Thursday, June 30, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Google Classroom

Are you planning over the summer and interested in setting up Google Classroom?  Get started with these videos! http://edtech.jcisd.org/classroom.html

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: I can't log in to Google!

Uh Oh!  Did you just return from vacation and you can no longer access your email?  You've tried logging in to Google and it's not working!  No worries, try these steps to reset your password on a network PC and then try again.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Creating a Signature in Gmail

So, you finally got logged into your Google account.  Yay! Watch this video to set up your signature.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: 3 New Updates to Google Education!

Google released 3 amazing new updates today that we at #teamJXN are super pumped to share with you!  You can read more at the Google Blog here.

1) Google Expeditions in now available to all! With Google Expeditions, your students can take a virtual reality field trip. All you have to do it download the free app to get started (it's available on Android devices today, and is coming to iPhones and iPads very soon).

2) Chrome Cast allows teachers and students to easily share their screens from anywhere in the classroom! It's a Chrome app and it even integrates with Google Classroom!

And probably our favorite update...

3) Quizzes in Google Forms will allow teachers to grade multiple choice or checkbox questions! There is even an option to give feedback to students who miss questions in the form of text, pictures, or video!

Check out these cool new updates and be sure to let us know how YOU plan to use them in your classrooms! :)


Friday, June 24, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Don't Lose Your iPhone Contacts!

We've noticed that some of our iPhone users are having trouble with their contacts disappearing. If you are an iPhone user, do yourself a favor and check your default contacts account to prevent or fix this problem. This video will show you how!


Google Tip of the Day: Organizing Your Google Drive

Now that you've gotten your files uploaded to Google Drive, it's time to start organizing! Watch the quick video tutorial to show you how:


Thursday, June 23, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Auto-Convert Your Google Drive Uploads

Working on uploading docs to your Google Drive? It might be worth your time to turn on your auto-convert option in your Drive account.  Check out how below!


Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Uploading Your Files to Google Drive

Maybe you've started to think about how to get files off of your network drive and into your Google Drive. This video will help you get started!

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Google Tip of The Day: Download Drive for PC or Mac

Add files to your Drive from your Mac or PC and they automatically sync with your other devices. It is also a great backup in case you lose wifi. 






Monday, June 20, 2016

Personal and Professional Google Accounts? No Problem!

You can be logged into multiple Google accounts at once. Check out this video that shows you how!


Friday, June 17, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Google Photos

Are photos and videos taking up precious storage on your phone or iPad?

One of my most favorite Google tools in my new Google Apps for Education Account is Google Photos. You can get to it on the web at photos.google.com.  Perhaps more importantly, it's an app on your phone that can automatically take the pictures from your camera roll and back them up to your Google account. You can see the app below.


Once you log in to either the app or the web version of Google Photos, you will be given the option to have your photos backed up from your camera roll to Google Photos. Once you give this permission, photos don't have to be stored on your phone because they will automagically uploaded to your Google account.  Now the magic happens.

The "albums" icon is my favorite.  If you tap on this, you get a screen that looks something like this:


Google photos can now sort your photos with a single click by a variety of factors.  It even has facial recognition software, so that if you click on "People", your photos will be sorted by who is in them.  As an example, I clicked on the picture of my little guy, Hobbes, and it bring up every picture I've taken that has his face in it:


(Can you imagine using this to take the pictures of your students you've taken throughout the year and quickly creating an album of pictures of that student to share with parents?)

From here, you can easily create movies (even on the app), albums, and collages -- all of which can be shared with anyone you want in typical Google fashion.

I would highly, highly recommend getting logged in and starting to play around with this super cool tool.

Have fun!

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Searching Your Email

We've all done it: that important email you swore you'd keep and organize somehow got misplaced.

With your new Google Mail account, it's easy to search and find emails.

Here's a video that will show you how!


Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Google Tip of the Day: Viewing Others' Calendars

Viewing a colleague's or family member's calendar in Google Calendar is an incredibly useful feature.

Here's a video describing that process: