Monday, December 5, 2016

Google Announced New Features on Education On Air



Google Education on Air, #ItTakesATeacher, was implemented on December 2nd- December 3rd.  It offered free online professional development for anyone who registered around the world. All of the session links can be found at the website.  
I had the opportunity to present with Heather Breedlove, Susan Herder, and Michael Fricano, who are Top Contributors in the G Suite for Education forum, on tips and tricks of Google Classroom.   (We were able to collaborate and plan our session in 4 different time zones!)  Here is the link to our session. 

 At the end of the Education on Air sessions, Google announced 3 new features to G Suite for Education, in which users will appreciate.  They are as follows:


  1. Alternative ways for students to log into Chromebooks
  2. Parents no longer need Google accounts to receive email summaries in Google Classroom
  3. Graduating students can transfer email and Drive files to their personal account

Alternative ways for students to log into Chromebooks


Logging into a Chromebook got easier a while back when Google gave admins the ability to pre-populate their domain name in the login box. That way students only had to type in their username, and not the “@myschool.org” portion. However, this could still be a challenge, especially for younger children.
During Education On Air, Google announced two new ways for students to log into a Chromebook: badges and pictures.  This is extremely helpful for elementary students.  

Badges - You can create a unique QR Codes for each of your students.  The students would need to hold the QR Code to the webcam on the computer and it will login them into their account.

Visit Clever Badges for more information:  

Here is a sample text message that you will receive.  Additionally, you will receive an email with the same information.  You would need to printout the email with the QR Code on it. Note, this is a demo account.



Pictures - A second new option for logging in is to use a set of chosen images in place of a password. This system has been developed by Cloudwise, a Netherlands company. With this option, instead of letters, numbers, and symbols, the student’s password is a series of pictures. When they student goes to log in, they are presented with a grid of images, and they need to click on the pictures that make up their password to log in. 
(Credit to Eric Curts)

For more information you can visit their website at:

Parents no longer need a Google Account to Receive Summaries in Google Classroom

You spoke and the Google team listened!  The team has allowed parents and guardians to use any email address to receive Google Classroom summaries.  

Graduating students can transfer email and Drive files to their personal account

The final update is allowing students to move their emails and Drive files to their personal account.  One of the options right now is to use Google Takeout which allows you to select the app data to download as a zip file to your computer.  This feature will be available some time early next year.



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