google – Page 2 – Learning Aloud

Making lemonade

I am teaching a grad class for the UND program in Instructional Design and Technology this semester. I have had the opportunity both before and after retirement to teach a course a year for this program and I truly enjoy the experience. This class theoretically combined on-campus and off-campus students using technology services that allow all to meet in a kind of virtual classroom. Because I no longer live near campus, my courses are now all online.

The technology for the class has not worked very well this semester. The U made a decision to move to a product that operates within the Blackboard environment (Collaborate Ultra) and for what remain mysterious reasons after week two. We have yet to have a class when we can all get the system to work. Last week was particularly problematic because I could not launch the class remotely. Tech people tried to help and even took over my system remotely but nothing would work.

I had enough and fell back on something I knew I could count on – Google Hangouts. I had used this system before with a grad class consistently mostly of K12 educators based my belief that you learn about technology by using technology and Google products would be available to K12 educators (and others) after the class ended. This would not necessarily be the case for a CMS such as Blackboard. I sprung Google Hangouts Video on the class without warning and had a functioning session without problems.

I have since decided to move the Google Hangouts for the semester. I will let the U tech people struggle with Blackboard Collaborate. I thought I would create a simple tutorial related to Hangouts video calls so that my group and others might take advantage of more of the features provided.

I must say I prefer the previous version of Hangouts to the present arrangement. The previous version of Hangouts allowed me to create a “circle” for my class, start a session and share it with a circle within Hangouts, and record the session for distribution to those unable to attend or those wanting to review the session. Google has changed some things. I cannot find a way to share the present version with a circle and the recording feature is now a function of YouTube live. I prefer the old system and I have what are reasonable alternatives.

So for the uninitiated, you being by connecting to hangouts.google.com.

You should encounter a screen that looks like this. I have X’d out the history of past hangouts I have used. I use video call for my class. If you must deal with more than 9 people in real time, you will have to make the effort to use the YouTube Live alternative.

Video call should bring up a screen allowing making use of your camera and mic and a couple of other things. In the lower left-hand corner, you should see an icon that will launch chat. I will get to that later, but you may want to make use of chat and video/audio with a group. The dialog box appearing in the middle of the screen allows the originator to invite others. In the previous version, this is where I would take advantage of Google circles. I prefer not to have to enter addresses for all members of my class, but I use the copy link to generate and copy a unique URL to the clipboard. I then send this link to all members of the class using any email system. Note – you will not see this link immediately as it is copied to the clipboard. Just assume the address is there and paste when you generate the email invitations.

Students click on the link they receive and show up in the video session.

The video Hangout call allows many features those of us who use online class systems are used to having available. In the upper right-hand corner, you should find an icon that launches the drop down you see here. You can launch that chat tool and screen sharing from here.

Screen sharing offers two options – share the entire screen or share the active window of an application (e.g., PowerPoint, the view from a second browser).

The chat pane is fairly standard and should appear on the left of the video pane. Participants can carry on a chat while others are speaking.

Here is my work around for recording. I simply launch Quicktime (I tend to use Apple products) and record the section of the screen that Hangouts window. I save out recording in 720p and then upload to YouTube for sharing and archiving. The upload takes some time for a multi hour class, but I do not have sit and watch while this is happening.

Reasonable student privacy

I came across this report from the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) claiming that companies with an online presence are “spying” on children. Google was singled out. This caught my attention as I have been a fan of both the EFF and Google so I have been trying to understand just what is going on.

Spying is a strange choice of words, but I assume it was selected because it attracts attention. The accusation concerns the collection of user data without appropriate disclosure. This is a touchy subject for me. I have been upset that the FCC has eliminated expectations that ISPs not collect and sell user data so it was of great concern that Google be accused of doing something similar within its program for K12 schools. This should not be happening.

Close reading of the EFF announcement did not provide the detail I needed. The EFF “spying” piece reported data collected from educators, parents, and students establishing according to EFF that there was a lack of awareness or acceptance that limited possible safe guards. For example, if parents were aware of issues and wanted their children not be involved this was difficult because it would make more work for administrators and educators wanting to have all members of a class involved in the same project. These issues make some sense, but the issue is not really Google’s fault.

There were still vague references in the recent EFF statement that seemed to place blame on the companies providing services. I eventually located a better source. Several years ago EFF filed a complaint with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) identifying the ways in which Google had violated the provisions of the Student Privacy Pledge. The privacy pledge is a set of provisions a panel established and offered to online companies as a way to document commitment to the provisions. The EFF claims this commitment establishes a legal commitment.

I have excerpted and included below the three major violations the EFF claims in the complaint to the FTC.

Google is violating the Student Privacy Pledge in three ways.

First, when students are logged in to their Google for Education accounts, student personal information in the form of data about their use of non-educational Google services is collected, maintained, and used by Google for its own benefit, unrelated to authorized educational or school purposes.

Second, the “Chrome Sync” feature of Google’s Chrome browser is turned on by default on all Google Chromebook laptops –including those sold to schools as part of Google for Education –thereby enabling Google to collect and use students’ entire browsing history and other data for its own benefit, unrelated to authorized educational or school purposes.

