Tired of missing out on the coolest Google updates and new features? Join thousands of other teachers who rely on my monthly newsletter to stay ahead of the curve. Get the top 10 updates, teaching inspiration, and time-saving links delivered straight to your inbox.
🎁 December EDU Update: Workspace Studio, NotebookLM, and more!
|
✨ Registration for my winter Google Certification Academy + AI is open! ✨ Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, Reader! The holiday season kicked off for our family last weekend with our local production of the Nutcracker featuring four of my five kids in various roles. It's holiday parties, family gatherings, and festive celebrations from here on out! For the December EDU Update, we'll look BACK at what happened in the past year and FORWARD to some new tools you can expect to see in 2026. Here are my favorite links and updates for December 2025! 🎧 Listen to this episode | 🎦 Watch this episode 1. Improved Google Docs PDF Viewer - Google is making some nice enhancements to the viewer for PDFs, images, and videos uploaded to Google Drive. The new viewer will make it much easier to navigate large files and long videos. 2. NEW: Google Workspace Studio - This brand new tool will help you create powerful automations and agents for Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and more. I got early access, but everyone will get this new tool in early 2026! 3. Five advanced NotebookLM features - If you haven’t taken a look at NotebookLM, a LOT has changed! NotebookLM is a tremendous learning resource for your classroom! 4. Using AI to evaluate privacy policies - I recently started using a custom Gem to evaluate privacy policies for various technology tools that are requested by teachers. This custom Gem is trained with our specific requirements and it does the hard work for me! 5. Year in search 2025 - Google’s annual search trends video is out! Take a look at the viral moments from the past 12 months. This is a great source for easy topics or data analysis projects. Google for Education also posted an overview of EDU updates from the past year. 6. The Game Show Advent - Ryan O’Donnel is an incredibly creative educator. This month he is sharing daily classroom game recommendations over on TikTok. If you need a fun review game or end of semester activity, check it out! 7. TextFX - Explore the relationship between words and ideas with this simple tool that demonstrates how AI uses word prediction to generate human-like responses. H/T to Jeremy Badiner for this discovery! 8. Gemini Vibe Coding Showcase - this thread on X has some fantastic examples of what you can code using Gemini, even if you have zero coding experience! 9. Top FB Post: Google’s Gemini certification is FREE until January 2026. Download my study guide and become Gemini certified (It’s pretty easy)! 10. Lock up the Christmas gifts! - one of our family Christmas traditions is kicking off Christmas morning with a “breakout” activity to sort Christmas presents. Let me know what YOU think of these updates and new features! Leave me a comment on YouTube, X or Facebook! That wraps up the updates for December 2025. Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year! I'll see you in January with the latest update for the first month of 2026! John R. Sowash 📨 Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to add your name to my monthly email list!
|
The Google EDU Update
Tired of missing out on the coolest Google updates and new features? Join thousands of other teachers who rely on my monthly newsletter to stay ahead of the curve. Get the top 10 updates, teaching inspiration, and time-saving links delivered straight to your inbox.
Hello Reader, For over two decades, our job as IT admins has focused on managing human users—provisioning their accounts, assigning their licenses, and locking down what they can and cannot do. We are now crossing into an entirely new era of domain administration: managing AI agents that act autonomously across Google Workspace. Google recently rolled out a new Agent Control section in the Admin Console. Here is a plain-English breakdown of what these policies do and how to use them. 🍁...
✨ Earn your Gemini Certification...Join me for Wednesday webinars! ✨ Hi Reader! After a busy back-to-school travel season, I'm taking a vacation with my family to explore Disney World in Orlando! I was able to type up this month's EDU Update right before we left. As you return to your schools and start the new school year, you might have noticed a few changes in Google Classroom. I decided to share a summary of some of the big updates and features that you can use this year. Everything listed...
✨ Join me for Wednesday Webinars with John! ✨ Hi Reader! As July wraps up, the start of the school year is right around the corner. This week I am in Honolulu, Hawaii to provide some back-to-school training for a school (rough assignment, I know 🌸). This trip kicks off my 2026 back-to-school tour! I’ll be heading to schools all across the US helping teachers just like you get ready for the 2026-27 school year! This month’s EDU update is full of FREE resources to help you prepare for the new...