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The following content has been circulated by Google Workspace for Education* and added to by our PDST Digital Technologies Advisors

*formerly known as GSuite for Education

Google Workspace for Education

Brief Description:

Google Workspace for Education is a suite of free Google tools and services that are tailored for schools. It is available globally to all educational institutions that qualify. Google reserves the right to determine an organisation's eligibility for Google Workspace for Education.

Collaborate anytime and anywhere with a suite of tools for education

With Google Workspace for Education, educators can create opportunities for learning, streamline administrative tasks, and challenge their students to think critically—all without disrupting current workflows. Google Workspace for Education tools are powerful on their own but work even better together.

Google Educator Group (Ireland)

This group of educators provide webinars and supportive materials for schools using Google Workspace for Education products. Their website can be accessed here

Google Digital Maturity Framework

As you take stock and assess where you and your school is at in terms of your digital maturity, consider using Google's helpful Digital Maturity Framework as part of your data gathering process.

Distance Learning Supports:

Google’s Applied Digital Skills team created 4 new landing pages to help teachers and learners during the challenging coronavirus situation:

Back to School 2020: Start the school year by incorporating digital skills lessons in your class to jumpstart student engagement.
Teach from anywhere: Keep your students learning with these lessons to teach digital skills, even when you’re not together.
Learn from anywhere: These lessons show you how to learn effectively using digital tools, from the comfort of your own home.
Work from anywhere: Use these lessons to learn digital skills that will keep you working efficiently, even when you can't communicate in person.

Google has created a hub called Teach from Home with information on:

Teaching remotely with video
Teaching remotely without video
Managing the virtual classroom
Making lessons accessible to all
Keeping students engaged
Keeping in touch with colleagues and other teachers

Google has created a temporary hub called Teach from Home with information on:

Teaching remotely with video
Teaching remotely without video
Making lessons accessible to all
Keeping students engaged
Keeping in touch with colleagues and other teachers

Getting Started:

Setting up Google Workspace for Education in your school. If you don't have the expertise within your school to do the initial setup and you should contact your ICT service provider for help to set up your educational Platform. Check out the links below to help you get set-up.

Signing up for G Suite for Education (Overview video)
Getting started with GSuite for Education (Detailed step-by-step video)
https://gsuite.google.com/signup/edu/welcome#0

Once you have signed up for Google Workspace for education, you will have access to the core applications for communication and collaboration.

Google offers a Getting Started with Google for Education 8-week training programme. Every week a bite-size training tutorial is sent directly to your inbox. Each lesson takes less than 15 minutes to complete and provides basic training videos to get you started with Google Workspace for Education. Visit here to sign up: https://teachercenter.withgoogle.com/gettingstarted

Tools for Distance Learning:

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a free web service, developed by Google for schools, that aims to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments in a paperless way. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students.

https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020265?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

https://edu.google.com/products/classroom/?modal_active=none

Getting Started with Classroom

https://edu.workbencheducation.com/cwists/preview/31770x

What can you do with Classroom?

Set Classroom themes with school colours or logo
Reuse assignments, tests or other course content in future classes
Add content to assignments, such as video, PDFs, Google Docs or Google Forms survey
Share videos, links or images from other websites with students
View assignments, announcements and other resources on a class resource page
Draft assignments or announcements and schedule them to post on a later date
Use Google Calendar to track assignment due dates
Set permissions on whether students can make posts or comments (or mute individual students)
Set permissions on which teachers can create and manage classrooms, or which schools within a district can use Google Classroom

Meet

Meet takes the headaches out of joining a video call at work. Just set up a meeting and share a link. No worrying about whether teammates, clients, or customers have the right accounts or plug-ins. With a fast, lightweight interface and smart participant management, multi-person video calls are a breeze.

Google Meet Overview

What can you do with Meet?

Video lesson for your classes

Connect with your class from anywhere. With easy-to-join video calls, you can meet face to face without the added cost of travel.

Advanced Meet features

Google is making advanced features in Hangouts Meet available to schools around the globe using Google Workspace for Education so that educators can continue connecting with students and facilitating remote learning. This will include the ability to record meetings, Livestream up to 100k people and add 250 people to a Hangout. These features will be available at no additional cost to all Google Workspace for Education customers until September 30th, 2020.

As the recording feature of a Google Meet is a premium feature some schools will have to do some administrator changes to enable this function.

Google Hangouts Meet - Enabling Recording - Watch Video

Google Forms

Manage event registrations, create a quick opinion poll, and much more. With Google Forms, you can create and analyse surveys right in your mobile or web browser—no special software required. You get instant results as they come in. And, you can summarise survey results at a glance with charts and graphs.

Forms are among the internet's most versatile tools. Whether you need a contact form or a checkout page, a survey or a student directory, a form is all you need to easily gather that information. With Google Forms, it only takes a few minutes to make one for free.

Google Forms—along with Docs, Sheets, and Slides—is part of Google's online apps suite of tools to help you get more done in your browser for free. It's easy to use and one of the simplest ways to save data directly to a spreadsheet, and it's the best sidekick to Google Sheets' spreadsheets.

