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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.

With Google Workspace for Education, educators and learners can avail of cloud based services such as Google Docs, Google Classroom, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Gmail and more.

*Google Workspace for Education also has some paid for models available

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 2021: 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

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

What can you do with Classroom?

Create assignments for learners including content such as video, PDFs, Google Docs or Google Forms surveys
Share lesson materials and resources with learners
Reuse assignments, tests or other course content in future classes
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

Google Meet

Google Meet is a video calling tool built in to Google Workspace for Education.

Google Meet Overview

What can you do with Meet?

Easy to join video calls that can be initiated through Google Calendar, Gmail and Google Classroom.

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.

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.