What's New in Google - January 2022

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from January 2022, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our January 2022 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google 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 Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace 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 January 2022 meeting:

Google Sheets Emoji Math - Addition and Subtraction

Emojis can be a fun and creative tool for educational activities. In the past I have shared lots of ideas on how emojis can be used in your classroom for student creativity and learning. Some of these projects have included:

• Emoji Writing Prompt Generator with Google Sheets - Resource link
• Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs - Halloween-themed, Valentine-themed, Winter-themed
• Character Emoji Template - Resource link
• Pictographs - Resource link
• And more - Resource link

Another use for emojis is teaching math concepts. Emojis can be used to model quantities so students can learn about, explore, and practice addition and subtraction with concrete representations of the numbers.

Adding 2 smiley faces to 3 smiley faces, or subtracting 4 rocket ships from 7 rocket ships, can make the math more understandable for students.

To help with this, I have created a Google Sheet template that lets students choose the emoji they want to work with, and then practice addition and subtraction problems, while at the same time getting conditional formatting feedback to let them know if they have the correct answer or not.

See below for a short 7-minute video showing how to use this template, as well as written directions, and a link to get your own copy of the template to use with your students.

Checklists in Google Docs with and without Strikethrough

Checklists are a convenient and effective way to stay on track and get things done. For our students, checklists can be used in many ways to keep track of items such as:

• Steps in a science experiment
• Self-monitoring of behavior
• Mastery of subject content and standards
• Tasks when composing and editing their writing
• Working through a math procedure
• And many more…

Although paper checklists are convenient, when done electronically, checklists can be collaborative, edited as needed, accessed by multiple people, and hopefully not eaten by the dog.

There are certainly a lot of mobile apps, web extensions, and websites that provide checklist tools, such as Google Keep. However, for many years Google Docs did not offer a built-in option for an interactive checklist. There was a workaround where you could change the bullet style to a box and then do several steps to check a box, but it was a lot of hoops to jump through for a feature that should have just been a normal part of Docs.

Thankfully Google has now added a real interactive checklist feature to Docs! With this new checklist tool, when a user checks off an item, the corresponding text gets crossed off with strikethrough formatting. If you prefer not to have the text crossed off, I came up with a workaround for that. 

See below for a short 6-minute video and written directions on how to use the checklist tool in Docs with and without strikethrough.

My ISTE 2022 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again present at the 2022 ISTE Conference in New Orleans this June 26th through 29th.

I always look forward to this opportunity to see old friends, make new friends, share some ideas, and learn so many new things from others.

You can attend ISTE in person this year, or take part as a virtual attendee. To get more details and register for the conference go to: https://conference.iste.org/2022/attend/

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting at the ISTE Conference, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing, learning, and chatting with you!

Google Tools for Speech to Text

Our students have so many amazing ideas in their minds, and we want to make sure they are able to get those words from their heads into writing.

However if a student struggles with typing or spelling they may take those big awesome ideas and shrink them down to smaller words and shorter sentences.

Thankfully there are technology tools to help with this. Speech to text tools allow anyone to simply speak their words and have them typed up automatically.

Three of my favorite tools for this are Docs Voice Typing, Voice In Voice Typing, and the Dictation Tool in ChromeOS See below for a short 5-minute video demonstrating these tools, as well as written directions for using them.

My OETC 2022 Sessions

I am excited and honored to once again present at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC 2022) this year.

This year OETC is entirely virtual and runs from February 14th through 18th.

You can get more details about this year's OETC at: https://oetc.ohio.gov/

You can register at: https://odhe.eventsair.com/oetc-2022/registration

Below is a list of sessions I will be presenting for OETC 2022, along with any associated resources. Please feel free to join me for any of these sessions. I look forward to sharing and learning with you!

Tools to Support Learners: Texthelp and Don Johnston Join Forces

Out of all the trainings, videos, and posts I share, one of the most popular topics is how to use technology tools to support learners. Everyone learns differently, and we all struggle in our learning in one way or another at one time or another. Thankfully there are so many helpful tools for accommodations, accessibility, and other support.

A while back I recorded a 1-hour webinar on "Google Tools for Struggling Students" which you can view here: YouTube video link

And I have a 10-page Google Doc packed with technology tools for text to speech, speech to text, readability, reading comprehension, audio support, behavior, focus, organization, and much more, which can be access here: https://bit.ly/curts-support

In these resources you will find many references to the tools created by one of my favorite edtech companies, Texthelp, including Read&Write, Equatio, and more. Just recently Texthelp announced that they are joining forces with Don Johnston to further expand the tools they can offer. Although I had heard of Don Johnston before, I wasn't very familiar with their tools, so I took some time to explore this new partnership. See below for more details on all the tools that Texthelp will be providing now.