Tech Tips and News for May 19, 2023

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Due to too many broken chromebooks, as well as other system updates and repairs, this week's issue is short and sweet. While I'm grateful that there weren't too many repairs during my unintended absence, I sure wish they weren't now breaking all at once! That being said, I'd much rather be busy than not have enough things to do. There are some notable Google updates, such as Bard, a new spam folder in Drive and a few other features that are worth noting, so you're ready when they appear in your google account. These new features are cropping up around us like all the new growth we see in spring!

• Give Me the Security Code - Wham! Bam! That's a SCAM #8
• Google Bard Now Available for Google Workspace for Education
• Keeping Your Students (and Yourself) Safe on Social Media:  A Checklist
• Google Workspace Updates:  
• Google Drive:  New Spam Folder
• Google Docs:  Create Custom Building Blocks
• Google Docs:  Collapsible Headings 

Give Me the Security Code - Wham! Bam! That's a SCAM #8

Google Bard Now Available for Google Workspace for Education

Until this week, Google Bard was only available for Gmail accounts. It is now available for Google Workspace for Education accounts. At ASA, that means for faculty and staff accounts. It will continue to be blocked for students, because they are too young for the terms of use and privacy policy. Google Bard is the Google version of an AI chatbot, such as ChatGPT, and can be used just like ChatGPT or Bing Chat. Some examples include creating lesson plans, generating letters to parents, helping with research, drafting explanations at a specific grade level, or creating poems, riddles, etc. Just pop over to bard.google.com and give it a try. 

Keeping Your Students (and Yourself) Safe on Social Media:  A Checklist

Keeping Your Students (and Yourself) Safe on Social Media:  A Checklist, from Common Sense Media by Tanner Higgin

To piggyback on last week's student privacy post, here's a handy checklist to consider before posting any information about your classroom or students on social media. 

Google Workspace Updates:

  

Drive:  New Spam Folder

In an effort to improve the security of Google Drive, a new spam folder will be added around the end of May. The spam folder in Drive will work in a similar way to the spam feature in Gmail. If an unwanted or suspicious file is shared with you, you will be able to mark it as spam, and it will be moved to the spam folder. Likewise, if Google suspects a file is spam, it will automatically be moved to the spam folder, so if you aren't seeing a file that was shared with you, check your spam folder. Read all about this new feature here. 

Google Docs:  Create Custom Building Blocks

Building blocks are the fields you can insert into a Doc by typing @. You can now save combinations of building blocks you commonly use as custom building blocks to reuse in other Docs. Just select the part of the doc containing the building blocks, right click and select "Save as custom building block". Name the block and save. It will appear in the building blocks menu the next time you insert one in a doc. Custom building blocks are also saved as documents in Drive, in a Custom Building Blocks folder. If you are not already seeing this feature, it should be available in the next 2-3 weeks. Here are all the details. 

Google Docs:  Collapsible Headings

A new collapsible heading feature is coming to Google Docs by early June. This allows a section of text to be hidden behind a heading, and expanded or collapsed as needed to make the doc more readable. An example of collapsible headings can be found on most pages of the ASA Tech Guide. Clicking the expand arrow in the heading reveals the text for that section, and clicking the arrow again collapses it. Details, inclding a link to learn how to use headings, can be found here.