Unlimited Drive Storage for Google Apps for Education

From the Google Apps Updates Blog:

As initially announced last month, this week we’ll be rolling out unlimited Drive storage to all Google Apps for Education schools at no charge.

Stay tuned for future updates on Google Apps Vault and enhanced auditing tools coming later this year to Google Apps for Education.

Release track:
Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:
Google for Education Blog post

Chromebook Printing is Here!

At this time printing is available on the Ricoh copiers for staff only – staff located at a single school are set up to print; staff working at multiple locations are only set up to print to a single school. To set up Chromebook printing for all assigned locations, please contact the IT Service Desk at 503-916-3375 or itservicedesk@pps.net for assistance.

Simple Directions

From your document, go to File, then Print. In the Destination section, click on the Change button. Under Google Cloud Print, click Show All. You should see all your building Ricoh copiers listed. Select the one you want to print to and then click the Print button. You would follow the same steps if you wanted to print a webpage.

*If you do not see your building copiers under Google Cloud Print, please contact the IT Service Desk at 503-916-3375 or itservicedesk@pps.net for assistance.

Other Info

• Staff working at multiple sites will automatically be shared the printers from their main site and will need to contact the Service Desk to have your other assigned sites shared.
• Staff working at multi-campus schools (i.e. Chief Joe/Ockley Green, East/West Sylvan, or Beverly Cleary) will be shared the printer groups for all their campus sites.
• Itinerant Staff who are at their site for more than a couple days can contact the Service Desk to be shared their site’s printers for the duration of their stay.
• Regarding RICOH copier/printers that require the entry of a Printer Code: If you have a RICOH printer that requires the entry of a printer code, your Chromebook will not be able to print to that printer as there is no method of entering the code into the Chromebook. To be able to print to these copiers from your Chromebook, the code entry requirement would need to be removed by your building administration.
• Download a quick reference guide.

New Updates to Google Classroom!

Read this post to learn details about the five updates that were made to Google Classroom.

1. Invite students more easily with Groups
2. Mark assignments as “done”
3. Greater teacher controls
4. Export all grades
5. Sort by first or last name

Classroom just keeps getting better! If you have additional feedback, make sure you submit it in Classroom by clicking the Send Feedback button in the bottom-right corner. 

Oregon Google Summit!

Today PPS is hosting the Google Summit at Jackson Middle School. We're all very excited to have this great event come to PPS. We have over 600 attendees! Big thanks to Kevin Crotchett, the principal of Jackson, for offering his campus for the event.

Google Apps for Education is live for Students!

PPS students in grades 1-12*, in addition to all PPS employees, now have a Google Apps for Education account! Google Apps for Education is a suite of tools including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Sites, and Google+. Google Apps gives everyone the ability to quickly, and easily, create and share documents on any computer or mobile device.  For more information on the benefits of Google Apps click here.

Each student will need to activate their Google Apps account at https://activatestudentgafe.pps.net/ by entering their PPS username and password. The username should be first initial of first name, followed by last name, followed by last four digits of Synergy ID, e.g. JDoe1234 (case sensitive). The default password is P@ssw0rd1234 where 1234 is the last four digits of the Synergy ID. If that does not work, try the username as the password (e.g. jdoe1234, all lower case). Students must log into Google Apps with their own individual account (not a classroom account). To view information about student accounts and password complexity rules or directions for resetting student passwords, visit our webpage at: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/departments/information-technology/6417.htm. If you need passwords reset, contact the IT Service Desk.

Please share this information with your teachers so they can assist students with activating their accounts. An email with the information above, as well as important security reminders, will be sent to the STC listserv today.

Brett Luelling

Director of System Development and Integration

bluelling@pps.net | 503.916.3937

*Kindergarten students do not currently have accounts. We are evaluating expanding to KG during the second phase of the rollout.

Master Google Apps at gCON

Sept. 22-25, 2014

http://gcon.thegooru.com/

gCON is an online event that gives you the information and training you need to make your day to day tasks in Google Apps easier - whether that means administering a large Google Apps domain or simply getting more out of Gmail.
Browse Sessions & Register through Google Hangouts

The topics look to be more on the technical/enterprise side, but there could be something you’re interested in. Check it out!

Check the FAQs Page

Over the last month, we've done several trainings and taken note of all of the questions PPS staff have asked regarding Google Apps. Those questions and answers have been compiled and are on the FAQ page (scroll down) of the PPS Google Apps site. Check this page regularly as new questions will be added. You can see a sampling of the questions below.