Lots of great new things coming to Google Apps and Chromebooks!!!

Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks have become truly awesome resources for schools and Google just keeps improving them.

Here are some of the recent announcements:


Android apps are coming to Chromebooks! - some Android apps have already been available for use on a Chromebook. I've been using the Evernote app for a while and love it. But in order to get them to work, developers had to do some work themselves. With this new announcement, the Google Play Store and most of it's app will work with Chromebooks. Three models are getting access in June with more getting access later. See this link for full details on which Chromebooks will get this and when. This is huge for schools as they will be able to benefit from the low cost and ease of use and management of Chromebooks, and use all of the great Android apps that are out there.

With this announcement, touchscreen Chromebooks are even more functional for schools. For specs, 4GB RAM is always my suggestion and 16GB drives should be fine unless you are installing a ton of apps and syncing lots of data. I have over 100 apps on my smartphone, sync Evernote offline (9,000 notes) and sync Google drive offline and I am only using 9GB (18GB if you count the hundreds of photos and videos of my daughter).

I also think that this would be a good time for Google and OEMs to work on a 7" Chrome OS tablet! Think about it - all the Android apps in a small form factor for younger students or mobility, with the management features and ease of use of a Chromebook!

Google Classroom updates:

1. Interact with other apps and systems - more software and systems will be able to interact with more data in Classroom. One example that teachers will love is the ability for Gradebooks and reporting systems to sync grades with Classroom, eliminating the need for teachers to manually transfer grades.
2. Teachers can schedule assignments, questions, or announcements to post at a later date. The post is then automatically published to the class stream at the scheduled date and time.
3. Teachers can poll their students using multiple-choice questions and allow students to see a summary of their classmates answers.

Science Journal - a new app that is a digital science notebook that allows students to record data from sensors on an Android phone or connected device, take notes, observer, interpret, predict, create graphs and much more.

Google also announced that they are making their own 3D/Virtual reality hardware that will be prefect for schools - this will fit well with Expeditions and allow students to explore the world, and beyond, right from their classroom.


Some exciting news for schools!!

More Resources:

Benefits of Google Apps and Chromebooks for Schools

Android for Education resources

Google for Education Resources

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Benefits of Google Apps and Chromebooks for Schools

Benefits of Google Apps and Chromebooks

Updated version of this as a Google Doc: https://goo.gl/zbcAA2 

How does Google Apps and Chromebooks compare to Apple or Microsoft inside the classroom?

• Google Apps and Chromebooks are extremely easy to use. Students and teachers can access thousands of web apps and extensions, most free, as well as everything on the internet.  
• Schools using Chromebooks have great experiences with limited issues or concerns.
• Unlimited file storage on Google Drive (any type of file)
• plenty of resources to help teachers use them to improve teaching and learning
• can use Office Editing (free app) in Docs, Sheets and Slides to edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files
• can use Office 365 or any web based software
• can be used as the only device, or in a mixed device environment
• huge community of users that share and support each other (over 50 Millions users of GAFE!!)
• Google Classroom is a game-changer…it allows teachers to share resources and communicate with students, distribute, collect and grade assignments, and so much more.  Google Classroom resources for Educators

Why Should Schools go with Google Apps and Chromebooks?

Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks Educational Resources

Resources for Teachers:

• Educational Technology Guy: Google Apps and Chromebooks Resource Page
• Google for Education Training Center - excellent resource for teachers on using Google Apps in the Classroom
• Google Chromebooks Basics course - another excellent resource for teachers using Chromebooks in the Classroom
• What Can You Do On a Chromebook? Pretty Much Everything
• Google Apps Training Site
• Learn how to Use Google Apps at School
• Google Apps and Chromebooks for Education Resources
• Lots of great resources and web apps to use with Chromebooks!
• Chromebooks do work offline
• Google Apps and Chromebooks for Special Education and Special Needs

How do they manage a Chrome device versus an Apple or Microsoft device from an admin perspective?  

• Chromebooks are extremely easy to manage, whether managing 30 or 30,000
• Management is done through web based admin console from anywhere, on any device
• do not have to physically touch the devices once they are enrolled
• settings, apps, etc are all pushed out almost instantly
• over 170 settings can be managed
• manage users, networks, devices, apps, and much more
• import users from a variety of systems into Google Apps easily
• easiest devices to manage
• no re-imaging,
• easily shared in as a multi-user shared device

Technical Resources:

• Educational Technology Guy: Google Apps and Chromebooks Resource Page
• Getting Started with Google Apps for Education
• Google Apps Administrator Help Center
• Chrome for Work and Education Help Center
• Google Apps for Education IT Guide
• Google Apps for Education Deployment Guide
• Google Apps Deployment Site
• Google Apps Deployment Checklists
• Chrome Device Quick Start Guide
• Chrome Device Deployment Guide

What is the ROI and price?  

