Leaving Well with Google - updated!

[Editor note: We have updated this very important post from our previous 2013 version! The information below is current as of 6 May 2016.]

This is always a difficult time of year as we say "see ya later" to colleagues, students and families who are leaving our school. To make the transition a little easier, here are some ideas on taking your Google items with you.

The first step to make the transition is to create a personal Google account for yourself. This will become the new home for all the things you'd like to transfer from your account at UWCSEA.

To take things with you, we will use Google Takeout, but first it's important to separate the things you want to leave behind from the things you want to take with you.

Google Drive

If you have any items you need to leave behind because they are needed by colleagues or friends, you'll need to make sure that your department account is added as an editor of the document. An easy way to do this is to create a new folder and add the department account as editor to the folder. Then, Add (hold down Option+drag) documents to this folder. They will automatically be editable by the department account.

For really important documents, you might consider transferring ownership over to the department account.

You'll also need to think about those files that you will want to take with you when you leave. One systematic way to do this is to create a separate folder in your My Drive where you collect these files (e.g. "Take Out" folder). As you go through documents in other parts of your Drive, add them to this "Take Out" folder -- be sure you add and not move by holding down the Option key when you drag to your new folder.

Cleaning your digital debris can be a daunting task, but it's necessary to make sure documents are left with those who depend on them, and that you have the documents you need when you depart.

Gmail

Just like with Drive, you should take this opportunity to sort through your email. If there are emails that people in your department or team need that they have not been cc'd on, please take some time to filter these and forward them to the relevant people.

Similar to how you organized your Drive, in GMail you can create a label for all the email you intend to take with you. When you go to use Google Takeout later, you can then choose if you want to bundle all of your email into that archive, or if you'd just like to take email with a particular label.

Sites

Before you leave, it's important to make sure that the Google Sites you've created for UWCSEA that need to remain behind -- e.g. event sites, curriculum pages, etc. -- have ownership changed to your department account. 

1. Go to the site you wish to transfer and click the Settings icon, then choose "Manage Site."
2. Click "Sharing and Permissions" and add the department account an "owner" of the site (you can have multiple owners of a site). Click "OK."

You may want to preserve some of the Google Sites you've created in the college and keep copies for yourself later. To do this, the steps are similar: 

1. Go to the site you wish to transfer and click the Settings icon, then choose "Manage Site."

2. Click on "Sharing and Permissions" and make your personal Google account an "owner" of the site.

3. Log in to your personal Google account and go to the address of the site you're transferring. Again, go to "Manage Site" and from the "General" section, press the "Copy this Site" button. 

This will make a copy of your UWCSEA site in your personal Google account space. 

WARNING: linked or embedded assets like YouTube videos, Google Drive content, or images may be broken and need to be re-linked, embedded or uploaded.

GMail, Blogger, Photos, YouTube, Google Drive, and more

Content from a variety of Google services can be transferred using Google Takeout. This utility allows you to select what services you'd like to take data from and bundles them into open and portable formats that you can then transfer to your personal Google account. 

For example, Takeout lets you download the original video from things you've uploaded to YouTube.
Takeout allows you to specify folders you'd like to export from your Google Drive (you don't have to take the whole thing). Note that you cannot export folders and documents from Drive where you are not the owner.

Once you've selected all the services and specific data, you can click "Next" and Google will tell you it is preparing your archive and will email you when it is ready. It might take a few hours or a few days, depending on how much data you have, but eventually you will get a .zip folder with all of the files.  Double click the downloaded .zip folder to uncompress them. Using Google Chrome, log into your personal Google account and upload the entire folder to your new account.

If you want more detail about this archive, or have questions about how to use Google Takeout, see this useful site from Google's Data Liberation Front.

We're sad to see you go, but wish you all the best. Hopefully this will make it a little easier to enjoy your last few moments here and not worry so much about your Google goodies.

Digital Bytes March 9th 2015

This week's Digital Bytes features some excellent apps (organised by age level) for Coding, Art, Music, Writing and Film-making, a tutorial for moving incorrectly placed content in a Google Site, and some advice for parents for talking about Digital Citizenship at home with their children.

Digital Bytes February 23, 2015

This week's focus is on reading and writing, including articles about enriching students' creative writing skills with photography and using games like Mincraft to help your child with their reading. There is also a quick tutorial to help you learn how to delete those pesky untitled posts in your Google Site.

Primary Bytes February 9th 2015

This week in Digital Bytes we have articles on a searchable database of Public Domain media items, links to our parent workshop Parenting in the Digital Age, and a tutorial on how to embed a PDF in a website.

Digital Portfolios - Organising your Google Drive Folders

At UWCSEA East, we are using Digital Portfolios for Grades 3-5. These take the form of Google Sites.

One technique we are using is embedding Google Drive folders in their sites, so content can be populated automatically.

Students already have folders set up in their Google Drive (via Hapara, or Teacher Dashboard), so the following tutorial shows how students set up their folders ready for embedding in their sites.

Folder Structure in Google Drive for Digital Portfolios from UWC South East Asia on Vimeo.

Digital Portfolios using Google Sites

Grade 3, 4 and 5 students in our school are using Google Sites for their digital portfolios this year. One of the ways we can support them is through short video tutorials that break down some of the aspects involved in creating a site.

The tutorials have been uploaded to Vimeo and put into an album. We will continue to update the album with more and more videos over time.

Changes to Tabs in Student Google Sites

A couple of changes need to be made to Primary student Google Sites so they can work more effectively.

1. The literacy tab needs to be renamed Reading Workshop.
2. A new page needs to be added to Writing Workshop.

See the video below for details:

Student Google Site Page Changes from UWC South East Asia on Vimeo.

Adding Disclaimer to Google Sites

A tutorial to add the disclaimer to your class Google site page.

