In this Issue
The snow has departed and spring has sprung. Outside it’s now time for renewal. Plants are budding, flowers are starting to bloom and the tech industry is launching new features and products! This issue of the Westside.Technology Update is dedicated to highlighting several updates that will directly impact you. Pages, Keynote and Numbers received several welcome updates including a much requested Table of Contents features in Pages. Google also has been hard at work with new updates to Hangouts Meet, Gmail and Google Drive. First though, we hear from Paddock Road teacher, Matt Kock about the importance of student privacy. Enjoy!
Thought of the Week
By Paddock Road 6th Grade Teacher, Matt Kock
Have you ever…
- Had your students go to a website and sign up to use the site using their school email?
- Had students create accounts for an app that you wanted to use with your class to to do a school project?
- Read the privacy policy of any app or website that you have had your students use in your classroom?
I am guessing that if you are like me and have used technology at all in your classroom your answers probably went something like this, “Yes, Yes, and. No?”
I ask these questions to hopefully trigger an awareness that we have all been doing it wrong. In this day and age it is time that we make knowing the policies of the companies, with whom we associate our information, part of our vetting process. Especially when it involves the lives and information of our students.
If you enjoy using technology in your classroom and especially if you love to try new things with your students I encourage you to use the following links. They will take you to the Common Sense Media website where you can learn a little more about things like COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Act. Which, by the way, has been around since April of 2000. There is a link to a report published by Common Sense titled, The State of EdTech Privacy. Lastly, a link to Common Sense Media’s very own Privacy Evaluations, were they have rated the privacy policies of hundreds of apps and websites so that you can make more informed decisions about what tech your students are using. Student Privacy is something we should all be aware of.
Apple Updates Pages, Keynote and Numbers
Apple announced major new versions of Pages, Keynote and Numbers for both the Mac and iPad. Included in these new versions are several great new features. One of the goals of this release was to make the iPad and Mac versions of the program have comparable features. This will allow you to better move between the platforms when you are creating!.
Pages
On macOS
- New Table of Contents view!
- Sync shapes and templates across devices using you managed AppleID
- Add alignment guides to master pages
On iPad - Create a Table of Contents in documents and books.
- Sync shapes and templates across devices using you managed AppleID
- Switch between word processing and page layout modes.
- See a full list here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207242
Keynote
On macOS - Create Animated GIF’s by exporting one or more slides!
- Create custom shapes and have them sync across platforms and devices using your Managed AppleID.
- Create your own keynote themes and sync them across platforms and devices using your Managed AppleID
- See a full list here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207247
On iPad - Animate objects along a line that you draw.
- Create animated GIF’s by exporting one or more slides!
- New, improved interface for creating slide animations.
- Edit Presenter Mode notes while presenting or rehearsing a slideshow.
- See a full list here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207246
Numbers
On macOS - Improvements in Smart Categories.
- Sync templates and shapes across devices using your Managed AppleID
- Improved support for importing .csv and .xlsx files
- See a full list here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207244
On iPad - Make precise changes to table rows and columns.
- Sync Templates across devices using your Managed AppleID.
- Improvements in Smart Categories
- Create image placeholders.
- See a full list here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207245
My Top 5 Google Updates for Spring 2019
Recently Google held a major conference were they announced many new features. Some of these features have already come to your Westside Google account! Check out my TOP 5 new features.
- SCHEDULE SEND in Gmail. You can now write an email in Gmail and then schedule it to send at a later day and time.
![][image-1] - New Scheduling Tools in Calendar. Peek at calendars and automatically add guests: Now, when you add a calendar in the “Search for people” box, you can temporarily view coworkers’ calendars. Creating a new event then automatically adds those people as guests to your meeting and might suggest a title for the meeting.
![][image-2] - Live Captions in Hangouts Meet. Live captions help make your meetings more accessible by reducing barriers to holding meetings between users of different hearing abilities, regardless of whether they are participating remotely or in person.
![][image-3] - Edit Office (Word/PowerPoint/Excel) Files in Google Drive. With Office editing, you can now edit, comment, and collaborate on Microsoft Office files using Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This feature brings the collaboration benefits of G Suite to Office files while streamlining workflows by eliminating the need to convert file types.
![][image-4] - Team Drive Improvements. You now have the ability to HIDE TEAM DRIVES that you don’t want to see anymore. You also can search for Team Drives by the creator of a file. To hide a Team Drive, click once to select it, then hit the 3 dot menu. You can then select ‘Hide Team Drive’. You can also control+click the Team Drive and select ‘Hide Team Drive’ from the pop up menu.
Closing
As always, if you ever have any technology integration related questions, please let us know. We are happy to work with you to design lessons, develop workflows and even come into your classes and work with you and your students.
Thanks!