Have you tried the NEW Google Sites? On November 9, Google released the updated version to all EDU domains that are on the fast track release schedule, so I thought this would be a great chance to take a look at some of the latest features and enhancements, as well as to answer some questions about the future of your existing Google Sites that were created under the old platform. Here's what you need to know.

There are a couple of ways you can create a new Google Site. You can go to sites.google.com/new or you can go to your Google Drive and click the New button and select Google Sites. This fixed a huge problem for me, namely the lack of any option to organize my Google Sites. In the new version, your Sites live in Drive, so they can be organized into folders or shared in exactly the same way that you do with your other files in Google Drive.

One of the biggest complaints I used to hear about the old Google Sites was in relation to how hard it was to navigate and find the features that you want. That has changed dramatically in the new version. The menus have been simplified or automated so that all the important features are now easy to locate via a sidebar on the right-hand side of your screen.

From the Insert tab you can add text, images, HTML embed codes, or upload files. You can also add Google Drive folders, YouTube videos, maps, calendars and other files stored in your Google Drive. Each element can be resized by clicking and dragging the frame around each object. You can move it around the page by snapping it to some handy guidelines. Dragging objects around also lets you put two things side by side like text next to an image or two or more videos.

From the Pages tab, you can create new pages for your navigation. The page templates are gone, so there are no more Announcement or Filing Cabinet options, but for the most part, these can be recreated with the new features in Google Sites. You can drag and drop pages to rearrange them in the order you want them to be in, and select a page to be set as your homepage. Both horizontal and vertical navigation options exist in the new Google Sites and can be chosen by hovering your mouse in the top left hand corner of your Site and clicking on the gear icon.

From the Themes tab, you can choose from one of six stylish new themes. Each theme has its own color palette to choose from, and three font styles. So, although it might not look like there is all that much to choose from, the number of variations you can create with these options is more than you might think.

Click the images below for a closer look at the new menus.

There are three header types - large banner, banner and title only. You can access those by moving your mouse over the header. Google has included a number of images you can choose from for a header, or you can upload your own image. A nice touch here is the readability adjustment tool that automatically adjusts the text color in your header so that it can be read easily regardless of the image you choose for your header. In my tests it worked well for most images, but there are still going to be times when you might just be better choosing a different background.

Another nice addition is the ability to background accents to elements like text boxes. You can access those by hovering your mouse over your text and clicking the palette icon that appears on the left hand side of your screen. This lets you choose between Regular, Emphasis 1, Emphasis 2 or an image as a background for your text. This can let you create some very stylish pages that can really make your content pop. Examples of that can be seen in the gallery below.

On the toolbar at the top of your screen you will find the new undo and redo buttons. Those will be a big help for people who are exploring the new Google Sites for the first time. You can also see a preview of your site and how it will appear on different devices by clicking the eye icon. Sharing settings can be set the same way as before, but there is a new Publish button that enables you to work on changes and push them out when you are ready, and not as soon as you make them.

By now, you are probably wondering what this means for your existing Google Sites. Here is what Google has to say on that very subject:

• In 2017, Google will provide and recommend options to domain administrators to migrate your sites from the classic Sites to the new Sites.
  
• Beginning in 2018, Google will send a timeline and instructions regarding the gradual process to shut down the classic Sites. The specific date for the shutdown of the classic Sites has yet to be set, but Google will inform domain administrators at least one year in advance of that shutdown.

So, there is a lot to like in the new Google Sites, but there are a few things I would still like to see added to this version of Google's website builder. For instance, the new Sites can only be accessed on a desktop web browser. There is no mobile access to the editor and no mobile app has been released at this time of writing. I would also love to have a blogging option. If they added a blog page template, I think that this could be a true competitor to Weebly or Wordpress.com, but as yet, this option does not exist. Finally, I would love to have the HTML editor option that we had in the old Google Sites. It was a little limited because you could not do much with the theme, but the added flexibility to customize the HTML on a page was certainly something I used more than I thought I would.

Is there something you miss from the old Google Sites? If so, what is it? Leave a comment below, and be sure to click the feedback button in the bottom left-hand corner of Sites in order to let Google know too! In the meantime, check out this playlist of tutorials from steegle.com on how to use the new Google Sites.

Jonathan Wylie, Digital Learning Consultant, Grant Wood AEA - @jonathanwylie

For more posts like this, please subscribe to our blog! You can also connect with us on social media if you Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter or add us to your circles on Google+. We even have our own podcast you can listen to and a Makerspace video show!

As much as we might like technology companies to take a break over the summer months, they don't. This means teachers sometimes miss learning about some of the latest updates to their favorite edtech tools while on vacation or while busily getting ready for the new school year. So, with that in mind, here is a quick roundup of some of the more useful updates to Google Apps for Education that happened in the summer months of 2016. This is not an exhaustive list, but it has some great new features that are worth exploring in the coming school year.

Have your tried Google Expeditions yet? There are now over 200 virtual reality tours that you can take your students on to immerse them in different cultures, environments, and places that they would otherwise not be able to experience. The International Space Station, the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, Buckingham Palace and many more sites are now available. So far, Expeditions has only been available to Android users, but an iOS app is slated for release soon and that means iPad users will soon be able to take advantage of this unique experience too.

Are you interested in trying Google Expeditions with your students? The Digital Learning Team at Grant Wood has their own Expeditions kit that we will be looking bring to area schools soon. Stay tuned for upcoming professional development opportunities with more information, or contact us to find out more.

There have been a number of useful updates to Google Forms this summer. The first was the ability to create quizzes. With this new feature, teachers can auto-grade multiple choice and checkbox questions in order to spend less time grading and more time teaching. They can also add review materials like websites of videos for students that may need more help understanding the concepts they are being assessed on. You can also disable the option to let students send a copy of their results to themselves.

