This weekend, I was visiting friends in Maine and one of them was struggling with a PDF. This friend is a graduate student and most of her research (articles, chapters, etc.) is in PDF. Her research process has always involved printing each article and marking it up with a pen. As the research increases, so has her budget for printer ink until she has finally decided to explore paperless options. This is where I come in to the picture. She already uses Google Drive and Docs for much of her work, so it seemed logical to find a tool that fit in to that universe. We settled on Notable PDF, a Google Drive App. And it is awesome.
Google Apps for Education
Chromebook Rollout
Frontier Regional and Union 38 School Districts’ Technician, Mike Peloquin, shares tips for a Chromebook rollout.
GAFE Admin Console Retreat
On July 29, 2015, we will be hosting a GAFE Admin Console Retreat at Holyoke Community College. Register here. Click here to see the full agenda.
Whether you are in the serious consideration phase of migrating to Google Apps for Education or deep in the throes of going Google, you will leave with best practices and knowledge of the most current admin console developments.
Using Google Groups
Over the past 5 years using Google Apps for Education at the Collaborative, I have slowly learned through experimentation and loads of frustration (my own and that of other people) that Google provides the tools you should be using to simplify your collaboration and communication. The challenge is understanding the ways in which these tools work together and how to use them effectively (i.e. as Google wants you to use them).
Take, for example, using Google Groups. For a long time, I only used Google Groups as a listserv. It is only in recent months that I have realized that Groups is a powerful tool for being proactive about sharing and communicating. In many ways, using Groups is a gift to your future self. Your future self will be grateful to your present self and couldn’t we all benefit from more kindness and gratitude?
Before I get to the full recommendations, let me tell you a story. It’s a sad story of wasted time, much confusion, and tedium.
Once upon a time, there was a team (Queen and her village) who did everything in Google Drive. They had many collaborators within their team and beyond. They built an elaborate structure of myriad folders and subfolders (castle), each shared folder and document with different permissions and individual email addresses (keys made by the royal locksmith). This worked fine until they hired a new person (Prince)…. [Read More]
Managing Your Google Domain
Whether you are a teacher using Google Drive in your class, an administrative professional responsible for organizing Drive, or the Google Apps Administrator responsible for managing your Google domain, you know the struggle. The struggle to feel clear and in control over your (Google) domain.
I have tried many approaches to managing my Drive so I don’t feel like this. From no folders to elaborate folders and I have finally settled on what I think are the three pieces key to finding what I need when I need it:
- A consistent naming convention is your best friend,
- When it comes to folders, fewer are better, and
- Groups are the only way to share.