Sharing a video from your Google Drive

Here's a quick video that I made to help if you are sending links to a video that you have saved in Google Drive to make sure that everyone can view it.

Google Tip: Protect a Range or Sheet

So I have shared a Google Sheets document with some colleagues and want them to be able to edit it, cool, easy enough.  Just share with them and give them 'editing' rights.  Then I find that one of the users has edited something they shouldn't have, by mistake (the Sheet had shared login and passwords on it).  Luckily I had the password written in another place, but I thought, 'how do I stop this from happening again without taking away the right to edit?'.

AH HA! Google has thought of this as well!  Protect a Range or Sheet

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/144687?hl=en

Using the protect a range function I highlighted the 8 cells that I didn't want anyone to edit and set the rights for those specific cells.  The teachers can still edit all of the other information on that page, but not the usernames and passwords.

MERGE CELLS in Google Docs tables!!!!

In speaking with different teachers and other staff members about shifting from keeping all of our documents on the file server to using Google Apps for most of our content, I have found that a lot of the resistance comes from the less than extensive capabilities of Docs and Sheets compared to Microsoft Word and Excel. One of the gripe worthy misgivings of Google Docs is the inability to merge cells in a table.  Well gripe no more! You can now Merge Away!

  http://www.thegooru.com/merge-cells-google-docs-tables/

Google will continue to make their Apps better and more functional as different needs arise with their users.

Wow Google is Cool!

Before coming to Brasil I had never used the Google Apps to any extent other than doing Google Searches ("Just Google it" is the now definitive ending to any disagreement).  It seems that a lot of people are in the same boat as me.  I have been spending some time going through the brilliant and easily accessible tutorials of the Google suite through Google for Education.  There is so much more that can be done than finding out what the one armed drummer of Def Leppard's name is.

I'm not sure which came first Google Apps or Google for Education, but Google Apps are suited perfectly for use in schools.  The abilities to collaborate, communicate, organize and inspire are all tied seamlessly together.

The Core Apps of Google are built on the need for collaboration and they are a good place to get started using Google.  They are:

Google Drive

Google Docs

Google Calendar

Google Sites

Gmail

and Google Search

In subsequent posts we'll look at the ways to use these different apps to enrich learning, engage students, and organize everything.