Also new in Forms is the ability to add images to questions and to answers. Both are really interesting options for schools and have the potential to be used in all kinds of different ways. Check out this great post by Richard Byrne with ideas on how to get started with both of these new features.

Parent participation arrived in Google Classroom this summer with the ability for you to share summaries of student work with parents. This automated feature is available from inside your Google Classroom settings. You can invite parents and guardians by entering their email and then turn on summaries which are automatically sent to the connected adults. Teachers can also email parents from Classroom with this new feature. More information here: http://bit.ly/2bGSANn

Another new feature in Classroom is the addition of annotations in the Google Classroom mobile apps. Google says that "using annotations, students can complete assignments, sketch out math problems or even create visuals of creative ideas directly on their devices." However, teachers can also use annotations to mark up student assignments and to draw or write directly on to the student's work.

Lastly, you can now add labels to discussions in Classroom. This lets you more quickly sort discussion posts by topic so that you (and your students) can find exactly what you are looking for without having to scroll endlessly through all the posts on the Classroom homepage.

Just before the summer, Google released a new Q&A feature that lets you interact with your audience. It adds a unique URL at the top of your slides that students or staff can use to ask a question at any time on their own device. The questions can be voted on by others watching the presentation and ranked according to which ones receive the most votes. The feature is available for Mac, PC and Chromebooks. You can also use Google Slides Q&A with iPads or Android devices. Find out more information here, or in the video below.

Have you heard about the new Google Cast for Education yet? It's a free Chrome app that allows students and teachers to share their screens wirelessly from anywhere in the classroom. Google Cast for Education carries video and audio across complex school networks, has built-in controls for teachers, and works seamlessly with Google Classroom. The app runs on the teacher's computer, and no additional hardware or installations are required on student devices. Students simply use the new Cast functionality that is built-in to the latest version of Chrome. Sounds too good to be true, right? More information here and in the video below.

Recently, Google acquired a company called Synergyse that was responsible for the Synergyse Training for Google Apps service. It was a paid app and was largely aimed at businesses who wanted to provide quick and easy help for their employees with anything to do with Google Apps. This interactive training resource is now free for schools to take advantage of and has been launched under a new name - Training for Google Apps. It is designed to give you step by step help with anything from composing and email to building a Form. More information here.

Google has been working on a brand new version of Google Sites that is more modern, easier to use, and much nicer to look at. The new Google Sites are designed to look great on any device, regardless of screen size, and they include the same real-time co-editing experience that you are used to in Google Docs.

Right now, the new Google Sites are not available to everyone because they are currently being tested by a number of early adopters that were given access to the program. While they have a lot of great new features, many of the existing features have yet to be added. The Google Sites you are using right now is guaranteed to stick around for another year or so, and options will be given for people who want to move their content from the old Google Sites to the new Google Sites. So because this update is not yet publicly available, file this one under "good to know" and wait for future updates.

Are you excited about the new features coming to Google Apps for Education? Which ones do you see a use for in your classroom, and why? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Jonathan Wylie, Technology Consultant, Grant Wood AEA

For more posts like this, please subscribe to our blog! You can also connect with us on social media if you Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter or add us to your circles on Google+. We even have our own podcast you can listen to and a Makerspace video show!

Did you know Google Photos creates animated gifs from a series of photos you take. Take a few and look at the assistant and you may see a few you didn’t know you had. The assistant will also make stories and movies from photos you have as well as stylize your photos for you. This is a great place to backup your photos. ​

You can keep track of your to do lists or throw in an image to take a note about. On your notes you may set reminders, share them with others and color code them for you to easily find later. ​Google Keep can be used on mobile devices and from your computer. 

Goo.gl is a classic must have Chrome extension. Use this extension to shorten a URL to create a QR code, share a resource on social media or track the hits. ​​

There is so much you can do with Maps! Create your own maps to record events. Check out directions and measure distance between locations. Drop Pegman on a map to take a look around at a location’s street view. ​

Google Sheets is quickly becoming a new favorite of mine because you can look at data in ways you can't when it is just text. The power of collecting information in a form and then adding equations, formulas and graphs to look at the information in a different way. Then sharing it with colleagues in a PLC can add even more great discussion.

Google Add-ons are scripts that make your sheets, docs and forms more powerful. Here are 6 of my personal favorites for you to take a look at: Autocrat (think mail merge to docs on steroids), formMule (email merge with multiple templates), Kaizena (add voice comments and links to a Doc), g(Math) (create math equations and graphs in a Doc), Doctopus (create docs for each of your students) and Flubaroo (quickly grade assignments). 

Google searching is more than just for looking up information. Did you know you can do math conversions, search for copyright free images, check a flight status, define words or check a live sports score? Here are some tips for searching. 

If you find yourself sending the same type of message over and over again, it is a great idea to save the message as a canned response and then you can reuse it!  Go to your Gmail settings and to Labs and enable it first. Then compose your message and go to the bottom right and click on the arrow and you can save your first canned response to reuse.

There is a lot of great content on YouTube. Three that I recommend would be C.G.P Grey (fun quick videos that teach you a lot in a funny quick way), TEDEd (some lessons from the creators of TED), and since we are talking Google how about the Guru (a bunch of Google how tos).

You can set default reminders for every calendar event, but I like to shut that off and add the notifications on each event. I like to have 2 (that's how many times I hit snooze in the morning), but you can add up to five pop-up or email reminders per event. 

This is one of the little things that makes Google docs great. All of the changes are tracked, so you can go to File--> See revision history and see exactly what has been added and by whom. Then there is always the option to restore back to that previous version! Merry Christmas!