Updates to GAFE Products

Google is constantly updating their products making changes and improvements. In the last week, there were several improvements to GAFE products that I believe are of interest to teachers. Check out a few of those changes below.

'Shared with me' is coming to the new Google Drive

With the launch of the new Drive last year, we renamed the ‘Shared with me’ section to ‘Incoming’ and tweaked the functionality a bit. We’ve since heard feedback from people using the new drive that they miss the ‘Shared with me’ functionality, so today, we’re bringing it back

Headers and Footers

1. People using Google Docs can now use different headers and footers on the first pages of their documents, which comes in handy for:

• Following academic formatting guidelines (e.g. MLA, CMS, APA)

• Starting page numbering on the second page

• Making a title page without headers or footersAfter inserting a header or footer in your document you’ll see a new checkbox―just tick it and you’ll be able to set a different header and footer on the first page:
  

There’s also a new Insert > Page Number menu that lets you customize how and where you start your page numbers―like on the bottom of the second page, for example

Custom themes, mobile app improvements for Google Classroom

Today we announced several improvements to Google Classroom. On the web, teachers can now bring their own personal touches to Classroom by uploading their own images to use as themes. They can add their own custom images, or choose from our gallery of options, which has been updated with 18 new images and 30 pattern themes.

For the Android and iOS Classroom apps, we added the ability for students and teachers to view the class resource page, and a few other features for both Android and iOS. 

The Classroom app allows students to do their work anytime, anywhere and is designed for schools with iPads or Android tablets and students' personal devices. If you are a Google Apps for Education admin and your school is using managed Android tablets, iPads, or ChromeOS devices, please consider installing the Classroom app centrally, as students may not be able to install it themselves. To make sure students have a great experience using the Classroom app, be sure to install the Drive and Docs apps (Docs, Slides, and Sheets) to the devices at the same time. 

To learn more about our native mobile apps, please visit the Classroom Help Center.

As a side note- I get incredible up to date information from Twitter. While you can find great teaching ideas on Pinterest, there are groups of people worldwide who are willing to share ideas and want to talk about what they're doing in their classrooms in their corner of the world. I'm amazed every single day by the things I learn on Twitter from other educators.