Anywhere School recap: Updates worth noting

Another year, another Anywhere School event recap. There were more than 45 announcements this year – some we were informed of before but some are brand new and prompted the release of an updated timeline. There are some big changes for teachers but, as a Google Admin, there are also some changes that require us to take action in the coming months.

We’ll list them all here but we’ll focus on the top notifications for Classroom, Meet, Workspace, Chrome, and safety in this month’s Collaborative Corner video:

WATCH IT HERE

 If you’d to review the slide deck of information, you can access it here: https://bit.ly/collabcornerjuly21

  • Timeline

    Classroom

    • Schedule assignments to multiple classes (later this year)

    • Measure student engagement activity (later this year)

    • Offline capabilities (in a few months)

    • Improvements to Classroom/Meet integration (in a few months)

    • Automatically set up classes and keep rosters in sync* (coming weeks)

    • Classroom add-ons* (later this year)

    Meet

    • Refreshed user interface (live)

    • Multiple moderators (in the coming months)

    • Hand raising improvements (live)

    • Multi-pinning (in the coming months)

    • Closed captions in 5 languages (live)

    • More safety controls on mobile (live on ios, Android in the coming months)

    • Video lock (in the coming months)

    • New Admin controls (walled garden) (live)

    • Admin controls for meeting access and chat (in the coming months)

    • Admin end meeting for all* (in the coming weeks)

    • Closed captions in live streams* (in the coming months)

    • Live translated captions* (later this year)

    • Public live streaming* (Beta later this year)

    • Breakout room safety improvements* (in the coming months)

    Chrome

    • PIN logins for EDU users (in the coming months)

    • AUE Report in Google Admin console (live)

    • ChromeVox touch tutorials (live)

    • Switch access point scanning (live)

    • Magnifier centered panning (live)

  • Legend

    *Denotes a paid for version

    Bold denotes what I cover in the video

    Workspace

    • Smart canvas (depends on feature)

    • Smart chips (live)

    • Interactive checklists (live)

    • Table templates in Docs (in the coming months)

    • Present to Meet from Docs, Slides & Sheets (live)

    • Enhanced malware and phishing protections in Drive (in the coming weeks)

    • Simplified settings in Forms (in the coming months)

    • 20 new fonts in Forms (in the coming months)

    • Autosave in Forms (in the coming months)

    • Drive trust rules* (beta in coming months)

    • Drive labels with automatic data loss prevention enforcement* (Beta in coming months)

    • Assisted writing in Docs* (later this year)

    • Assisted analysis in Sheets* (later this year)

    • Present to Meet in Docs, Slides, and Sheets (later this year)

    Safer learning with Google for Education

    • New age-based setting – ACTION REQUIRED BY SEPT 1

    • Access to Additional Google services that have no individual control will be restricted There is no public list of those services

    • Users will no longer have access to their YouTube channel including features such as uploading videos or posting comments (Action: use Google takeout to save content)

    • Some Additional services will be more restricted

    • Chrome policy defaults for SafeSearch, SafeSites, Incognito Mode, and Guest Mode

The excitement of more than 45 announcements during the Anywhere School event has come and gone and Summer projects are underway. We can’t forget to keep an eye out for the rollout of these updates and the required actions before going back to school. Want to review all of the updates and discuss their impact with other Google Admins? Register to “be our guest” for the July 20th stream. 

Top

  • Melissa Benson
    Google for Education Technical Collaborative Lead

  • About the Author:

    Melissa has been a Google Workspace for Education Consultant for Amplified IT since 2015. She began working with the Google for Education (GFE) Admin console in 2008 where she helped implement and integrate Google Workspace and Chromebooks into multiple K-12 school districts. Now, as part of the Amplified IT Team, she continues to help schools set up and manage Google Workspace environments with educational best practices with an emphasis on facilitating the North American Google Technical Collaborative.