Tag Archives: Google Workspace for Education

NotebookLM and the Gemini app are now Core Services with enterprise-grade data protection for all education customers

What’s changing 

Last year, we launched enterprise-grade data protection in the Gemini app for Education Standard and Education Plus customers. As a core service with enterprise-grade data protection, the Gemini app: 
Today, we’re expanding these protections to help more education institutions provide AI tools to their communities with the confidence that their data is private, safe and secure through the following updates: 
NotebookLM and the Gemini app are now Core Services with enterprise-grade data protection for all education customers

Who’s impacted 

Why you’d use it 

Gemini is an AI assistant for education that allows educators to chat with the Gemini app to brainstorm ideas, answer questions quickly, summarize content and more. In addition, students can use the Gemini app to learn more confidently with in-the-moment assistance, practice materials, and real-time feedback. 

NotebookLM is an AI-powered thinking partner that helps you understand anything. It accelerates learning and knowledge sharing, with AI grounded on the documents that matters most to you. Educators and students 18+ can add their lesson plans, education standards, lecture notes and/or course readings to get real-time summaries, guided lesson plans, discussion questions, quizzes and more. They can also generate audio overviews to take learning on the go and make content more accessible, digestible and engaging. 

With NotebookLM Plus, you can allow users to chat with your Notebooks without access to see or edit sources, customize the style and tone of notebook responses, create shared notebooks with usage analytics, and you get 5x more Audio Overviews, queries, notebooks, and sources per notebook. 

Additional details 

Workspace for Education users already had added data protection in the Gemini app and NotebookLM, meaning their data is not human reviewed or used to train AI models. These enterprise-grade data protections build on that to give school administrators peace of mind. 

The Gemini app is available in more than 40 languages and over 230 countries and territories. Teen users get a unique Gemini app experience, which we created after consulting with child development and learning science experts. This included conducting learning focused red teaming, an industry standard testing process to find vulnerabilities in generative AI, and testing with youth advisory panels to ensure we’re bringing this technology to students responsibly. 

NotebookLM and NotebookLM Plus are available in 180+ regions where Gemini API is available and currently supports 35+ languages. For Audio Overviews, while you can upload sources from all supported languages, the spoken audio is currently only available in English. Users can only upload sources from Workspace that they have permission to access. Furthermore, they can control who has access to their notebooks and set more granular permissions within each. Notebooks can only be shared within your organization. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • New customers: Access to the Gemini app and NotebookLM is OFF by default for Primary and Secondary (K12) customers, and ON by default for Higher Education customers. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning the Gemini app on or off for users.
    • Existing customers: Your existing settings for the Gemini app and NotebookLM (on or off) will not change as part of this launch. Learn more about the available admin controls and our commitment to you in the Privacy Hub. 
  • End users: 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

This update impacts: 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus
  • Customers with a Gemini Education or Gemini Education Premium add-on 

Resources

Consent re-confirmation for under 18 users accessing Additional Services will soon be required

What’s changing

When a Google Workspace for Education admin chooses to enable Additional Services for students under the age of 18 to use, they acknowledge that they may be required to collect parental or guardian consent. This includes access to services like YouTube, Google Translate, Google Photos, Google Books, Google Earth and more.

In September 2024, we communicated that we now require admins who have Additional Services enabled for users under the age of 18 to re-review them on an annual basis. Admins are always in control of which services their users have access to, and this gives admins an opportunity to ensure the right users have access to the right services.

  • If admins do not want to provide access to Additional Services for their under 18 users, they can turn them off for those users. 
  • If admins want to keep Additional services enabled for under 18 users, they need to reconfirm parental consent in the admin console.  
  • If admins do not take action, under 18 users who previously had access to Additional Services will lose access in the coming weeks. Admins can re-enable access to Additional Services at any time. 

How admins can take action
Admins were first provided notice of this re-confirmation requirement in September 2024, which indicated a 6 months notice to complete the re-review process before the March 2025 rollout. The banner in the admin console has turned red to alert admins that action is required. While the rollout begins in March, it might take several weeks before some users in your organization are impacted.

You can easily view which applications require consent reconfirmation from Admin console > Apps > Additional Google services. You can re-confirm consent by checking the box next to the app, hovering over the app, or using the three-dot overflow menu. 

Experience for impacted end users
If users lose access to a specific service they’ll be notified “Your Google Workspace for Education account is designated as under 18 and your organization’s admin has not granted you access to this Additional Service. To regain access, inform your admin that you need this service to be enabled.“ 



Who’s impacted

Admins and end users under the age of 18


Why it’s important

Admins are in control of which services their users have access to, and to do so in alignment with both our terms of service and local laws and regulations that determine what services are appropriate for users under 18. Since admins manage which services their students have access to, only they can enable or disable access for their under 18 users. 


