AI Tools are Coming to Google Workspace Tools

It was only a matter of time until Google made a big announcement regarding artificial intelligence in their productivity tools. That announcement came today. 

All of the details about Google's implementation of AI in Google Workspace can be read here. The short version is that new AI features will be added to Google Docs and Gmail throughout the course of this year. Those new features will be used to generate suggestions for rewriting selected sections of your Google Docs and selected sections of messages that you compose in Gmail. 

Other AI features in Google Workspace to look for later this year include auto-generated images and videos in Slides, data analysis tools in Sheets, and notes capture in Google Meet. 

Applications for Education
I didn't see anything in today's announcement that specifically mentioned whether or not these AI tools will be available in Google Workspace for Education accounts. It will be interesting to see how Google addresses that moving forward. An AI-powered rewrite function in Google Docs could have a significant impact on how we teach the writing process. Likewise, auto-generated images and slides could have a significant impact on how we teach students to design presentations.

Changes are Coming to Your Favorite Google Workspace Tools

If you opened a new Google Document today you might have seen a new little clock icon appearing in the upper-right corner of the screen. But if you didn't see it, don't worry because you will start seeing it before too long. That clock icon is one of the updates coming to Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drive over the next few weeks. 

The updates coming to Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drive are not going to change any of the functionality of those Google Workspace tools. The changes are mostly cosmetic and designed to streamline some of the most frequently used menus and processes in those Google Workspace tools. For example, the new clock icon that I already mentioned was added to make it easier to find and view the version history of a document or slideshow. 

Applications for Education
None of these updates are going to change the way that you or your students create, share, and edit Google Docs, Slides, or Sheets. That said, you should take note of them for when a student says something like "hey, Google Docs looks different."

25 Gmail Tips for Teachers and Students

As part of my on-going quest to bring some organization to the more than 1,500 videos on my YouTube channel, I've created a new playlist of 25 Gmail tips for teachers and students. The playlist includes everything from how to sort your Gmail messages to filtering and blocking senders to email etiquette tips we all need to be reminded of from time to time. Some highlights of the playlist are embedded below. 

Avoid Embarrassment With These Gmail Settings



How to Block and Filter Senders in Gmail



How to Use Confidential Mode in Gmail



How to Create & Use Canned Responses in Gmail



Record and Send Voice Notes in Gmail

A Quick Tip for Sorting Gmail

Here's a little tip that I shared with a friend last weekend and I figured a few of you might appreciate it as well. When an email that you are expecting to appear in your primary tab in Gmail appears in another tab, you can simply drag it over to your primary tab. When you do that, Gmail will give you the option to have all future emails from that sender appear in your primary tab. Doing that is a good way to make sure you don't miss an important email that you're expecting. Watch the video below for a demonstration of this tip.

Video - A Quick Tip for Sorting Gmail

29 Google Sites Tutorials for Teachers

Yesterday afternoon a reader emailed me to ask if I had any resources she could reference while building a website with Google Sites. The first video that I thought to send her was this one covering all of the basics of creating your first Google Site. In looking for that video I came across a bunch of other Google Sites tutorials that I've made over the last few years. I then put all of those videos into one playlist of 29 Google Sites tutorials. Some highlights from the playlist are embedded below. 

How to Create Your First Google Site



How to Avoid a Common Google Sites Video Mistake



How to Put Physics, Chemistry, and Math Simulations Into Google Sites



How to Add a News Section to Google Sites



How to Link to Sections Within Pages of Google Sites

How to Set Expiration Dates for Google Docs

Setting access expiration dates is one of the many "hidden" or frequently overlooked features of Google Documents. This is a feature you can use when you want to share a Google Document with a person or group of people for a limited time. By setting an expiration date you can grant access for as little as an hour or as much as a year. In the short video that is embedded below I demonstrate how to set expiration dates for Google Docs. 

Video - How to Set Access Expiration Dates for Shared Google Docs

Much like you can set expiration dates for individual Google Documents, you can share your Google Drive folders and individual files for set durations of time. Watch How to Set Expiration Dates for Google Drive Folders & Files to learn how to place time limits on your sharing settings.



Applications for Education
Setting expiration dates for shared documents is helpful when you want to encourage your students to review a document before a specific time. It's also helpful when you want to publish something like a syllabus, but you don't want to have it published and live on the web indefinitely.

How to Add Video Playlists to Google Sites

In this week's Practical Ed Tech newsletter I wrote about preparing for some workshops that I'll be leading this spring and summer. Creating resource pages is one of things that I always do in preparation for leading workshops. Those resource pages always include some video tutorials that people can refer to after the workshop if they need additional help.

Google Sites makes it easy to create resource pages that include playlists of video tutorials. In this short video I demonstrate exactly how to do that and how to include individual videos in Google Sites pages. 

