flubaroo or the quiz feature of Google Forms.

4. Block your sections

If your form has several distinct sections such as personal information, and survey questions, or sections from different topics covered in class, you can block them in two ways:

Insert Title / Description

Use this feature of forms to add a colored break in the form to identify a new section. You can also add a description with special instructions. Using this element does not break your form into multiple parts.

Insert Section

A section is similar to the Title / Description except that it actually inserts a page break into your form. This is helpful if you want to clearly divide your form into multiple parts. For quizzes, this can be a helpful way to prevent students from looking ahead/behind in the quiz. You can also show users a % meter to indicate how much of your form is complete.

5. Create branching forms

Remember the old “Chose your own adventure” books? You would get to the end of the page and either go to page 7 or 15 based on a decision you made for the characters in the story? Google Forms can do the same thing.

Configure a multiple choice question to take the user to a new set of questions based on their response. This is very helpful if you want to skip a section that is not relevant to the person completing the form. It can also be used as a simple adaptive assessment tool. If a student answers a multiple choice question incorrectly, they can be directed to an easier question or to material that will help them review the skill they need to develop.

In order to use the branching feature of forms you must have to elements:

1. A multiple choice question
2. A least two sections (see above) in your form.

6. Use Multimedia

Text-only forms are boring. Make them more engaging by including video and images! This is especially helpful when using forms for assessment purposes. Here are three ideas to consider:

1. The labeled image - insert an image with a series of labeled elements (i.e. parts of the cell, characters in a story, etc). Below the image, insert several questions that require students to reference the image above.
2. The Video challenge - Insert a YouTube video into your form that provides students with a quick (1 min or less) set of information. Ask questions about the image. This works great for music and world language courses!
3. The Animated Gif - use an advanced image search to find animated .gif files. Save and insert the image into Google forms and watch it move! This trick is great for science courses and for schools who are blocking YouTube.

NEW: As of August, 2016 you can now use images for multiple choice questions! This is a great new feature that will be particularly helpful to elementary and math teachers. If you are using Flubaroo or the Quiz feature in forms to grade assessments, it is important to make sure that you do include a text label in your form otherwise you will not be able to determine which selection a student made when you look at the linked spreadsheet.

7. Reuse your form - not your spreadsheets

It takes a lot of work to develop a survey or quiz using Google Forms. Once you have invested the time to create a form you can re-use it over and over again! DON'T make a copy of your form, instead, follow these steps.

Note: these directions are for the NEW forms. If you have old forms, you may need to update them before following the steps below.

1. Open your form
2. Click on the response tab
3. Click the “snowman” (three dots in the right corner) and select “unlink form.” This will unlink the form from the previous sheet that was collecting responses. It will NOT delete the data you have already collected.
4. Click the “snowman” again and select “delete responses.” Although you have disconnected the spreadsheet, your form still retains the previous response data. This action will reset your form to zero. The original form data IS still contained in the spreadsheet that was unlinked in step 3.
5. Click the snowman and click “select response destination”. Name the spreadsheet with a specific name. This is where NEW responses will be sent.

This trick above is helpful for teachers who have multiple sections of the same course but don’t want to copy their form for each section. Each section gets its own SHEET, not its own FORM.

8. Copy / paste a list

Sometimes it is best to ask respondents to make a selection from a list rather than type in a response. Typing that list into Forms can be tedious. Instead, copy and paste it! Google Forms will place the copied elements into the form as a new selection. This is great for creating a class list or a selection of times for parent teacher conferences.  

Note: there does seem to be a limit to how many lines can be copied at one time. If you are having trouble pasting your list, try a smaller number of items (10-15 seems to work).

9. Form Restrictions & Roadblocks

There are times when you may wish to prevent a form from being completed until certain other actions have been taken. For example, a teacher may not want students to take a quiz until she has verified that they have completed their homework. Google forms only offers an on/off feature and does not offer password protection.

You can setup a makeshift password protection on your form by using the data validation option in a short-answer response. Here’s how:

1. Create a new section in your form. This is where your “password” field will live.
2. Create a short answer question in section 1.
3. Turn on data validation and set it to: Number > Equal to > [insert a secret number]
4. Add help text: Please check in your homework to receive the password to complete this quiz.
5. Add your quiz questions starting in section 2.

Note: this is NOT a 100% secure system and should not be used to protect critical information. It is possible to reverse engineer the secret code. Some of your students may know how. I will not explain how here in case they are reading this right now...! = )

10. Add-Ons

Need to do something else not listed here? Add-ons may hold the solution to your problem! Add-ons are utilities that can expand what Google Forms does on it’s on. Add-ons must be “installed” before you can use them. To access the add-ons, click the “snowman” icon in the top right corner of a form and look for the “add-on” puzzle piece icon.

While there are many add-ons available, these are the ones that I have found quite helpful.

• Choice Eliminator 2 - removes options from your form once they have been selected. Perfect for time slot registrations or other limited quantity applications.
• FormRecycler - pull in questions from other forms.
• FormLimiter - restrict your form to only accept a specific number of responses or turn it off at a certain time.
• Form Publisher - publishes form responses as documents or PDFs. Very helpful when collecting long-form responses which are difficult to read in a spreadsheet.
• All Questions Required - yup, that’s what it does!

Did I miss anything? Let me know what form feature is your favorite!

Interested in seeing these ideas in action? Check out my post on 25 Ways to use Google Forms in the Classroom!

--------------------------------------

Are you ready to become a Form Fanatic?

Each spring I offer a 5 week Google Forms masterclass. Join me for a deep dive into Google Forms!

The feedback has been outstanding:

"I was a casual user of Forms, but I was not using the data that I had collected to it's full potential. Now I am writing better Forms so my data is of higher quality and I am better able to analyze the results so I'm making decisions based on data...not just giving surveys." - Laura Foreback, middle school teacher

This course is perfect for classroom teachers, tech coaches, and school administrators!

Interested? Visit Chrm.tech/forms for all the details!