And third, Google for Education’s Administrative settings, which enable a school administrator to control settings for all program Chromebooks, allow administrators to choose settings that share student personal information with Google and third-party websites in violation of the Student Privacy Pledge.

My interpretation and comments

Google does not differentiate what students do as school work and what they might do for personal reasons while connected to their accounts at school or elsewhere. This means Google collects data on:

browsing behavior on every single Google-operated site students use,
stores what students have searched for on the Internet and the results they click on, and
the videos they search for and watch on YouTube.

Even when Google aggregates and anonymizes the student personal information it collects, as the company does for Google for Education core services, Google still uses the data for its own benefit, unrelated to authorized educational or school purposes.

If chrome-synch is enabled, Google collects a student’s entire browsing history and chrome-synch comes enabled on all chrome books or may be enabled by school personnel.

Students could also use other equipment outside of the school setting to complete course assignments and the settings associated with this equipment may allow student data to be collected.

I have tried to summarize and convey concerns accurately, but I do encourage you to read the legal complaint yourself.

If I understand the concerns I am left wondering:

What is reasonable to expect, and
What do we expect for free?

I suppose Google could add some type of permission priorities that would allow the system to use parent permissions to trump any priorities set by the school. First, there would be the issue of getting parents to input their wishes. This would not be easy. There is also the what do you expect for free issue. What should users expect of Google to safe guard against educators over-riding parental wishes should there be a purposeful or accidental contradiction in what educators and parents want. I must admit to some sympathy for educators who have a couple students whose parents do not agree with assignments for the rest of the class.

The issue of whether the chrome-synch default is set to off or on for Chromebooks could be something Google could address. I am guessing Google does not control this as devices as chromebooks are mainly now provided by other companies and these companies do not sell only to educational institutions. The chromebook providers assume certain benefits of having synch engaged and do not want to explain the advantages and disadvantages to all users many of whom are looking for a simple device and do not want to mess with settings. This would seem to imply that checking the settings would be pushed to schools and there is then the EFF concern that schools may not make the necessary adjustment (or may even switch the synch feature on for chrome on other devices).

Finally, there is the issue of what students might do on their own at school or at home. Yes, students might do things they should not or they might fail to take precautions that have been recommended to them and their parents. Mixing work and personal interests is certainly something I do all of the time. Expecting Google to somehow control for such behavior seems unrealistic. The risk could be diminished by using only school provided equipment under school supervision, but this seems both unrealistic and contrary to hoping students will work in multiple settings. If EFF wanted to take a strict position on this issue, they would come out against BYOD programs (bring your own device) which would make the issues described here even more difficult for Google and schools.

I am a fan of the EFF. I think identifying some of these concerns is worth doing. However, expecting Google to remedy these issues is unrealistic for multiple reasons some of which would be very difficult to address issues assuming the lack of cooperation from schools, parents, and students. If EFF had discovered that Google was selling student data to third parties, I would be concerned. Google would then be using its free services in a way that clearly was contrary to what it had promised. If parents and educators are concerned about students viewing ads on sites not controlled by Goggle, I would propose that the solution is to stick with Google apps.

Accepting change

We made the decision some 5-6 years ago to abandon the traditional textbook model. We felt most textbooks were too quickly dated and this was certainly the case for those of us who write about the educational uses of technology. It was more than this. We proposed that authors combine a core textbook (we called it a Primer) with online resources. This now happens on a primitive basis with many textbooks, but the commitment to this hybrid approach is what the textbook companies do not fully understand. Yes, some content is best presented online and flexibility and multimedia are available when a company commits to combining a book and online content. What textbook companies do not want to do is support authors who write continuously. Because of the editing and production process, books are dated by the time they are actually printed. In order to combat this reality, we argued that proven authors should be paid to write continuously. Meeting a delivery date and then waiting to be given the approval to develop new content until a new edition is approved three years later is not good enough. Even after multiple successful editions, it was this factor that led us to break away from Cengage some years ago.

The other side of this is that as an author you have to be willing to back up your commitment. I understand this issue as a faculty member and as an author. I use our Kindle book and other resources in the graduate course I teach. While the course that will begin in a week or so draws students from various backgrounds, the course is focused on the use of technology in K-12. The university supplies me with great tools for teaching online (e.g., Blackboard, Adobe Connect with a phone bridge), but I try to make reasonable use of online tools that some might regard as less sophisticated. How educators learn with technology influences how they will teach with technology. Most K-12 districts will not be in a position to make Adobe Connect or a phone bridge available to their students.

One of the tools I have used in past courses has been Google Hangouts on Air. In smaller summer courses, I could use this tool for the synchronous portion of the course. I could send the recording of the classes to YouTube for those students who could not participate in the live class because of geography or an occasional conflict. Hangouts on Air was available to anyone and the educators in my class could use the same tool to link their classroom with others. [Maybe I should explain a phone bridge. As the phrase implies, a phone bridge uses phone audio rather than VOIP. You just cannot count on all students having sufficient bandwidth for quality audio and the audio stream ends up being most easily degraded in a way that influences the quality of interaction. A phone bridge creates what is essentially a giant conference call synched to the other resources and perhaps the audio fed from a traditional classroom.]