When you need to gather data for your spreadsheets, a form is your best friend. In this chapter, let's take an in-depth look at Google Forms' features, hidden tools, and add-ons to help you make the forms you need in minutes.

What can you do with Forms?

Surveys
Questionnaires
Custom forms
Drag-and-drop
Customise values
Reorder questions
Add images, videos, and custom logic
Real-time response information

Create Quizzes in Google Forms

https://edu.workbencheducation.com/cwists/preview/15779x

Google Docs

Google Docs brings your documents to life with smart editing and styling tools to help you easily format text and paragraphs. Choose from hundreds of fonts, add links, images, and drawings. All for free.

Word processing for teams

Create and edit text documents right in your browser—no dedicated software required. Multiple people can work at the same time, and every change is saved automatically.

Getting Started with Google Docs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLtqkw6o-UY

Google Drive

Google Drive is a free service from Google that allows you to store files online and access them anywhere using the cloud. Google Drive also gives you access to free web-based applications for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. Google drive is th hub where all your content is automatically saved.

Organise Files in Google Drive

https://edu.workbencheducation.com/cwists/preview/15904x

Distance Learning Strategies

Link to Distance Learning Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gslpx7Q8mhc

See below to see what aspects were discussed:

6:40 -- Opportunities for engagement using Hangouts Meet, Docs and Slides

12:35 -- Tips for chunking content into shorter segments

17:25 -- Integrating Hands-on Activities

19:25 -- Using Google Forms and Quizzes

21:45 -- Using Classroom discussions and Assignments

24:39 -- Extending Hangouts Meet

30:45 -- Incorporating Social Emotional Learning

36:15 -- Incorporating Project Based Learning

39:37 -- Sharing Recordings for Make-Up Work

41:35 -- Communicating with Families

44:45 -- Working with Teacher Unions

45:32 - Working with ELLs

48:45 -- Teacher Resources

50:30 -- Hangout Premium Features Extension

Supports and Tutorial links:

PDST Digital Technologies Youtube Playlist exploring the Google Workspace for Education admin console features

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzyK2mZu28iSZcZdpBATvWSYdj0RhUUmH

Padlet Wall of Google Workspace for Education videos

https://padlet.com/michellebrady/gsuiteforeducation

How to keep your lessons going remotely

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/distancelearning-covid19

Explore distance learning resources

https://edu.google.com/latest-news/covid-19-support-resources/?modal_active=none

Tips for Enabling Distance Learning through Google Workspace for Education & Chrome

https://teachercenter.withgoogle.com/resources/general/details?key=ahpzfmd3ZWItZWR1LXRyYWluaW5nLWNlbnRlcnIcCxIPR2VuZXJhbFJlc291cmNlGICAqKzjo8cIDA

Preparing students to learn from home with Chromebooks

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/covid19-chromebooks/

Google Office Blog

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/

Enabling Recording in Google meet

Google Hangouts Meet - Enabling Recording - Watch Video

Webinars

Past webinars:

Google delivered the series of webinars below which were recorded and are now available to view.

Webinar	Description	Link to View
Supporting IEPs during Distance Learning	As schools transition to distance learning, maintaining commitment to diverse learners remains important. How do educators support IEPs during distance learning? What are some tools and strategies to help overcome challenges? Join Jennie Magiera, Global Head of Education Impact and a panel of special education experts as they share ideas around this topic.	Register here
Distance Learning Strategies for Education Leaders, Part 2	For schools and communities impacted by recent school closures, there is an immediate need to plan and communicate with teachers, parents and teachers, parents and students. What tools and strategies might educational leaders utilise to empower educators to extend learning to home environments? Join Jennie Magiera, Global Head of Education Impact for part two of a two-part series where she explores high-level strategies for building and enabling distance learning through technology. Part 1 of this series is available at this link.	Register here
SEL & Wellness During Distance Learning	Now that many pupils/students are at home learning through virtual platforms, how can educators address social emotional learning and wellness? How might we create intentional breaks for mindfulness, a balance of digital and analog activities and outlets for stress-relief and reflection? Join Jennie Magiera, Global Head of Education Impact and a panel of SEL and mindfulness experts as they share ideas around this topic.	Register here
Differentiation in Distance Learning	This webinar focuses on how might educators reimagine differentiated instruction and student experiences within a distance learning framework	Register Here
Supporting Families with Distance Learning	As students and their families adjust to distance learning, many parents may suddenly find themselves using unfamiliar tools, and adjusting to new routines. Join Jennie Magiera, Google's Global Head of Education Impact / Mom, Brendan Chan, Computer Science Education Program Manager, and Jessica Covarrubias, Program Manager for Be Internet Awesome, as they discuss Google Classroom start-up tips for parents, communication tools, and the challenges of working from home while balancing the demands of homeschooling.	Register Here
The Anywhere School	The Anywhere School, an online event to celebrate educators and explore the future of education with thought-provoking panels, keynotes, and more. Be the first to hear new product announcements and see them in action with exciting live demos.	Register Here