This is a guide to support admins with collecting consent from parents, which includes this template for communicating with parents and guardians around collecting consent. 

Additional details

The requirement to review and re-confirm access to Additional Products is an annual requirement customers must complete for their under 18 users, subject to their Google Workspace for Education Terms of Service. 

Getting started


Rollout pace


Availability

This change impacts Google Workspace:
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus

Resources




Google Meet Learning Tools Interoperability™ update: control when meeting recordings are shared with a new toggle

What’s changing 

Instructors using Meet LTI™ to create and host meetings can control how meeting recordings are shared. Previously, everyone in the meeting could access the recording after the meeting. Now, instructors can control when recordings are shared with students.

From Meet LTI, select the “Meet artifacts” tab to toggle the “Share recordings with students” settings




We plan to introduce similar controls for other meeting artifacts, like Meeting transcripts, in the future. We’ll share more here on the Workspace Updates blog when more controls become available. 


Getting started


Rollout pace



Availability

  • Available for Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning add-on

Resources


Introducing Gemini Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI™)

What’s changing

We’re pleased to introduce Gemini LTI™, an AI-powered assistant that can integrate into third party Learning Management Systems (LMS). Gemini LTI™ helps enhance the educational experience for both educators and students by providing AI-driven tools and features powered by Gemini within their LMS environment. To start, Gemini LTI™ integrates with Canvas by Instructure and Powerschool Schoology Learning. 





Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why you’d use it

Google is committed to making AI helpful for everyone, in the classroom and beyond. Bringing Gemini into LMS tools helps educators boost their creativity and productivity to create more dynamic and engaging learning experiences for their students. Specifically, educators can use the AI tools to:

  • Outline a lesson plan, including learning objectives.
  • Generate a quiz and export it to Google Forms.
  • Create a hook to spark curiosity and engage your students.

Students can further solidify what they’re learning in the classroom or explore new topics alongside an AI:
  • In-the-moment assistance: get unstuck and keep learning going by get clarification in real time. 
  • Learning coach: get a step-by-step learning plan built around specific learning goals.
  • Brainstorming partner: generate fresh ideas for a research paper, additional authors to read, and more.
  • Feedback on writing: get suggestions on how to strengthen your arguments and hone your ideas
  • Mock interviews: prepare for an upcoming internship or extra curricular interview.


Additional details

Gemini LTI™ is part of Google Workspace LTI, our suite of LTI™ tools, including Assignments LTI™, Google Drive LTI™, and Google Meet LTI™. Visit our Help Center to learn more about Workspace LTI™. 


Getting started

Educators can now request access to third-party apps for their students

What’s changing

We’re introducing a new workflow that allows educators to request access to unconfigured third-party apps on behalf of their students.

Admins can allow educators and users who are over 18 years of age to request access to apps for themselves or on behalf of others (proxy requests). For example, admins may create a group of trusted users who are responsible for vetting third party apps and allow them to make proxy requests on behalf of students.




Educators can view a list of apps they have recently accessed with their Google Workspace account and request access for their students.




Admins can review and take action on these requests in the Admin console by going to Security > API Controls > App Access Control. Requests will be denoted with a “Proxy”  label when the request is made on behalf of another user. 




Once admins have configured access, they can opt to notify users and/or users who made proxy requests via email about the outcome of their request.




Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Administrators can now allow a group of trusted users to vet and request third party app access on behalf of other users. This allows admins to better control who requests access and create a more streamlined process for app approvals.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available for Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade

Resources


Expanding access to the Gemini app for teen students in education

What’s changing

Google Workspace for Education admins can now turn on the Gemini app with added data protection as an additional service for their teen users (ages 13+ or the applicable age in your country) in the following languages and countries. With added data protection, chats are not reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise used to improve AI models. The Gemini app will be a core service in the coming weeks for Education Standard and Plus users, including teens, 


We created this Gemini experience for teens after consulting with child development and learning science experts - including conducting learning focused red teaming, an industry standard testing process to find vulnerabilities in generative AI - and testing with youth advisory panels to ensure we’re bringing this technology to students responsibly.

Gemini can help teen students learn responsibly and confidently in an AI-first future.



Who’s impacted

Admins and end users


Why it’s important

Google is committed to making AI helpful for everyone, in the classroom and beyond. We want to both prepare teens with the skills and tools they need to thrive in the future where GenAI exists and help them learn how this technology can be used to unlock creativity and facilitate learning. Expanding access to the Gemini app to younger students provides guided support to help them learn more confidently with in-the-moment assistance, practice materials, and real-time feedback. 


Additional details

Upon accessing the Gemini app for the first time, teens will be guided through an AI Literacy video, endorsed by ConnectSafely and Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI)--with tips on how to use generative AI responsibly. And according to Common Sense Media, the Gemini teen experience is considered “low risk” and is designated as “designed for kids”.

