Google Workspace Updates for Teachers and Administrators
The recent Learning With Google online event previewed many exciting updates coming to Google Workspace for Education. Usage of Google Apps for learning has increased from 40 million to 150 million users over the past year. The updates Google announced show a clear response to address the needs of teachers and students. Additional improvements coming to the Admin Console along with changes to the pricing structure for paid editions. The following features will be rolling out throughout the remainder of the year:
Google Classroom Updates
- Rich Text Formatting (coming soon) – Teachers will be able to customize Classroom posts with bold, italics, underline and bullets.
- Track Student Engagement (coming later this year) – Teachers will be able to view student’s activity in Classroom. This will help identify students who may be falling behind.
- Classroom Add-Ons (coming later this year) – For those using the paid version Google Workspace, assign work from third party tools right from Classroom.
- Photo Submissions via Android Devices (coming later this year) – Scan and submit photos of work via the Classroom Android App. Users can scan multiple pages and will have access to basic photo editing features.
- Aspen integration (coming later this year) – Export grades from Google Classroom to Aspen SIS.
- SIS Roster Syncing (coming later this year) – For those using the paid version, School admins can auto-create Google Classroom rosters from their Student information Systems (SIS).
- Classroom Audit & Activity Logs (coming later this year) – Google Admins will be able to generate reports to assist with troubleshooting in Classroom. Audit logs will include events such as student removal or class archiving. Automatically export Classroom Data on adoption and engagement to Big Query. A customizable Data Studio template will be available to help district visualize this information.
Google Meet Updates
- End Meeting for All (coming soon) – Prevent students from remaining on the call with a one-button option to end the Meet for all participants, including those in breakout rooms.
- Mute All Participants (rolling out now) – Meeting hosts will be able to mute all students with one button. Over the coming months this feature will be refined to allow hosts to control if/when students can unmute themselves.
- Increased Moderation Controls from iOS & Android (coming soon) – Better controls will be available for teachers to moderate Meets directly from their iOS or Android mobile device.
- Better Meet / Classroom Integration (coming later this year) – Classroom generated Meets will recognize any teacher or co-teacher as a Meeting host and restrict joining to students of the Classroom. Meets generated outside of Classroom will allow multiple hosts to be added.
- Google Meet Transcripts
- Emoji Reactions (coming soon) – Students will be able to participate with emoji reactions, including skin tones. Teachers and Admins will be able to control this feature.
- Disable Custom Backgrounds (available now) – Admins can disable the ability for users to add custom backgrounds. Disabling this feature still allows users to blur backgrounds. From the Console go to Apps >Google Workspace >Settings for Google Meet. Note: You must disallow for your entire OU if you want to be sure students cannot change backgrounds. If a host has the ability to change their background, participants also have this ability during the call.
- Create Breakout Rooms in Advance through Calendar (coming soon) – For those using the paid version of Google, teachers will be able to set up breakout rooms ahead of time via Google Calendar to save time when grouping students in Meet calls.
- Improved Performance on Chromebooks (available now) – Chromebooks will adapt intelligently to your network for improved stability in Google Meet.
Chrome OS & Other Updates
- Native Screen Recorder (coming soon) – Available March 9th on Version 89, Chrome will incorporate a native screen recorder.
- Family Link and Google School Accounts (now available) – Parents looking to control and monitor screen time can now add a school account to Family Link.
- Storage Limits (July 2022) – Google will implement a storage limit of 100TB per domain. While this only impacts 1% of schools, Admins should begin to plan for these limits to Drive, Gmail and photo storage. Amplified IT is hosting a free webinar on March 3rd to unpack the implications of this change.
- New Pricing Models (April 2020) – Google has announced new options for paid features. They will continue to offer the free version, now called Education Fundamentals, but have added three paid options: Standard Edition, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus (same as the current Enterprise version). Previous Enterprise customers will be able to renew at their current pricing through 2022. Existing Enterprise customers should check out this migration guide.