Video - How to Add Videos and Playlists to Google Sites

75 Google Documents Tutorials

Last week I published a new tutorial about how to add footnotes to Google Documents. After publishing it I decided that it was time to continue on my quest to bring some better organization to my YouTube channel. The next step in that quest was to create a playlist of my Google Documents tutorials. 

I didn't add every video that I've ever made about Google Docs to my new playlist. I only included the ones that are relevant today (the ones that were 14 years old got left out). That still left 75 Google Docs tutorial videos. You can binge watch all of them right here or take a look at the highlights that I've embedded below. 

Ten Google Docs Editing Features You Should Know How to Use



How to Add Shapes and Drawings into Google Docs



Two Ways to Add Watermarks to Google Docs



How to Convert PDFs to Google Docs and More!



How to Use Inline Emojis in Google Docs



How to Download Google Docs

How to Add Footnotes to Your Google Documents

When it comes answering tech support questions it is often easier to show the solution with a screencast video than it is to write directions. That's why I made this screencast video when earlier this week I was asked "how can I add footnotes into my Google Documents?" In the video I show where to access the footnote tools and a handy little feature of the footnotes tool in Google Docs. 

Video - How to Add Footnotes to Google Docs

How to Find the Source for Images in Google Slides

A couple of weeks ago I published a video about using the explore function in Google Slides to find images to use in presentations. Since then I've had a few people ask for clarification about how to use the image source when using the other image search option in Google Slides. The process of finding the image source is the same whether you use the Explore function or you use the Insert Image option in Google Slides. Watch this video to see how that process works. 

Video - How to Find the Image Source in Google Slides

27 Google Drive Tips and Tricks

I'm in the process of organizing my YouTube channel to be more than just two big playlists of Practical Ed Tech Tips and Google Tutorials. To that end, this morning I went through my channel and put my current and relevant Google Drive tutorials into one playlist. 

My new Google Drive tutorials playlist contains twenty-seven videos covering everything from the basics of getting started with Google Drive to creating QR codes for your files and a whole bunch of other ways to get the most out of Google Drive. Some highlights of the playlist are included below. 

Getting Started With Google Drive - Settings and Uploads



How to Use Google Drive to Comment on Videos



How to Create QR Codes for Audio Files in Google Drive



How to Set Expiration Dates for Google Drive Folders and Files

Dozens of Google Slides Tutorials

Earlier this week after publishing An Important Tip for Using Image Search in Google Slides it occurred to me that I should probably start to organize all of the Google Slides tutorials that I'd made over the years. As I started to search through my YouTube channel I discovered that I've made more than eighty Google Slides video tutorials over the years. Some of them are a bit outdated now, the rest are still relevant. All of the relevant ones are now organized into one playlist. 

In my playlist of Google Slides tutorials you'll find everything from the basics of using Google Slides to using the image editing tools in Google Slides to adding audio to Google Slides and a whole lot of things in between. Some of the highlights of my Google Slides tutorials playlist are featured below. 

How to Share Google Slides Through a QR Code



How to Loop Videos in Google Slides



How to Create a Google Slides Template



How to Print Google Slides



How to Create Interactive Charts and Diagrams in Google Slides

An Important Tip for Using Image Search in Google Slides

The Explore function in Google Slides can be a good tool to use to find images to use in your presentations. The images found through the Explore function in Google Slides are supposed to be Creative Commons licensed images. However, Google doesn't make that information readily available within the Explore image search results. That's why you need to click through the image to verify that you can actually use it. You'll also need to click through to the source to get the information that you need in order to provide image attribution information on your slides. 

In this new video I demonstrate how to find the image source and image attribution information when using the Explore function in Google Slides. 

Video - An Important Tip for Using Image Search in Google Slides

The Explore function in Google Docs works in the same manner as it does in Google Slides. That's one of the five overlooked features of Google Docs that I demonstrated in this video.

Video - 5 Google Docs Features You Might Have Overlooked or Forgotten About

Dozens of Tutorials for Getting Started With Google Forms

In a video that I made last week I mentioned that the vast majority of my videos don't get more than a few hundred views. But there are some outliers. The biggest outlier is my simple video about the basics of creating a quiz in Google Forms which has received nearly half a million views. That's just one of more than forty Google Forms tutorials available on my YouTube channel. 

On my YouTube channel and in my playlist of Google Forms tutorials you'll find tutorials for everything from the basics of making a quiz in Google Forms to adding voice comments to Google Forms and a whole bunch other things in between those extremes. Some highlights from the playlist are linked below. 