“Google's Gemini, which is currently the only major platform to create a specific experience for teens, includes additional CSAM (child sexual abuse material) safeguards, content policies, and in-product experiences that help teens understand the limitations of generative AI." - Common Sense Media


Getting started


Rollout pace

  • Available now.

Availability

  • Available for Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus and the Teaching & Learning Upgrade

Resources


Google Vids is now available for Google Workspace for Education, providing easy video creation for teaching and learning

What’s changing

Earlier this year, we announced Google Vids would soon empower educators and students to easily create and collaborate with video. Today, we’re excited to announce the general availability of Google Vids for Education Plus and Gemini for Workspace customers.

Vids can help deepen learning opportunities, up-level instruction, and inspire the next generation of storytellers in a variety of scenarios, for example: 
  • Educators can support diverse learning styles and help students retain information with instructional videos and deep dives on complex concepts. 
  • Students can work on video projects and review recorded lessons. 
  • Education leaders can easily incorporate video in their school newsletters and create internal training videos for staff. 
Similar to other productivity tools like Docs, Sheets, and Slides, Vids includes a simple, easy-to-use interface and the ability to collaborate in real-time and share projects securely from your browser. You can easily get started with a variety of templates organized by use cases to create a new video. From there, you can add motion with animations, transitions, and photo effects, and customize your video using the Vids royalty free education-friendly stock content library or your own media directly from Google Drive or Google Photos. Vids is also integrated with Workspace tools like Google Classroom, empowering educators to easily assign video projects or post video explainers right to their students. As detailed here, Google Vids is a core Workspace Service covered under the Google Workspace for Education terms of service. 

Users 18 years and older with a Gemini Education or Education Premium add-on will also have access to Gemini in Vids, giving them the ability to produce polished videos even faster with the help of AI. ‘Help me create’ can generate a fully editable initial storyboard using a prompt and a doc from your Google Drive. After choosing a style, Gemini pieces together your video draft with suggested scenes, including recommended stock media, text, scripts per scene, and even a background music track. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
  • End users: 
    • To start, open Google Vids and choose an option to create a new video. You can create a new video or make a copy of an existing video for editing. 
    • You can use Vids on your computer with the two most recent versions of these browsers: 
    • Dive into Google Vids with our free, self-paced online training course, designed specifically for educators and available now in the Google for Education Learning Center. You can also leverage this one pager to get a quick summary of what you can do with Vids. 
    • Currently, Vids is available in the user’s local language, but the AI features (e.g. Help me create a video, read-along teleprompter) and templates are only available in English at this time. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about getting started with Google Vids. 
    • Note: Create and copy access is available for Education Plus and Gemini for Google Workspace customers, while view and collaborate access is available to anyone with a Google Workspace for Education license. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Plus 
  • Customers with a Gemini Education or Education Premium add-on 

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – August 30, 2024

2 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.


The AppSheet Admin Console is now available in public preview
For the first time, Workspace admins will have visibility into the users, apps and licenses associated with their AppSheet users via the AppSheet Admin Console. Previously, these advanced monitoring capabilities were limited to AppSheet Enterprise customers. Now all Workspace admins with the AppSheet service privilege can use this data to gain a deeper understanding about how their users are interacting with AppSheet. With the AppSheet Admin Console, you can view all the app users across any of your organization’s apps, review the most popular apps and creators, and more. Admins can also take actions like exporting a list of accounts, users, apps, and licenses for their organization or set the role of users in their organization. Eligible customers can access the AppSheet Admin Console using this direct link or clicking out from Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for AppSheet in the Workspace Admin Console. | The open beta for the AppSheet Admin Console is available now for AppSheet Enterprise customers and AppSheet Core entitled customers. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about using the AppSheet Admin Console.
The AppSheet Admin Console

Google Workspace for Education users can now set and share personal pronouns and name pronunciation
Google Workspace for Education admins of K-12 and higher education institutions can now give their students the option to set their pronouns from their Google Account at aboutme.google.com. This option is OFF by default and can be enabled for all users or a subset of them (such as for a specific location or class). User-defined pronouns will appear in personal information cards displayed when hovering over or clicking someone’s profile photo across Workspace apps like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Chat, and Drive. Pronouns will also appear in Google Contacts, accessed by clicking “Open detailed view” from the personal information cards. | Pronouns are rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. | The ability to add name pronunciation will be available by the end of Q3, 2024. | Available to all Google Workspace for Education customers. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about allowing Directory users to change their pronouns and changing pronouns in your Google Account settings.
EDU - personal pronouns and name pronunciation


Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


Automate your workflows on Google Chat with IFTTT and UKG Flow integrations 
Following the announcement at Google Cloud Next 2024, we’re excited to introduce Google Chat integrations with IFTTT and UKG Flow. | Learn more about Chat integrations with IFTTT and UKG Flow. 