So, I am a week away from starting the Fall semester. The syllabus is ready to go and students have had the opportunity to take a look at what will be expected. I learn that in September Google will eliminate Google Hangouts on Air as it presently exists and wants users to move to Youtube Live Stream. The timing and the brief lead time here are problematic. I must say that Google has eliminated several tools that I thought were great. Google Reader comes to mind. I need to heed my own advice and not complain about free.

This has happened so quickly that I have not really had the time to fully research the new option. I thought Hangouts on Air was great because it was simple to use, easily saved content to YouTube, and made use of Google Circles which I thought was a great way to provide a reasonable level of access and security. The content available explaining the new opportunity seems very sketchy at present. There are more settings to consider and it seems this is more focused on a concept emphasizing broadcast rather than group interaction. I will wait a bit before developing new tutorials, but it seems it is down to delete the present content on Hangouts.

Collecting with Google Keep

I have long been an Evernote user and I make heavy use of Evernote in collecting and organizing information for the various forms of writing that I do. I have a Premium account which costs me $50 a year (through iTunes). This is among the most expensive annual tech commitments I make, but I use the service daily and I use many of the advanced features. Unless the company makes a drastic change I am likely to stay a loyal customer.

I am writing this tutorial on the use of Google Keep because I am a fan and I understand that many may not want or need to use a service such as Evernote. In addition, Evernote recently announced that it is reducing the capabilities of its free version and increasing the cost of the paid versions. At $70 per year, I may downgrade my own commitment to the lower cost version and adapt my typical work flow to include different tools to accomplish similar ends. I believe in paying for apps and services, but I do apply a personal cost/benefit analysis.

What follows is an explanation of how I would use Google Keep to collect and organize Internet content as part of my writing process. This description does not explore all of the capabilities of Keep and you may find personal value in other capabilities as well. Google Keep works across platforms, but does work a little differently and offers some different tools depending on the platform. What follows describes the use of the chrome extension on a desktop computer.

If you have the Keep extension installed, you should see this icon in the top of the Chrome browser.

Selecting the icon will store a link to whatever web page is active. You can add a descriptive title at this point.

The content will appear within keep as a “card”.

You can store specific content from a page (text or image) by selecting the content and then clicking on the Keep icon.

Organization of the “cards” can be accomplished in a number of ways. Select the “edit” icon for various options.

If I am collecting content I intend to result in a blog post, I add a label to the content.

I use “blog” as the label for this content and the label then appears in the left side bar and on each note to which the label has been attached. Either the side bar or the embedded label can be used to retrieve the cards with the label.

As content accumulates and I want to retain some of the content without cluttering the Keep main page, I can either archive or save content to Google docs.

Archived content is stored within the Keep system and can be located using the label or looking through the archived content (link in left-hand side bar). Content saved to Google docs is accessed through Google docs and I use this technique for long-term organization (I add the material on a single topic to a unique folder) and long-term storage. I delete material from Keep more frequently than I delete content from Google drive.

Google Slides Q&A

Google has just released a new feature for Google slides that allows those in the audience to submit questions to the presenter. The feature is called Q&A. This quick tutorial should get you started.

The Q&A option is activated from the drop down appearing just to the right of the Present button.

Once activated Q&A will display a URL at the top of the presented slides. Anyone in the audience can enter this URL and submit a question.

This is the display an audience member sees allowing a question to be submitted.

Questions are then related to a special window available to the presenter. Because many questions could be submitted members of the audience can raise or lower questions in the list. Of course, the presenter selects the questions to address.

Google Save

I am satisfied with my present systems of archiving bookmarks and images, but Google has just announced a new service that may interest others.

Google Save makes use of a Chrome extension to bookmark sites and has included a Save to Google Save button in the Google images site.

The extension for bookmarking is available at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-to-google/meoeeoaohbmgbocpdpnjklmfmjjagkkf. The install adds an icon to the tool bar.

Clicking this icon will add a representation of the page being viewed to Google Save (see below).

Entries can be tagged for more efficient search. Selecting the saved representation of a site produces a larger display with additional information. Selecting the site URL takes you to that site.

Saving images a little differently. Images are available from https://images.google.com. Searching this site brings up images associated with the search term and selecting one image produces the following display. This display now includes a button that will save the image to Google Save (beware copyright issues in using the images).

I do not consider the present version of Google Save to be equal to the features of my present tools, but the service is free and would seem helpful when collecting resources for a project. Improvements would be required for me to consider the service as a way to collect resources long term.

Google Outline Tool

Google has added another capability to the popular Google docs word processing tool. Google Outline automatically creates an outline from an existing document.

You can turn this capability on under the tools header.

The outliner was already turned on in my account and I was surprised to see an outline appear when I began working on the revision of our textbook.

At present the outliner is mostly a navigation aid for long documents (the document I was working on is 90,000 words in length). So, it is not a tool for sketching out a plan and then working out the details. Instead, it allows you a way to find that segment in chapter 5 you were working on last night. There is certainly some value in this convenience.

I do have to admit the algorithm Google has developed for identifying the structure of a large document is rather clever.

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