This video is brought to you by the EdTech News Brief podcast.
Google Docs is going pageless.
Google Classroom is finally letting you schedule assignments
across multiple classes, and Google Calendar
is making the scheduling process so much easier
Roger is working on a table in Google Docs and as he adds to the table,
some of the table begins to move down to the next page.
It doesn't look great at all.
And now his flow is interrupted because he's thinking,
How do I move this down to the next page?
Oh, man, that big empty space is really weird.
What if I made the font really small?
Maybe I can mess with the margins.
Well, the limitations of working in pages on
Google Docs is now gone, thanks to the new pageless feature.
The option is available when you go to file
page set up, and then you'll see pageless across the top.
From there, you can adjust the width of the column
by right clicking where the ruler used to be, and then selecting text width.
And as an added benefit, he can also take some very large images
that he would like to keep as large images
and not worry about the image going off the page
as it would in the traditional view.
There is no longer a header or footer when you're in the pageless view.
And if Roger does have to end up printing this document,
it will revert the document back to a paged view.
But I think Google is realizing
that a lot of the docs that we are creating and working with
are never going to become printed out documents.
So there's no need to work in these page
limitations anymore, If you don't want to.
And while we're talking about Google Docs,
I do have a bonus update that does apply to Google Docs.
Where you can actually have a video screencast play
within a Google Doc comment, but I'll come back to that.
Roger here has the important class job of being the teacher assistant
and I've asked him to schedule an upcoming robotics project
in Google Classroom for two of my robotics classes.
He's shared with me how difficult it is to actually
schedule assignments on Google Classroom for multiple classes
because first he has to schedule the assignment for one class.
Then he has to hop over to the other class.
Reuse the assignment from the first class.
And then schedule that new assignment for the second class.
Well, Roger laments no more because you can now schedule
assignments for multiple classes in Google classroom.
I've asked him to post our sumo robot challenge assignment
that we're going to be doing next week in two of my robotics classes.
So he creates the assignment and then he selects both of the
robotics classes that it'll be assigned to.
And to schedule it, he clicks on the little arrow
next to assign and then clicks on schedule.
The first robotics class will be ready to start this on Tuesday,
so he schedules it to publish on Tuesday morning,
and they'll have one week until it's due.
And then he adds it to the robot challenges topic.
The second robotics class is not moving as quickly
as the first robotics class.
So they're not going to start on it until Thursday of next week.
And they too will get one week until it is due to budget schedules,
the assignments, without having to use any backdoor methods
to schedule the same assignment for multiple classes.
Thanks to this update and Google Classroom.
Before I get to the Google Calendar update,
you may be thinking, Tom, how do you and Roger keep up
with all these app updates?
I'm glad you asked.
Roger and I tune in every week to the sponsor of today's video,
The Ed Tech News Brief Podcast by Jake Miller.
Yes, the same Jake Miller
who hosts the Educational Duct Tape podcast as well.
Roger and I enjoy the video version of the podcast.
And each week Jake fills us in with new
App updates in the world of edtech.
The episodes are about 15 minutes long.
Each update that we're talking about in today's video
we actually learned about in the Ed Tech News Brief podcast.
Check out the link in the description
or just search Edtech News Brief podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.
So we have student Led conferences coming up and Roger here
needs to sign up for his conference time instead of creating a sign up
table in Google Docs or something like that, and then transferring
that information over to my Google calendar.
I can now use the updated scheduling feature of Google calendar
so Roger can sign up for an available time right within Google calendar.
But I'm pretty sure Google Calendar
already had a schedule and appointment feature
They did, but it was terrible and nobody used it.
so to create your booking page inside of your calendar,
you want to go to create, and then you want to create an
appointment schedule, so we can title
this student led conference appointments.
They will be a 30 minute appointments.
And these are not going to be appointments
that I do weekly so I'm not going to repeat this weekly,
but instead it is just going to be the 14th, 15th and 16th of Nov
in this case, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
So I'm going to say November 14th and then click on that date
and I'm going to say 2 p.m. until 4 p.m.,
and now I'm going to add the 15th to that and the 16th as well.
If I go next in the description, I'm going to remind them to bring a device
so that way they can showcase their portfolio
during their student led conference and on the booking form.
I do want them to leave their first name,
last name and email address, but I'm going to add an item
that they need to include and I want them to leave a link
to their portfolio so that way I can check it out before the conference.
I'll make that required and add that and the booking confirmation
and reminder by default, we will both get a calendar invitation
when the student signs up for a time.
But I do also want this email reminder
to get sent to them one day before.
So that way they don't forget and they will be reminded
about the student led conference. And then when I click on Save,
I now have this booking page that I can share with students.
And so now when Roger sits down to take a look
at this booking page, he can click on the time
that is most convenient for him,
fill it out appropriately, and when he clicks book,
I will see that on the calendar.
You can see that 2:30, it shows a Roger robot as the name.
It also shows just the general booking page if I need to make any edits
or open the booking page up, since those are the days
that I have those availabilities and look forward to the time
that I get to sit down with Roger where he shares the ups and downs
of his learning experience with his dad.
So before our student conferences,
Roger shares a writing assignment in Google Docs
that I think would make a great addition
to the student led conference portfolio,
but I've got a few suggestions that I want to share with them.
I could make some comments and suggestions
on the side of the actual document,
but I also want to spend a couple of resources
that I think he could use in his writing assignment.
So screencasts would be a better way to communicate all that.
And that is where our bonus update comes in
because I could use any screen casting tool
and then just drop a link to that video. And then Roger would then
leave the Google doc to go watch the screencast.
But how awesome would it be to have a screencast
that's playable right within the google doc comment?
Screenpal is a Google Chrome extension
created by Screencast-o-matic that lets you do this
if you install the Screenpal extension you'll find this little icon in a lot of text
or comment boxes on the web, including Google Doc comments.
So when you click on this little Screenpal icon, it gives you a couple
of options if you wanna do the screen, camera
I'm going to go and do both and then I'm going to call this Roger feedback
and I'm going to go ahead and start recording.
I'm going to record my chrome window right here
and three, two, one,
Roger, I think there's going to be great for your portfolio.
I do think it'd be great for you to also include
something about what Boston Dynamics is doing
with their spot robot and the world of artificial intelligence.
Super cool stuff, let me know if you check it out.
Now, you can see that I've got this Screenpal option right here.
I can I can redo it. I can trim it. I don't really need to do any of those things.
I'm done. I'm okay with this video and I'm going to finish up
and I'm going to use the video and so it leaves this link
right here in the comments section.
And then I'm going to click on comment. And now when you hover over it,
Roger, I think it's going to be great for your portfolio.
It will play and Roger can then watch this video
without ever having to leave Google Docs.
And any time you can help a student stay focused
by keeping them in the workspace that they're in, the better.
Now, the only caveat is that Roger also needs to have the Screenpal
extension installed in order for the video
to play within the Google Docs window as a little pop up.
If he does not have the screen pal extension,
then he will just have to click on the link
and open it as if or any other screencast video link.
If you click right here, you can actually see one of the latest
two episodes of the EdTech News Brief podcast.
I do recommend watching the video version
because then you can actually see the update in action.
So go check it out over there or wherever you listen to podcasts.