Happy Thanksgiving friends! I’m grateful that you have chosen to journey through the world of edTech with me! As a small thank you, I am offering a special sale! Anyone who registers for my winter Google Certification Academy between now and December 15 will get free access to my Wednesday Webinar program ($99 value). Click here to register!

Episode Sponsor: Logitech Education

As education continues to evolve so does Logitech Education, your partner in innovation for the classroom. Logitech believes in the power of bringing best-in-class design to classroom tools to help both students and teachers achieve their very best. They do this by including students and educators in the design process to ensure products like headsets, content cameras and tablet cases enhance the learning process. Logitech works with hundreds of students and educators across the country to unlock product choices that transform classrooms. For more information visit logitech.com/education. 

Join me at the 2025 FETC conference in Orlando to get hands-on experience with Logitech’s tools during my Chromebook Creativity Studio workshop. Use code FETC25SPEAKER to save 10% on your conference registration.

10 important updates and links for November 2024

1. New templates for Google Slides – select from a collection of new templates for your next presentation. This is a long overdue refresh for Slides! 

2. Essay writing tips from OpenAI – While this article is written for higher education students, it has some interesting ideas. If writing is a significant focus in your class, this is worth a read.

3. New Building block templates – Building blocks are reusable pieces of content for Docs. Google is adding a contact list, task tracker, and decision log templates. Building blocks are also being updated to include enhanced title rows to improve data consistency. 

4. Google Vids for EDU Plus – If your school has upgraded to EDU plus, you have access to Google Vids, a new video creation for Drive. Vids shares a lot of similarities with Google Slides which makes it easy to use. You can read my review here. 

5. Gemini for iPhone – iOS users can now access Gemini through a dedicated app. I have been using Gemini on my Android phone for a while and it’s really great when helping my HS kids with their physics homework. 

6. Scholar and Arts & culture celebrate milestones – Google Arts and Culture is celebrating the 200th birthday of London’s National Gallery with a new exhibit and Google Scholar is celebrating 20 years of providing access to research articles through its online database.

7. Machine Learning Crash Course – this course introduces the core concepts on which AI tools are built. This course is ideal for adults who want to better understand generative AI or students who are interested in pursuing a career in coding and programming. 

8. How to organize a complex document – my latest YouTube video reviews five ways you can organize and manage a long document such as board meeting minutes, accreditation reports, dissertations, policy manuals, etc.  

9. Figjam gratefulness wall – many years ago I designed a Thanksgiving activity using Jamboard. Since Jamboard has entered the Google graveyard, I decided to re-design this activity using Figjam. 

10. Thankfulness Turkey – Eric Curts has re-created a classic November activity in Google Slides. This is a great activity for younger students. 

Stay informed!

Staying up to date on the latest changes to Google Workspace and your favorite edTech tools is challenging…let me help! My free monthly email newsletter will help you stay on top of the latest tools, trends, and resources. Impress your teacher friends and stay on the cutting edge of technology!