Monday 14th July 2014 Today is a ‘student free day’ in local schools, with many teachers involved in professional learning activities focussed on the use of new technologies to support the curriculum. But are these new technologies bringing new learning opportunities to classrooms, or simply providing students with a new typewriter interface? The SAMR model provides a framework to define the impact of technology in the … Read More
Google announces Drive update and transparent MS Office compatibility
Friday 27th June 2014 Google has announced the full integration of QuickOffice technology in Google Apps to provide transparent opening and saving of Microsoft Office files on Google mobile apps and in the Chrome browser on desktop computers. Read the Google announcement >>> Google have also announced a redesign of Google Drive. The video below provides an overview of the changes…
Hapara v Google Classroom
Wednesday 25th June 2014 Google are currently trialling the new Classroom app, due for release to all GAFE schools in September 2014. But what is the difference between the new (free) Classroom, and Hapara, the well-regarded commercial provider of GAFE integration and management? Watch the videos, and read the comparison >>>
32,000 Chromebooks: Virginia school system adopts Chrome OS
Tuesday 24th June 2014 Milwaukee Public Schools rolled out 11,400 devices, Edmonton Public Schools rolled out 13,000 devices, and Chicago Public Schools topped them both at 16,000 devices. Now Virginia’s Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS), one of the largest school systems in the US, announced that it will be switching to Chromebooks in some of its schools. The rollout will begin … Read More
Improve Writing Skills Using Digital Writing and Google Docs
Monday 23rd June 2014 Would you like to improve your students’ writing skills and help them bridge the gap between writing in school and writing in the real world? One way of doing so is by using digital writing and Google Docs, the documents editor available in Google Drive. Since Google Docs is collaborative and available 24/7, students using Google … Read More
Google Classroom – first look
Tuesday 17th June 2014 Classroom is a new Learning Management System (LMS) environment being developed by Google to operate in conjunction with Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Classroom is currently available for trial schools, and will be available for all schools using GAFE in September 2014. Classroom will be free for schools. Classroom builds on GAFE to create and organize assignments, provide grades … Read More
K-12: GAFE v OneDrive v iCloud Drive
Monday 16th June 2014 With collaborative cloud apps rapidly becoming an accepted ‘norm’ for file creation and storage, ICT discussion in schools often turns to which of the popular online file-editing and file-sharing packages is the most suitable for use in a K-12 environment. Microsoft, Apple and Google all offer a combination of remote ‘cloud’ file storage, and the usual suite of online, browser-editable ‘office’ applications, as well … Read More
Getting started with Google Apps
Tuesday 1oth June 2014 Introductory step-by-step guides for a wide variety of Google Apps. Learn how to use Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, and other Google products, such as Search, Video editing, etc. Check out the Google Apps Quickstarts >>>
Chromebook and Google Apps Showcase
Wednesday 28th May 2014 Arthur Phillip High School invites Principals and Technology Coordinators to a showcase of digital learning. This event is an opportunity to hear the story of the school’s journey from DER to BYOD with Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education. Following morning tea in the Governor’s Room, school principal Lynne Goodwin will lead a presentation describing the circumstances and … Read More
Google to stop scanning apps inboxes for ads
Wednesday 7th May 2014 Google has announced that it will stop scanning students’ Apps for Education accounts to target ads at them. What was somewhat lost in that announcement was that Google will also make similar changes to other account types. Google will also soon stop scanning the accounts of Google Apps customers with Business, Government and legacy accounts for the free version. … Read More
New Google Docs and Sheets Apps
Friday 2nd May 2014 Google has announced that its Docs, Sheets and Slides apps, currently part of Google Drive, are being broken out into separate mobile apps. Docs and Sheets are available now on the App Store and Google Play. Slides will be available soon, along with a new version of the Drive app. One of the major new features of these stand-alone apps … Read More
Sync Multiple Google Drives
Wednesday 30th April 2014 If you have a Gmail account for personal use, and a Google Apps account for school, then you have probably already felt the pain of not being able to sync multiple Google Drive accounts to your computer. Insync is a utility that allows you to sync multiple Google Drive accounts to your computer, along with several other neat … Read More
Google slashes paid Drive prices
Google has announced huge reductions in the costs of their paid Drive storage plans. Google offers 15Gb of storage for free – if you want 100 Gb of online storage the cost has dropped from $US4.99 per month to $US1.99 per month. (Google Apps files don’t count towards your storage). Read more at the Google Drive blog >>>
New Add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets
Google have announced the inclusion of 3rd party Add-ons to Docs and Sheets, bringing additional functionality (or just some missing features) to the Google Office suite. You will notice a new ‘Add-ons’ menu item has been added to your Docs and Sheets menu bar: With this new Add-ons feature comes a brand new store with dozens of options from which to … Read More
New Google Sheets
Have you activated the new version of Google Sheets yet? There are plenty of new features in the latest update, including Filter views, enhanced function help, new functions, advanced conditional formatting, coloured sheet tabs and new find-and-replace features Watch this short video to learn more…