Blog Archives

Google Goodness: Updates

8/26/2021

Over the past few months Google has made some updates that will allow users in Jeffco to be more productive in the classroom. Students and teachers both can benefit from the updates.

The Google Play store is now open for all grades. The play store allows students to download apps to their Chromebooks. Currently these google play apps are available.

Google Meet

Ed Tech recommends scheduling your Meets using Google Calendar. Using the calendar to schedule meets adds the following functionality to the meet:

Change owner of the meet so a different user can have the host controls prior to the meet.
Preassign breakout rooms by inviting your guests/students.
Turn off quick access prior to the meet.
Generate a static link you can use again.

Meet controls all in one place at the bottom bar of the meeting window. The leave call button has been relocated to prevent accidental hangups.

Meeting details, participants, chat and activities are all on the bottom bar.

See what you're presenting

When you present your screen, you can see other participants—and what you’re presenting—at the same time.

In the meeting window, point to your presentation feed to:

Unpin your presentation (view it as a tile) so you can view more participants.
Mute or unmute any audio playing in your presentation.
Remove your presentation from the meeting.

Note: You can't interact with content in the meeting window. To move through the document you’re presenting, go to the window or browser tab you're presenting from.

Now, when you are in Docs, Slides and Sheets there is an option to Present to a meeting.

Add a co-host in google meet

Need someone else to take over the controls of your meeting? Once you are in the Meet you can designate someone else as a host. That person or up to 25 others can be a co-host in the meeting. Check out this video to see how to add a co-host.

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Jeffco Digital Tools-Summer Updates

8/16/2021

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While we were all enjoying some fun in the sun, vendors were making upgrades to some of our favorite Jeffco Digital Tools. From new functionality in Screencastify to a whole new facelift in Actively Learn, some incredible changes have taken place over the summer. Read below to get the "What's New" with our Jeffco Tier 1 Supported Tools.

Read & Write PDF Reader Is now OrbitDoc

Here is some information about Read & Write. The PDF Reader that is a part of the Read & Write extension pack has changed to OrbitDoc. The old PDF Reader extension looked like a bird, now it looks like an Orbit! OrbitDoc is still an extension but it also a progressive web application now as well.

Click below for more information:
READ&WRITE'S ORBITDOC PDF EDITOR AND GOOGLE CLASSROOM/SCHOOLOGY
You can annotate PDFs using Read & Write's PDF extension and web-based application called OrbitDoc. These PDFs can be distributed via Google Classroom and Schoology so that students can easily mark up their own copies or work together to annotate a single PDF.
Google Classroom Directions
Schoology Directions

Here is what the new extension looks like. We pushed it to all users in Jeffco. If you are using a Chromebook-it will automatically be there. If you are using a laptop or desktop, you will need to go to the Chrome Webstore to add it, or use the web version. Make sure you are logged into chrome and Google with your @jeffcoschools.us