Google has made free tools and storage available for education. It appears with the newly named Google Workspace for Education program totally free storage has come to an end for many. Google now offers a four-tier model with one tier still free (Workspace for Education).
For those of us who used Google resources as individuals, free storage also has come to an end. We are allowed 15 GB of storage, but that has to cover what we store in Gmail, Drive, and Photos. Again, some will be able to function within this amount of storage, but if you are like me and have used Google services for many years you likely have enough content in Drive and Photos that you will have to pay for some tier of Google One storage.
I write frequently about Google use in educational settings, but I was not part of a Google for GSuite group. I could describe the tiers for you, but this has already been done by others who have studied the new tiered model. Even a great description of the tiers will not necessarily be all educators need to know when investing in one tier or another. The challenge for someone like me offering advice is that what should be recommended would depend on knowing the data storage history of a given school and how many student/teachers are involved. This type of information is needed in making a good choice. Smaller schools not asking educators and students to save a lot of content (remember that saving content over several years might be desirable) could probably still use the free tier.
I thought this podcast from the Chromebook Classroom did a great job of describing some guidelines that could serve as a starting point for district decisions.
Google Keep offers an efficient and free way to archive content as you spend time on the Internet. I have described this service before, but did not offer an explanation of how it works on different devices. This post deals specifically with the iPad.
If you have Keep on your iPad, sending content to your Keep archive makes use of the “share” feature. The one tricky thing about sharing on the iPad is that you must activate “share” for specific apps. Here is the process.
The share icon (top red box) opens a display of the options. At the right-hand end of the existing options, a series of three dots (see red box) offers the opportunity to activate other share possibilities.
The three dot icon opens up the apps that can be coordinated with the active app. You use the slider associated with a given app to make it available. Once activated, this app will be available as an outlet for selected content when the share option is used.
I have been waiting for some time to explore Google lens. This Google Photos capability was first available for Android devices but was supposed to be rolling out for iOS. Cindy has the capability on her iphone, but I, as yet, do not.
Anyway, I found that I can use Google Lens on my Chromebook and the larger screen offered advantages in recording a demonstration of what Lens can do.
My demonstration may paint a picture that is too positive. The service is impressive. One of the capabilities I keep searching for is related to my background in teaching biology. I am a sucker for apps that purport to identify plants and animals. Google Lens might be expected to have similar capabilities.
What I have found about this application of AI is that plant identification is very challenging. This makes sense as the images provided may or may not reveal critical features the AI needs to make an accurate identification. What I remember from classes requiring that I identify unknown species with a “key” is that even with guidance this process is challenging. I like to test the AI capability of these products by visiting a zoo or botanical garden that offers examples I do not know, but also provides labels for the exhibits. Does the identification of the technology offer a match?
What Lens does in such circumstances is make its best guess, but it also shows you images of other matches it considered. This seems a reasonable combination of AI and human intelligence. As a learning experience, the consideration of the options may offer a superior opportunity. You have to be involved. The technology scaffolds the experience by limiting the options and you end up making a decision.
We are in Kauai, HI, and I am finding so many things to photograph. I have a nice camera, but I also always have my camera in my pocket and also like the GPS data stored with iPhone photos. As my local (camera) photo collection has grown, I have started investigating the options for storing photos remotely on Google Photos. I have never uploaded all my camera or phone photos to Google and I must also now contend with very slow Internet so there are multiple reasons to be selective. I think I have the local to remote options down so I thought I would write a tutorial.
Three lines or three dots
In the following content, I may make reference to three lines or three dots. This is a reference to icons that appear on the left (lines) and right (dots) when the Google search box is open at the top of the Google Photos display. The icons to control important actions drop down from the three lines and the three dots icons.
Is it local, remote, or both
The display of your photos on your phone provides some information about where a photo is actually stored. If you examine the lower right-hand corner of a photo in thumbnail mode, you may see a circle consisting of two arrows. This means the photo is on your phone, but has not been uploaded to your Google photos account. If you select one of these folders and then select Backup from the three dot icon, you will upload this specific photo to Google.
If an image has no such circle of arrows, the image has been backed up. To test this distinction for yourself, connect to your photos.google.com site from a computer and compare what you see on the computer versus the phone.
Here is the interesting thing. If you have the Google Photos app on your phone and connected, you will still see photos you have deleted from your phone (deleting photos from the phone does not happen just because you backed up) because the thumbnail for the image will still be downloaded and displayed. Selecting the thumbnail will display the image by download. If your phone is offline, you will not see images stored only remotely. So, images can exist locally, remotely, or in both places.
Free up space
There are two ways to delete local photos. A photo that is stored in two locations can be deleted by using the three dot drop-down menu and selecting delete device local. (see image above for options to backup and delete original)
An option for free up larger amounts of space by deleting local images is available under the three line drop down menu (free up menu).