The Basics of Creating a Quiz in Google Forms

How to Import and Copy Questions One Google Form to Another



Add Voice Recordings to Google Forms Questions, Answer Choices, and Feedback



How to Collect Pictures Through Google Forms



How to Use Custom Fonts in Google Forms



How to Add Alt Text to Images in Google Forms

5 Google Docs Features You Might Have Overlooked or Forgotten About

Google Documents has been around so long now that some of us who have been using it from the start may have forgotten about some features. I did that just the other day when I "remembered" to use the version history to go back and look at a some edits that I had made to a large document. Similarly, if you have been using Google Docs for a long time you may not have noticed some of the more recent features because you're in the habit of using just the tools that you regularly use. 

In this new video I highlight five features of Google Documents that you might have overlooked or forgotten about. In the video I demonstrate the following:

• Smart Chips
• Building Blocks
• Bookmarks
• Dropdowns
• Image sourcing and alt text.

Video - 5 Google Docs Features You Might Have Overlooked or Forgotten About

How to Sort Google Sheets and Forms Entries in Reverse Chronological Order

Last week a reader reached out to me for some guidance on how to handle a Google Form that had more than one hundred submissions. He was looking for a way to quickly find the most information submitted in the most recent entries. My solution to that problem was to use Z-A sort in the Google Sheet associated with the Form. By doing that you will see the most recent entry at the top of the sheet. 

In the video that is embedded below I demonstrate how to sort Google Sheets and Forms entries in reverse chronological order. 

Video - How to Quickly Sort Google Sheets in Reverse Chronological Order

Applications for Education
Sorting the Google Sheet attached to a Google Form is something that I've done for years. I do that so when I have students completing something like a practice quiz over the course of a week I can quickly find the latest submission and review it with a student without having to constantly scroll to the bottom of the sheet.

Learn much more about Google Forms in this playlist of 40 Google Forms tutorials videos.

How to Collect Pictures Through Google Forms

Last week a former colleague of mine reached out to me for help setting up a system to collect profile information to put into a printed event program. He was looking for a convenient way for people to submit a profile picture and brief biographies to include in a printed program. My suggestion was to create a Google Form through which respondents could upload pictures and submit short blurbs about themselves. In this short video I demonstrate how to do that. The video also includes an important note about restricting the file type and size that can be submitted through the form. 

Video - How to Collect Pictures Through Google Forms

Applications for Education
Collecting pictures for printed programs for school events is one use of the file upload feature in Google Forms. Another popular use is to collect PDF copies of forms like permission slips.

How to Create an Image Revealing Effect in Google Slides

About a week ago a reader reached to me to ask for a suggestion on how to create an image revealing effect without the use of proprietary interactive whiteboard software. My first thought was to give TinyTap a try because that platform does include a feature called "Houdini Mode" that can be used to hide or reveal things with just one tap. A tutorial on how that works can be seen here.

After giving it more thought, I realized that you can create image revealing effects by using the transition and animation settings in Google Slides. Basically, you layer one image over another and then arrange the transitions and animations so that the top image disappears when you click on your slides. I recorded a short video about how to do that. The video is embedded below. 

Video - How to Create an Image Revealing Effect in Google Slides

Applications for Education
As I mentioned in the video, using the image revealing effect could be a good way to create a series of quiz game slides. On each slide you can have a question for which the answer is hidden until you click on the slide to reveal the answer. That could be a fun way to host to an in-classroom review game that is kind of like Jeopardy.

How to Search Within Your Google Drive Folders

Yesterday afternoon I shared a tip for keeping track of what you put into your Google Drive folders. This morning I have a tip on how to find the things that you and or your collaborators put into your Google Drive folders. 

Google Drive has contained a search function almost since its launch more than ten years ago. That search function is fairly obvious. A less obvious search feature that sometimes gets overlooked is the ability to search within a specific folder in your Google Drive account. 

To search within a specific folder in Google Drive simply right-click on its title to make a new menu appear. Near the bottom of that menu you'll find an option to search within the folder. Selecting that option will open a menu of search functions that are specific to that folder. Those functions include searching by file type, date, and file owner. 

Watch this short video to learn how to search within a Google Drive folder. 

The ability to search within a Google Drive folder can be particularly helpful when you are looking for files within a large shared folder. You might use a slightly different naming convention than your colleagues or students so being able to search by date, file type, keyword, and file owner can be a huge time and frustration-saver.

How to Add Descriptions to Google Drive Folders

A few days ago I received an email from a reader who was looking for suggestions about how to keep track of what is contained with the folders of a Google Drive account. My suggestion was to try adding descriptions to the folder. 

When you right-click on a folder in your Google Drive account a new menu appears. All the way at the bottom of that menu there is a little description field in which you can write up to 25,000 characters. Watch this short video for a demonstration of how to add a description to your Google Drive folders. 

Applications for Education
Adding a description to your Google Drive folders can be helpful to you. It can be even more helpful to the people with whom you have shared a Google Drive folder. For example, you may want to write a description of the contents of a folder full of review materials that you share with your students or a folder full of lesson materials that you share with your colleagues.