• huge ROI and low prices
• GAFE is free
• most web apps are free (even when the iPad app had a fee)
• easy to use so they get used all the time in class (and <7 second start up)
• Total Cost of Ownership Calculator for Chromebooks
• Example - 1000 students - 3 year total cost of ownership
• Windows PC $6,213,000
• Chromebooks $1,071,000 - savings of $5,141,000 !!! (that is 82 % less)
• Mac and Apple are  similar to or even higher costs than Windows (higher hardware costs, more labor to deploy and manage, software costs)
• Example:

• iPad: $399 + $99 Apple Care + $99 keyboard + $49 case = $646
• Chromebook: $299 + $30 license  = $329 – half the price of an iPad
• A Chromebook ($329) and a Nexus 7 tablet ($199 + $30 license + $30 case = $259 ) (Total $588) can both be purchased for less than the price of just one iPad
• Chrome web apps are 95% free
• iPad apps, while there are free ones, are more fee based and license is non-transferable
• Windows devices have higher up-front cost, are harder to manage, require more IT support, Antivirus and more.
• Most users are using web-based apps anyway, or there is a web based version available

Why Should Schools go with Google Apps and Chromebooks?

* Easy to use, inexpensive, easy to manage, great training and PD resources, you can do anything on them. *

Google Classroom update - students can join class - teacher in different domain

Google Classroom is an excellent tool from Google that allows students and teachers to collaborate and communicate and allows teachers to assign work to students, collect that work, grade it and comment on it and return it to the student.

One limiting factor in using it was the fact that the students and teachers had to be in the same Google apps domain. Many schools use separate domains.

That has now changed. You can whitelist each domain in each admin console and allow them to work together in classroom. Simply follow the instructions here: https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6173514

It's easy to do and make Classroom accessible to even more schools.


Google Classroom Resources for Educators






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Google Tips - 78, and counting, Things You Didn't Know You Could Do with Google

Google has a great resource, Google Tips, that provides quick, easy tips for using Google Products.

It is setup in a card format, using simple, easy terms (not tech-speak). You can view all the cards or sort by Category, such as Do More, Save Time, Have Fun, or by Product (Android, Chrome, Gmail, Drive) etc.

Click on the card to get more info. Most have some kind of video to show you how to do it, or very simple instructions. Each card also has a little icon on it showing what it applies to: mobile, video, security, etc.

The cards have great info and are easy to understand.

This is a great resource for anyone, especially schools using Google apps.

Related:

Google for Educators Resources

Resources to get Started With Google Apps and Chromebooks

Some Expert Tips for Adopting Google Apps for Education

Google's Own "Learn Google Apps" Site - great resource for Google Apps users

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Google Feud - turns Google search suggestions into a game

Google Feud is a fun game Google has made that has players try to guess what Google's auto-complete will say to answer a question. It is easy, fun and makes you think. It is like family feud where you have to get the top most popular results to get the answer correct.

One warning to schools: certain results may be offensive or incomprehensible so it may not be acceptable for schools yet.

Choose a category and try to answer the question. It tallies your score and moves you on to each round. It's funny too since some of the answers are a little out there.


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Judge Chin Decides and Everybody Wins

About eight years ago I was one of the group at the Association of American Publishers that voted to file suit against Google for the unauthorized copying of upwards of 10million books (and other bound stuff) from the collection of five large academic libraries.  It wasn't long after the vote that I wished I had missed the meeting.

If nothing else, the passage of time since that suit was filed has proven that Google's activities were not the real enemy.  Google wanted to expose content locked away on shelves (off the network) to the same readers, researchers and other content users that the very same publishers were interested in selling to.  The risk publishers anticipated - that all content would be devalued and royalties due publishers would be circumvented - looks with hindsight to have been a red hearing.  The real problem for publishers with respect to the value of intellectual property quickly became apparent from the more obvious culprit: Amazon.com, which has successfully fought off the publishers, Apple, Google and everyone else and has won the battle over value.  After eight years, the (maybe) final end to the Google Books legal wrangle is a side show to the very real problems publishers have regarding their business models.