Remember, some folks claim that a file that exists in only one location is not actually backed up. I certainly trust Google to keep the files stored only on their servers and they must have backups of these backups, but if you are paranoid, I am just telling you what some folks say.
BTW, you can reverse the backup and delete process by displaying an image that has been deleted locally (meaning you see it from the Google server) and selecting download from the three-dot menu. I guess this would be a way to determine if both options I describe above applies – no download=both, download=remote only.
[I am going to cheat a bit here so I don’t have to include pictures of all possible variations that appear under the three dot icon. Options come and go depending on the image viewed. So, backup will not appear if the image has already been backed up. Download would appear if the image has been backed up and the local image deleted.]
Backup vs. archive
When you select the three dot icon, the drop-down menu will list both backup and archive. Archive is for photos you do not want to display (locally or remotely). For example, I share my photos with my family and I may want to not bother them with work photos. This is what archive accomplishes. You will not see archived images remotely or locally. Fear not, the images still exist and you can locate them by using the download from archive icon available from the three line icon.
Blogger was once my goto blog tool (and then service). Google seems to have lost interest in Blogger, but I still want to use it for special purposes. I have a travel blog I use to post images and comments on recent trips I want to keep separate from this and other more general-purpose blogs I maintain. I usually write blog posts from a computer to speed text input, but when I travel I often want to use my iPad. There used to be an iPad Blogger app. This was discontinued. Then, there were other blog tools (some specific to younger users that would allow an educator to moderate before posting to a Blogger account) and these stopped working and were discontinued. You could kind of make due if you used Blogger adding content using a browser. However, this approach had the annoying problem that you could not access your iPad photo library. What good is a travel blog without photos?
I have found a fix that works. The iOS app App for Blogger or App for Blogspot (these are really the names) still works. The cost is $3 and the app seems a little crude and is missing features I would prefer (I can add images, but I cannot align them as I want). I use a combination of browser access and this app to generate the posts, but for the time being this works fine.
On Feb. 20, the rules for participation in the YouTube Partner Program will change. Among the benefits of being a partner was the opportunity to earn revenue from the ads that run when a Youtube video is displayed. Before this date, a creator became eligible for ad revenue once he/she had accumulated 10,000 lifetime views. After this date, you must have 4000 hours of viewing time in the last running 12 month period and 1000 subscribers.
Google indicates that the change will:
“will allow us to significantly improve our ability to identify creators who contribute positively to the community and help drive more ad revenue to them (and away from bad actors).”
I am the type of creator that will be penalized by this change. I meet the 10,000 view metric, but fail both the 4000 hours and 1000 subscriber standard.
I am not a bad actor. I post instructional videos for educators wanting to use technology applications in their classrooms. I have a couple of textbooks devoted to this goal, but made the decision several years ago to create much smaller and less expensive textbooks (available via Amazon) in combination with free online resources (supplemental information and instructional videos). The price when my textbook was last published by Cengage was $140. The Amazon price is now $9 and the Kindle combination with the online resources offers more and more current content than the $140 version.
I originally offered the video content I created from the server I rent. As more and more content was added, I became concerned with the load serving the video required. Moving the content to YouTube was a way to avoid this issue, to offer content to those who had no interest in my other educational products, and to make a little money (a few dollars a month when my instructional videos are viewed). Just for the record, when my YouTube video is embedded within a web page I serve, viewing the embedded video generates no revenue.
Consider the reality of reaching the 1000 subscribers and 4000 hour thresholds. Nearly all of my videos are say 8-10 minutes in length. Several are recommended by YouTube and have been viewed in the 1.5K range. Still, my estimate is that my annual viewing time would be about 18,000 minutes (YouTube analytics are reported in minutes). This is a long way from 240,000. I also do not have a lot of subscribers. People come to my individual videos when searching for a particular need or perhaps when assigned by a college professor. I make no effort to continually create videos which is what tends to attract and hold subscribers. I create videos when the issue or product presented fits an instructional need related to my other content. I could continually create videos on the many similar products available to educators but the replication in this approach has little benefit.
The YouTube decision fits a disturbing trend I see with tech service providers. The initial promise that all could become creators (this was what Chris Anderson described as the long tail) has given way to only the big content generators will be supported. The few dollars YouTube might compensate me is of little actual consequence, but the cost to YouTube was also quite minimal. It is the principle here that is disturbing (see Rushkoff’s “Throwing rocks at the Google bus”).
Google Photos offers the opportunity to create a photo album allowing invited individuals to contribute images. This collaborative opportunity seems perfectly suited to classroom projects.
I had not explored this capability until attending a recent wedding and recognizing just how many individuals were taking photos the best of which could be integrated for all to view.
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