16 Updates 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. See below for my rundown of my favorite new updates that Google is announcing. For each item I give the gist of what is new as well as how these updates can make teaching and learning BETTer.

Google Duet AI for Schools

Artificial intelligence tools and resources for schools have been exploding over the last year. It seems like every day there is a new AI tool or feature.

Google has been very active in the AI space as well with their development of Google Bard, NotebookLM, and much more.

Recently Google has launched Duet AI for Google Workspace, one of their most powerful and ambitious artificial intelligence projects.

If you haven't heard of Duet AI, it is a suite of AI tools from Google that integrate directly with the Google Workspace products such as Docs, Slides, Sheets, Gmail, Meet, and more.

Recently I was fortunate to be able to interview Vivek Chachcha who is a Product Manager for Google Workspace for Education and who works directly with Duet AI for education. We chatted all about this new tool including current features, new options coming soon, how educators are using it, and how your school can try it out.

See below for the 25 minute recording of our conversation, as well as other information and resources related to Duet AI.

EdTech Links of the Week - 1-22-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Google AI for Schools YouTube Shorts Series

Google has recently posted a series of YouTube Shorts all about using AI in education for teaching, learning, saving time, and more.

And they all are quick because YouTube Shorts can only be 1 minute long!

Some of the topics include:

• Engaging classroom activities
• Interactive interviews with AI
• Using AI to elevate how you teach
• Coding with AI
• Saving time with Practice Sets
• Generating creative writing prompts
• Writing and performing a class play
• How to talk to parents about AI
• Designing effective professional development activities
• And more!

I am extra excited because I was able to be in two of the videos! See below for more details and how to watch these helpful YouTube Shorts.

EdTech Links of the Week - 1-15-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

10 Ways to Add Emojis in Google Tools

Emojis can be a fun and creative tool for educational activities. They are easy to use, can represent many ideas, work well with any age range, and are just fun and engaging!

Over the years I have shared lots of ways that emojis can be used for teaching and learning and creativity. 

Some of these have included:

• Emoji rebus stories - Valentines or Halloween or Winter
• Emoji drag and drop poetry - Valentines or Spring or Halloween or Winter
• Character emotions with emojis - Resource link
• Random emoji writing prompts - Resource link
• Emoji story cubes - Resource link
• Graph a pi-line skyline - Resource link
• Google sheets emoji math - Resource link
• Improving navigation in Docs, Drive, and Classroom
• And more!

Also over the years we have gotten more and more ways to add emojis to Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Classroom, Drive, and more.

In this blog post we are going to explore 10 different ways you and your students can add emojis to Google tools. It is good to have all of these different options as some will work better in specific tools or on particular devices or for certain activities.

EdTech Links of the Week - 1-8-24

Each week I keep an eye out for the latest edtech resources through blogs, social media, podcasts, videos, user groups, and more. I then try to reshare these resources in many ways.

One way I share these is here on the blog in these "EdTech Links of the Week" posts. See below to explore the latest batch of resources, and be sure to share with others who may benefit.

If you want to make sure you don't miss new resources, you can:

🔗 View all EdTech Links of the Week: bit.ly/caa-links

📰 Sign up for my weekly email newsletter: bit.ly/curts-news
📧 Join the "Control Alt Achieve" email discussion group: bit.ly/caa-emailgroup

🔔 Get new blog posts automatically through email - FollowIt link

And as always, please let me know of any resources that you recommend. I would love to learn from you!

Join Me for Sequoia Con 2024

I am honored and excited to be providing a keynote session for Sequoia Con 2024!

Sequoia Con is an online conference focusing on Artificial Intelligence in K-12 education, which is hosted by Evergreen Education. The event will have presentations from dozens of teachers, administrators, and technology experts.

The conference will be delivered live through Zoom on February 29th and March 1st 2024, but all sessions will also be recorded and shared after the event with everyone who registers.

Speaking of registering, You can also get $50 off your registration with coupon code "CONTROLALT".

For more details on the conference, visit the event website at...

bit.ly/sequoiacon

...and see below for additional information. I look forward to learning with you!