Adding a Page to your Class Google Site

This tutorial will take you through the process of adding a resources page to your class Google Site

 

Adding a Resources Page to Class Google Site from UWC South East Asia on Vimeo.

Customizing your Class Google Site Banner

You can customize your class Google Site banner to personalize your site for your class.

Here you will find instructions as to how to customize your banner using a Keynote template, or using iPhoto.

Here's how to use the Keynote template.

Follow these steps to customize your site banner using iPhoto 

Getting Started with your Class Google Site

This year, each class has been set up with its own Google Site. The purpose is to keep our parents informed about specific goings on in each class, and to host weekly homework.

Below is a screencast showing how to navigate to and get started with your class Google Site.

Each grade has been set up with a grade level page accessible from the school website (www.uwcsea.edu.sg).

1.  Log in to the school website and click on the East Learning (Note: The left hand side of the icon)

2. Select Infant or Junior as needed

3. Select your grade level

4. This will take you to your grade level page which the parents of your students will see. (Here is an example from grade 3)

5. In the sidebar on the left there are links to information about your grade (Academics, Activities, Outdoor education, Personal and Social Education, Service and Announcements).

6. To go to your personal page, click on your picture.

7. Once in your personal page click on "New Post"

8. Change the Title of the post from "Untitled Post" to the week and date of your post (eg. Week 1 - August 19-23)

*NOTE - at this moment when you type in the title of the post, you can't see what you type. To work around this, type the title you would like in the body of the post and copy and paste it in the title. See the video at the top of this page for an example.

9.  Write what you would like to share with the parents in the space below your title.

10. If you would like to add pictures into your post, put your cursor where you would like to put your picture and select Insert > Image from the menu bar.

11. Click on Choose File.

12. Find your image and select Open.

13. Another dialogue box will open. Click on the picture so it is highlighted and select Ok.

14. The image may display in your post as a different size than you would like it to be. 

To change the size, locate the popover display bar. To the right of the word "Image" you have options to place your image left, center or right of your page. 

Beside that you can select the size of the image as small (S), medium (M) or large (L). Select the size that you would like for your post.

Creating Announcements for Your Grade Level Page (HoG)

Each grade has been set up with a grade level page accessible from the school website (www.uwcsea.edu.sg).

1.  Log in to the school website and click on the East Learning (Note: The left hand side of the icon)

2. Select Infant or Junior as needed

3. Select your grade level

4. This will take you to your grade level page which the parents of your students will see. (Here is an example from grade 3)

5. In the sidebar on the left there are links to information about your grade (Academics, Activities, Outdoor education, Personal and Social Education, Service and Announcements).

The "Announcements" link is only available to head of grades and will not be visible to other teachers when they log in to this page.

6. The announcement page is replacing the ebrief page. To create a new announcement, click on the Announcements on the left hand side.

7. This will take you to a page where you would write any news that is relevant to the entire grade level.

8. Click on the New Post button to create a new post.

9. Change the Title of the post from "Untitled Post" week and date of your post (eg. Week 1 - August 19-23)

 10. Write what you would like to share with the parents in the space below your title.

11. If you would like to add pictures into your post, put your cursor where you would like to put your picture and select Insert > Image from the menu bar.

12. Click on Choose File.

13. Find your image and select Open.

14. Another dialogue box will open. Click on the picture so it is highlighted and select Ok.

15. The image may display in your post as a different size than you would like it to be. 

To change the size, locate the popover display bar. To the right of the word "Image" you have options to place your image left, center or right of your page. 

Beside that you can select the size of the image as small (S), medium (M) or large (L). Select the size that you would like for your post.

Sharing Student Work on Google Sites

At UWCSEA we use digital tools frequently for student learning. Grade 3-5 students have a Google Site which they are using to house their digital content. Below are some workflows for sharing student work to Google Sites easily.

From Pages/Keynote

Google Sites does not integrate easily with .pages or .key files, but there is a work around. Follow these steps to get your Pages/Keynote documents onto Google Sites

1. Open your Pages Document and click on File -> Export -> PDF

2. Click Next

3. Save to your desktop

4. Open Google Drive

5. Click on Upload -> Files and select PDF to upload (or, simply drag PDF into Google Drive)

6. Click on Share, and make your document viewable to anyone at UWC with the link, or Public on the web

7. Click on File -> Embed this PDF File

8. Copy the HTML Code

9. Go to your Google Sites, and start a new post for the work you want to share.

10. Click on the HTML button

11. Paste the HTML code and click Update

12. Your document will be visible once you press Save.

Here's a quick video to show the process if you prefer.



How to Embed a PDF into a Google Site from UWC South East Asia on Vimeo.

Movies

Google Drive can help you embed your movies, if they are in .mov or .mp4 or .m4v format. Follow these steps:

1. Open Google Drive

2. Click on Upload -> Files and select Movie to upload (or, simply drag Movie into Google Drive)

3. Click on Share, and make your document viewable to anyone at UWC with the link, or Public on the web

4. Go to your Google Sites, and start a new post for the work you want to share.

5. Click on Insert -> Video -> Google Docs Video

6. Search for the video you wish to include by typing its title.

7. Click on the video and press Select 

8. Deselect Include Title, and press Save

9. Choose how you want it aligned on the page. When you are ready, click on Save or Save Draft to see the embedded video.

Google Docs

Google Docs are the easiest to embed in a Google site. Follow these steps:

1. Go to your Google Sites, and start a new post for the work you want to share.

2. Click on Insert -> Document

3. Type in the title of the Doc you want to insert. Tick the Doc you want and click Select.

4. Deselect Include Title and click Save

5. Choose the alignment you would like. When you are ready, click on Save or Save Draft to see the embedded document.