Catch up on every new feature added to Google G Suite for Education in October 2018.

Google Docs Activity Dashboard

Earlier this year, Google introduced an Activity Dashboard in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides that allows you to easily keep track of who has viewed a document and when they viewed it. This is especially useful for shared documents. For example, a teacher can check if a student has seen a file already and alert them that it’s been updated.

To access Activity Dashboard and see who’s viewed a file in Docs, Sheets, or Slides, click Tools > Activity Dashboard. The first page allows you to see the read status from users the document is shared with, as well as all users in college.

Google has added the Viewer Trend option, which is similar to Google Analytics. It enables you to specify a time range and see daily viewers on a graph, which is particularly useful for documents shared with a large number of people.

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Over the last year we have been investigating the use of classroom technology that might help reduce the dependency on Windows PCs. We also wanted to utilise Chromebooks better and enable teachers to wirelessly present to the classroom projector or screen. Various hardware and software screen casting solutions were considered, most of which were either too expensive or difficult to use. One potential solution was Google Cast for Education that is based on Google’s consumer Chromecast technology and is built into Chrome. While it didn’t require new hardware it did rely on having a classroom PC logged on and connected to the projector and it didn’t perform well on a large network. It did get us thinking about whether we could adapt a Chromecast for use in the classroom. After some trial and error we eventually found a good way of connecting Chromecasts to the College network in a secure and easily accessible way.

Wireless Casting with Chromecast

Chromecast is a new service we’re introducing to the projectors and screens in classrooms and meeting spaces. This screen casting service will allow:

  • Wireless connection to the screen – no need to fiddle with cables;
  • Casting from Chromebooks, tablets, and phones;
  • Cast just one Chrome tab or your entire screen.

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Catch up on everything new in G Suite for Education from May to September 2018! We’ve had a few months off posting our monthly G Suite update so there are plenty of new features to learn about.

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