Google Workspace for Education

Google Workspace for Education
Information and Training Resources

Rainbow District School Board has implemented Google Workspace for Education for classroom use. Google Workspace for Education is a powerful collaborative environment consisting of several applications and tools.

The program provides for anytime, anywhere access to applications and documents, real-time collaboration and feedback, and virtually unlimited file storage space. The enhanced tool set includes forms/surveys, hangouts (video-conferencing) and Google Classroom (which will complement blended learning with the provincial Virtual Learning Environment, D2L-Brightspace).

It is recommended that the Google Chrome browser is used to access the Workspace (rather than Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer). The Chrome browser is the foundation for the Google platform. Google apps work in most browsers, but to get the most from the experience, it is strongly recommended you use the Chrome browser. With Chrome, you are able to log in to the browser itself, which synchronizes your rscloud profile, setting up all bookmarks, apps, plugins and extensions you have set up for yourself, even if you originally set up the app or extension on a different device. For instance, if a teacher installs a read aloud extension in her Chrome browser at school, then logs into Chrome on the family PC at home, the read aloud will appear there too.

Gmail: All teachers have a Gmail account under the Board’s rainbowschools.ca domain.

This email account is for communication between teachers and students. Teachers will retain their FirstClass email account for communication with school and board administration. The Gmail account will have virtually unlimited storage space.

Drive: One of the major features of Google Workspace for Education is unlimited data storage through Google Drive. Every user on rscloud.ca has unlimited storage capacity for documents, classroom assignments, photos, music, even movies. Google Drive works on Macs, PC’s, Chromebooks, Android phones and tablets, iPads and iPhones. All your work can be accessed from virtually any computing platform in use today and is always accessible from any location with Internet access.

Sharing documents is a major strength of the Google Drive platform. Users control their own documents, and decide what they share and who they will share with. A teacher can share a single assignment with a group of students for simultaneous class editing, or give each student a copy of the same assignment for individual work.

Docs: An online word processor program that allows real-time multi-user collaboration on documents.

Sheets: An online spreadsheet program that allows real-time multi-user collaboration on spreadsheets.

Slides: An online presentation program that allows real-time multi-user collaboration on presentations.

Sites: A tool for creating and posting web-sites.

Forms: An online form/survey tool that may be used for a variety of tasks including quizzes and assessments.

Calendar: An on-line calendar that can be used to advise students of class events, etc.

Classroom: A class management tool.