Class Tools to Make Google BETTer

This week Google is in London at BETT, the world’s biggest educational technology exhibition. At the event, companies from all around the world show off their latest and greatest innovations for educational technology.

Google is using this opportunity to showcase new updates for Google Workspace for Education. These updates include new features for Google Classroom, Docs, Accessibility, Chromebooks, AI, and more!

Although I have never been to BETT yet (definitely a goal for the future!) I wanted to share these new updates with you. The big new update that caught my eye is "Class Tools" which is a classroom management solution for teachers and students to use on Chromebooks.

See below for the details on this new Class Tools feature, as well as an overview of what else Google announced at BETT.

Excellent EdTech Newsletters

It is difficult to stay up to date on everything new in educational technology. It seems that everyday there is a new tech tool or website, a helpful update, a PD opportunity, a creative idea for using technology in the classroom, and more.

How can you stay in the loop on all this great information?

One practical option is subscribing to EdTech newsletters!

This is actually one of my favorite ways to learn about new EdTech ideas. Sure I also listen to podcasts and belong to email discussion groups and check social media, but I especially appreciate newsletters for many reasons:

• They come directly to my email so I don't have to remember to go out and check anything.
• They are filled with great tools, tips, updates and resources.
• They are free!

See below for a list of many of the EdTech newsletters I currently subscribe to and benefit from. Hopefully you will find some here that will help you. And of course I am sure I am missing many other excellent newsletters. Please send me an email to let me know which ones you subscribe to that I should check out. I will keep updating the list below with more newsletters over time.

16 Super Google Updates from ISTE23

Google is constantly releasing new features, updates, and tools, which I try to share out each month in our GEG-Ohio virtual meetings at bit.ly/gegohio

However, sometimes Google drops a large amount of updates all at one time, often in conjunction with a large EdTech conference such as BETT or ISTE. They have just done that for the 2023 ISTE Conference.

I was fortunate to be able to attend and present at ISTE again this year. You can access all of my ISTE session resources at bit.ly/curts-iste23

I was also privileged to get to sit down with Taryn Sullivan from Google while at the conference to do a quick interview concerning several of their new updates.

See below for my recorded interview with Taryn, as well as details on many of the new updates that caught my attention. Which new features are you most excited for? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Control Alt Achieve Newsletter - April 2022

Each month or so I send out an email newsletter to those who have subscribed, as an easy way to keep folks up to date on the latest content from this site, as well as other resources I have come across.

The newsletter typically includes the following sections:

• Output - What I have been creating - See my most recent blog posts and training videos
• Input - What I have been consuming - See some of the best resources I have come across recently
• Connect - See how to stay connected and a list of some of my upcoming event and PD opportunities

To view my newsletter for April 2022, use the link below:

• https://mailchi.mp/controlaltachieve/9q6ttmhq5h-14969369

If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter (for free of course) you can do that here:

• https://www.controlaltachieve.com/p/newsletter.html

Post by Eric Curts

📮 Join the "Control Alt achieve" email discussion group

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🏫 Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 60 PD sessions to choose from

Control Alt Achieve Newsletter - March 2022

Each month or so I send out an email newsletter to those who have subscribed, as an easy way to keep folks up to date on the latest content from this site, as well as other resources I have come across.

The newsletter typically includes the following sections:

• Output - What I have been creating - See my most recent blog posts and training videos
• Input - What I have been consuming - See some of the best resources I have come across recently
• Connect - See how to stay connected and a list of some of my upcoming event and PD opportunities

To view my newsletter for March 2022, use the link below:

• https://mailchi.mp/controlaltachieve/9q6ttmhq5h-14762637

If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter (for free of course) you can do that here:

• https://www.controlaltachieve.com/p/newsletter.html

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts

Control Alt Achieve Newsletter - February 2022

Each month or so I send out an email newsletter to those who have subscribed, as an easy way to keep folks up to date on the latest content from this site, as well as other resources I have come across.

The newsletter typically includes the following sections:

• Output - What I have been creating - See my most recent blog posts and training videos
• Input - What I have been consuming - See some of the best resources I have come across recently
• Connect - See how to stay connected and a list of some of my upcoming event and PD opportunities

To view my newsletter for February 2022, use the link below:

• https://mailchi.mp/controlaltachieve/9q6ttmhq5h-14620337

If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter (for free of course) you can do that here:

• https://www.controlaltachieve.com/p/newsletter.html

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts

What's New in Google - February 2021

Catch up on everything new in G Suite for Education from February 2021, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our February 2021 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and G Suite updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Apps news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Apps is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the February 2021 meeting:

50+ New Google for Education Features

The "Learning with Google" event that was held on February 17, 2021 was a jam-packed livestream filled with dozens of updates and new features coming to G Suite for Education, Google Classroom, Google Meet, Chromebooks, and much more!

In case you missed it, or are just trying to review through everything that was shared, I have made an easy to browse bulleted list of everything that was announced in the event. For each item I have included any relevant links to Google's blog posts or help pages or video clips about that new feature or update.

Also, if you want more details and discussions on these topics, please feel free to join us online for our monthly GEG-Ohio (Google Educator Group) virtual meeting on Thursday, February 25th from 1pm to 3pm (EST). We will be taking a close look at the updates from the "Learning with Google" event. 

• GEG-Ohio website - https://sites.google.com/view/geg-ohio/
• February 2021 agenda - Google Docs link

Now, see below to explore all 50+ updates in my bulleted lists...

15+ Awesome Article Sites for Students

Current event and general interest articles are a wonderful resource for students. They can be used for researching a topic, staying informed on what's happening in the news, pleasure reading, and more.

In the past I have shared some creative ways to use online articles as part of technology activities for student creativity and reading comprehension. For example:

• Improve Reading Comprehension with Google Docs "Black Out" - Blog Post Link 
• Black Out Poetry with Google Docs - Blog Post Link 

Additionally Google recently added a new lesson to their Applied Digital Skills curriculum called "Annotate Text in Google Docs". This activity covers how to take an article, copy and paste it into Google Docs, and then make digital notes to understand the article using comments, highlighting, tables, and more.

One big question, however, is where to find good articles. Over the years I have come across many excellent resources for articles that are written specifically for students. See below for my current list of these sites.