Getting More Out of Google Workspace

There is a better than a 50 percent chance that you have a gmail account – and an equal chance that your school email address is part of Google Workspace, even if it’s @myschool.edu.

Despite multiple other options for schools to use for email, document handling and shared calendars (Microsoft 365, Zoho Workspace and Proton), Google and its communication, document sharing and educational tools dominate. About 60 percent of K-12 schools use the platform, with 80 percent of higher education institutions using Google Classroom. Though Google works well on Mac OS, Android OS and Windows, those majorities are partially powered by the significant increase in the use of ChromeBooks in schools between 2012 and 2020.

However, are you getting the most from your school’s investment in Google and in technology in general? If your use of Google Workspace only includes email, Google Doc and Sheets creation and sharing, and shared calendar, there are more options – and more to be used to support your school’s mission, both academically and co-curricular.

The Google platform and other options in this market offer a wide variety of apps and applications that can be used to communicate better, manage resources better, and make each member of the school community better – helping everyone to be more productive, more efficient, and provide more time to connect with students and not with paperwork.

Among the apps in Google Suite and the others that most advanced users access are internal and external communication apps. The external one, Meet in Google, can be used just as Zoom is by so many schools now. If you are paying for a Zoom subscription in addition to Google Workplace, consider switching all of your Zoom traffic to Meet. The two are comparable in almost every way with Meet being fully integrated with all of the other Google apps, making for more efficient communication.

For internal communication, Google offers Chat, a more dedicated communication tool that connects groups working together. It gives them a place to share updates, questions, information and guidelines as part of ongoing conversations rather than meetings or static documentation. Departments become more efficient when the key points and common issues have been discussed prior to physically meeting.

Your use of the storage and access to documents capabilities of Google might not include Keep. Primarily a note-taking and tracking app, Keep can also be used to easily share those notes. Additionally, Keep can store and share photos, drawings, images and audio. Being able to store and share photos with audio descriptions allows more information to be communicated with one click and adds to the details provided. A photo is worth a thousand words, but the audio makes those words come alive.

Tasks does just that as it tracks the steps associated with the completion of a task. Used by businesses for tracking the details involved in various projects, coaches can use it for player evaluation, administrators share it to help themselves and others coordinate their joint efforts, and teachers can generate a list to map student progress and include the student in monitoring their efforts.

Supporting individuals who need to share information access with people outside of their school community, Google offers Sites and Apps Script. Sites supports a school developing websites that can be designed to reach from classroom size to the general public. Having a website (or a page) for teachers to post homework as signments, supportive documents, additional links and highlights is made more manageable with this app. And if a specific app providing a connection to some of your online data or documents is needed, Apps Script can help you write, share and monitor it. And like all Google platforms, these are backed by a standard of security managed through administration access and Vault, making sure your data is always there, always available.

Many of the Google platforms are connected to AI through their app, Gemini. From making suggestions on email content, analyzing your Sheets data, and supporting the development of your website, Gemini provides and does so at a level you can control and manage. Its connection to the Google platforms can range from being turned off to help you stay organized all the way to making suggestions on how to improve your efforts. And because of the integration that they all have, AI can draw from your other work to help improve the document in front of you.

It would be understandable, given how busy administrators, educators, advisors and coaches tend to be already, that investing time in accessing, learning and sharing those additional capabilities is challenging. Due to Google’s significant presence in education at all levels, the amount of support for new users and learners is immense, both produced by Google itself and done by other educators. That support is available through documents and videos, and even though the videos may vary in quality, one can always glean a tip or two from watching more than one. Of course, the best way to learn is hands-on, but time constraints make that challenging.

One idea would be to select one platform to add to your school’s toolbox. Find a volunteer who is really interested in what that support will do for the classroom and have that person learn the app as part of his or her own management improvement. Then have that individual share that knowledge with colleagues, either formally through time set aside during in-service days, faculty meetings or department gatherings, or informally with teachers coming in to observe during their classes. It will help your school community take advantage of the capabilities that are available, and likely already being paid for, without a significant investment in time nor a significant challenge to your school’s current rhythm.

One of the unforeseen results of teaching a new Google app at your school is often a sharing of how the current apps are being used. Much is learned simply by having users share how they use Google Drive, Sheets, Forms, Gmail and Docs. There are always new ways to use these apps: shortcuts, different formats, formulas and printouts. Just having everyone see what others are doing will expand how well the investment is being used to support students – during and after the school day.

Steffen Parker is a retired music educator, event organizer, maple sugar maker, and Information Technology specialist from Vermont who serves as the Performing Arts/Technology representative on the NFHS High School Today Publications Committee. He received the NFHS Citation Award in 2017 and the Ellen McCulloch- Lovell Award in Arts Education in 2021.