In ruling that the scanning program at Google was indeed fair use (and so emphatically that you have to wonder what took the guy so long) we may see some new products come out of this content library.  For example, I wrote of a subscription database product that Google could launch, others have spoken about the analysis of language, semiotics and culture that could be facilitated by this database and there will no doubt be other products.  What should be clear, is that access this ruling enables will enhance our knowledge and understanding about the content itself and the evolution of the printed word.  The next eight years might actually result in something useful.

There are four tests for fair use and Judge Chin as ruled as follows on these:

On purpose and character of use:

Google's use of the copyrighted works is highly transformative. Google Books digitizes books and transforms expressive text into a comprehensive word index that helps readers, scholars, researchers, and others find books. Google Books has become an important tool for libraries and librarians and cite-checkers as it helps to identify and find books. The use of book text to facilitate search through the display of snippets is transformative.

On the 'nature of the copyrighted work':

While works of fiction are entitled to greater copyright protection, Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207, 237 (1990), here the vast majority of the books in Google Books are non-fiction. Further, the books at issue are published and available to the public. These considerations favor a finding of fair use.

On the "amount and substantiality of the portion used":

Google limits the amount of text it displays in response to a search.

Lastly, on the "effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work":

...a reasonable factfinder could only find that Google Books enhances the sales of books to the benefit of copyright holders. An important factor in the success of an individual title is whether it is discovered -- whether potential readers learn of its existence. (Harris Decl. ¶ 7 (Doc. No. 1039)). Google Books provides a way for authors' works to become noticed, much like traditional in-store book displays.

In his concluding comments the Judge states:

In my view, Google Books provides significant public benefits. It advances the progress of the arts and sciences, while maintaining respectful consideration for the rights of authors and other creative individuals, and without adversely impacting the rights of copyright holders. It has become an invaluable research tool that permits students, teachers, librarians, and others to more efficiently identify and locate books. It has given scholars the ability, for the first time, to conduct full-text searches of tens of millions of books. It preserves books, in particular out-of-print and old books that have been forgotten in the bowels of libraries, and it gives them new life. It facilitates access to books for print-disabled and remote or underserved populations. It generates new audiences and creates new sources of income for authors and publishers. Indeed, all society benefits.

The wider relevancy of this opinion on fair use may well extend the law and could result in implications for other media and content businesses.

Fair Use Google?

Judge Denny Chin doesn't move so fast. His current colleagues on the second circuit, of which one is considered a fair use scholar, may have forced him to push the Google Books case a long a little quicker than he has in the past.

As you may have heard by now, the second circuit has determined that it was premature of Judge Chin (now a colleague) to confirm class status to the case The Author's Guild had brought against Google as a result of their book scanning program. This is clearly Google's victory for several reasons. Firstly, they will get to argue the fair use case which - aside from settling - is what they've always wanted to do and where they expect an outright win. Second, the Author's Guild now has far less expectation for a large pay out but probably crippling legal expenses should they continue.

Copy of the Second Circuit decision

Putting aside the merits of Google’s claim that plaintiffs are not representative of the certified class
—  an argument which, in our view, may carry some force — we believe that the resolution of Google’s fair use defense in the first instance will necessarily inform and perhaps moot our analysis of many class certification issues, including those regarding the commonality of plaintiffs’ injuries, the typicality of their claims, and the predominance of common questions of law or fact, (denying plaintiffs’ request for class certification “because of the fact-specific inquiries the court would have to
evaluate to address [defendants’] affirmative defenses [including fair use of trademarks]”); 

....
Moreover, we are persuaded that holding the issue of class certification in abeyance until Google’s fair use defense has been resolved will not prejudice the interests of either party during the projected proceedings before the District Court following remand. Accordingly, we vacate the District Court’s order of June 11, 2012 certifying plaintiffs’ proposed class, and we remand the cause to the District Court, for consideration of the fair use issues

Michael Boni, the lead lawyer for The Authors Guild was quoted by Reuters as saying they are going to litigate fair use and 'that is the shooting match'.  Good luck with that.

In March 2011, Judge Chin dismissed a proposed settlement between publishers, authors and Google which was valued at $125mm saying it raised (or didn't address) some important copyright issues and questions.

So, this decision bounces the adjudication back to the district court so they can address the fair use issue and Judge Chin who currently sits on the second circuit but held on to this case when he moved up.  Will he continue to hold on to the case or will be finally decide to hand it over?