Picture-in-picture in Google Meet will now open automatically when switching tabs
Picture-in-picture mode will now automatically trigger when you switch tabs during a meeting. | Learn more about picture-in-picture in Meet. 

Business Starter customers will soon have access to shared drives 
Business Starter will officially have access to shared drives starting mid-September. When shared drives are made available to Business Starter customers, all users will be able to create shared drives by default. If this default behavior is undesired, admins can update their settings before Business Starter users gain access to the feature starting on September 23, 2024. | Learn more about shared drives for Business Starter. 

Reply to emails in Gmail faster on Android devices 
You can now reply to emails directly from the bottom of the conversation, without opening a new screen, making it easier to reference the email you’re replying to. | Learn more about replying to emails on Android. 

Upload additional types of documents to Gemini (gemini.google.com) for insights and analysis 
Google Workspace users with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education or Education Premium license can now upload a variety of files from Google Drive or locally from your device into Gemini. | Learn more about document upload with Gemini. 

“Take notes for me” in Google Meet is now available 
“Take notes for me” is an AI-powered feature in Google Meet that automatically takes notes, allowing you to focus on discussion, collaboration, and presentation during your meetings. | Learn more about “Take notes for me” 

Google Meet provides consolidated email for all meeting artifacts 
Currently, Google Meet sends an email for each type of meeting artifact initiated in a meeting, including meeting recordings, meeting transcripts, Gemini notes with “take notes for me,” live streams and more. Going forward, you’ll receive one email consolidating these artifacts. | Learn more about Meet’s meeting artifacts. 

Customize Gemini (gemini.google.com) for your specific needs with Gems 
Gems are now available to Google Workspace customers with a Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-on. | Learn more about Gems.

Gmail Q&A: A new way of searching your inbox with Gemini on Android devices
Gmail Q&A feature is rolling out now on Android devices and coming soon to iOS. | Learn more about Gemini in Gmail.

Additional data protection in Gemini (gemini.google.com) when using a school account is now available
Earlier this year, we brought Gemini for Google Workspace to education communities with two new paid add-ons. At that time, we announced that educators and students 18 years and older who did not have a Gemini Education license would soon get added data protection when using Gemini (gemini.google.com) as an Additional Service with their school accounts. Beginning this week, that added data protection is now available — free of charge. | Learn more about data protection in Gemini. 


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.



Rapid Release Domains: 
Scheduled Release Domains: 
Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains: 

For a recap of announcements in the past six months, check out What’s new in Google Workspace (recent releases).  

Additional data protection in Gemini (gemini.google.com) when using a school account is now available

What’s changing 

Earlier this year, we brought Gemini for Google Workspace to education communities with two new paid add-ons. At that time, we announced that educators and students 18 years and older who did not have a Gemini Education license would soon get added data protection when using Gemini (gemini.google.com) as an Additional Service with their school accounts. Coming soon, we will have Gemini as an Additional Service with these added data protections available to teen students as well. 


Beginning today, that added data protection is now available — free of charge. With added data protection, the data you share is only used for responses to your prompts and is not used to improve Gemini or other generative AI models. Added data protection is available to Google Workspace for Education users in every language and country where they can access Gemini. 


Additional details 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • Added data protection is available now. 
  • Updates to the Gemini settings page in Admin Console to note the added data protection will be rolling out over the course of the next several weeks. 

Availability 

  • This update impacts Google Workspace Education Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus customers. 

Resources 

Chat safer with new settings for students in Google Chat

What’s changing 

We're introducing a new setting that enables education admins to restrict which users can create and manage members in Google Chat conversations. 


This can be useful for admins who want to prevent groups of students from initiating or adding users to a conversation. 

Chat restrictions for Education domains



Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it’s important

This is a highly-requested feature that restricts the creation of unsupervised activity among K-12 students and helps provide a safer and easier way for teachers to communicate with students. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • To restrict users from accessing features in Chat, go to the Admin console > Apps > Google Workspace > Google Chat > click the Chat and Space restrictions setting > Inside the Google Chat box, search for the group of users you'd like to apply Chat restrictions to > check the box for Restrict creating direct messages, group messages, and spaces > hit Save. 
      • Note: groups can be restricted at the group level only.
    • We recommend admins enable the "automatically accept chat invitations" setting for their OU. This will ensure teachers can easily initiate messages to students that instantly deliver without the need to accept an invitation. We also recommend turning OFF Chat with external users.
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Chat restrictions for Education accounts.
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace 

Admin setting: 
Chat UI: 

Availability 

Available for Google Workspace: 
  • Education Fundamentals, Standard, Plus, the Teaching & Learning Upgrade 

Resources