Google Drive Tips and Tricks and Upcoming Google Workspace Education Updates

Spring is a great time to learn & explore something new! April 10th, 2023

If you’ve followed my blog over the last several years, you might remember that I occasionally create challenges for myself to explore, learn, and share what I discover. Last December, I challenged myself to explore 24 Days of Teaching and Learning Resources.

My challenge for April is to explore something new each day and share what I discover. Hopefully, I won't let you or myself down! (April Challenge Update Doc)

Today I am exploring the TCEA Blog and exploring a recent post, Google Drive Bingo: Explore 25 Google Drive Tips. On a connected them, I fell down the rabbit hole of upcoming Google Workspace for Education updates. Two explorations one post! 

If you are a regular Google Drive user, you have probably noticed some of Google Material Design Updates. Today, I want to explore and share some of the updates and features.

I am a regular user of Google Drive and I try to keep on top of the updates and features, sometimes I think I miss something. Occasionally, there is something new that I discover but I don't have any idea how new the feature might be. I am telling you this as an apology if one of these highlighted features is something you've known about for a while. Hopefully, there will be at least one feature here worth exploring.

TCEA's Google Drive Bingo is a great way to explore Google Drive. Just click on the image to make a copy of the Bingo card and start exploring.

Get Your Bingo Card Here

My highlights from the TCEA post.

• 6. Add a description and hashtag to a Google Drive file to make it easier to find
• 8. Show the file location for a shortcut
• 13. Create a Google Drive-based photo album
• 14. Remove duplicate files

On a related note, Google announced some Google Workspace for Education Updates at BETT23.

Here are a few Google Workspace updates I am excited to explore in the future.

• Add interactive questions to YouTube videos
• Educators will soon be able to add questions to a YouTube video and assign it to students, all within Google Classroom.
• Organize assignments across different grading periods
• In the coming weeks, educators will be able to sort grades and assignments within Classroom by quarters, semesters or terms.
• Keep track of class activities with timer and stopwatch chips
• Educators can use timer and stopwatch chips for class activities, keeping track of how much time is left or how long a certain exercise took
• Gather feedback with voting chips
• Educators and students can use voting chips to quickly gather feedback directly in a Doc.

Additional Google Workspace for Education Resources

• Google for Education Blog
• What's New in Google - March 2023 (Control All Achieve Blog)
• 15 Updates to Make Google BETTer (Control All Achieve Blog)
• Google Search Easter Eggs - Fun Exploration for Teachers and Students
• Google Docs Extension Add-ons for Teachers & Students
• Engage Students in Digital Literacy with Google's Applied Digital Skills Lessons
• Using Google Slides to Create Stunning Images for Teaching and Learning
• Google Earth Cheat Sheet
• Google Arts and Culture Cheat Sheet
• Google for Education PD Choice Board
• Creative Organization of Your Drive Folders, Keep Labels, Google Classroom Topics, and More with Emojis
• Recent Google Docs Updates - Awesome Features to Enhance Student Learning With Documents

Visit the blog tomorrow for something new or follow along in this document.

Know Your Why - April 2023 Blog Post Calendar