G Suite Gems 21: Spring at last?

We've hopefully seen the last of any Beasts from the East, but as the new shoots of Spring begin to show, now's a great time to change your way of thinking and doing.

Slow it down with Youtube

click here to watch the video

For MFL teachers, YouTube can provide us with a wealth of 
authentic materials including news videos, films and TV shows such as the legendary telenovelas. 

Use the settings > speed controls on any video to slow down the speed of speech and help your students manage their listening. This allows for complete differentiation as each student can play at the speed of their choice. 


New Google Sites - add your custom favicon
New google sites now gives you the option to upload your own favicon to sit it bookmark bars. 




It's easy to do, in edit mode, just click on the 3 dots (traffic lights) and select add/edit favicon and away you go. 




Are you GDPR ready?  
with May 25 fast approaching, I'm sure many of us are busy ensuring our systems and processes will be compliant with the new regulations.

These new regulations, the first in 20 years, will help us safeguard our personal data and that of others. In many cases, some changes to working practices will be needed which may either be greeted with excitement or worry.

Here are some of my tips for helping staff and students prepare not just for GDPR, but also for life in the cloud moving forward:

DO operate a clear desk policy
DO share documents wherever possible via Google Drive
DO store documents wherever possible on Google Drive
DO ensure that permissions are correctly set on any documents stored and shared via Google Drive.
DO ensure that all devices are password protected, and where applicable use 2-step authentication
DO log out of your computer/laptop/device every time you leave it unattended
DO ensure that all hard copies of personal data are stored securely, double locked and accessed only by authorised individuals and subsequently destroyed correctly.

DO NOT use USBs/Pen drives to transfer personal or sensitive data.
DO NOT download/store data on desktops or personal devices or remove it from the premises.
DO NOT download files and documents from unverified or untrusted sources.
DO NOT post personal or sensitive data in work spaces
DO NOT print personal or sensitive data when you can share via Google Drive

DO NOT save passwords - select NEVER if prompted.

The ICO also has a variety of resources available to act a reminders for people about correct practice. The key moving forward is to build data protection by design into your planning, prior to establishing any new process.

And finally...

a reminder that we don't have to be design experts - use the Explore function to create engaging slide designs in Slides without any fuss.

Watch here to find out how

G Suite Gems 20: getting better and better

In a week where I've seen people yet again encouraging people to move away from Google because of "security" alongside the standard "I've been trying for ages but I just can't get on with google" my sense of humour has had a real test! 

Dispel the myths and read for yourself here Google For Education and GDPR and here Privacy & Security 

So with that cleared up, let's embrace the world of G Suite and see what's new:

Slides - users with portable IOS devices will now find they have a draw option when presenting a slide deck on screen. This means you (or your students) can now write directly on a slide to annotate, comment or highlight key areas. This could be a real game changer for many in the classroom, especially maths, science and MFL teachers where you can now free write symbols, equations and special characters without needing to insert. 

New Google Sites - a welcome update: users of new google sites can now upload their own favicon (that's the little guy who appears in a browser tab or in your bookmark bar). This can help your site visitors more easily recognise your site, and help you build your brand.

Upload a favicon 

Google Docs Menu update - one of the things I love about G Suite is how things are constantly changing and that's down to the feedback submitted AND the fact that Google actually listen to it. 

I'm loving the update to Docs menu that has separated out text and highlight into their own boxes. I've lost count of the number of times I've highlighted when I meant to change font colour or vice versa but no more! 

Google Drive searching - searching in Drive is so simple but I know many people still spend ages scrolling through trying to find a file rather than heading straight to it. The update to drive to allow you to see the 4 most recent files as Quick Access was an excellent addition and now comes another: 


The “Shared with Me” section shows the files that have been shared with you by another owner (searching by owner is a great way to find docs by the way) but the lovely people at Google are going to start organising this section for you so you may also see people listed, along with files they’ve shared with you. Simply click on a document to quickly open it. 

Check out google's blogspot here
And finally... it's now less that a week to the @Appsevents Google Summit in Wembley. I'll be heading along for day 3 and looking forward to catching up with friends but I'm also really pleased to see support staff bootcamps running on the Friday. In my opinion, a school's support staff are key to getting the whole organisation to embrace collaboration through GforE. When these unsung heroes understand how they can work more efficiently within their own teams and beyond,  and champion this, the rest of the staff will have to get on board. 

If you're a member of school support staff, get along to one of these bootcamps and save yourselves a whole heap of work in the long run.