WeLearn365 Plus Resources

Introduction

Plus resources are available to those schools who subscribe to the ICTDS managed G Suite for Education* service. This is normally but not exclusively available where schools have purchased Chromebooks from ICTDS. The Plus service also includes everything available in the Core service.

If your school does not currently subscribe but would like to, we can usually setup your accounts within 48 hours. G Suite for Education accounts use the same username and password as existing WeLearn365 accounts and cost £1 per pupil user (staff and governors are free where pupil accounts are ordered). This is an annual cost which will be added to the school's WES subscription services.

The resources and tools below are available on any device (PC, Mac, iPad, Android tablet, etc.) as well as on our managed Chromebooks. To log into G Suite for Education and access these resources on the above devices, please see this guidance or use your school's G Launch page.

Like Office365, G Suite for Education includes a range of apps and tools to support learning and communication:

• Docs - the Google equivalent of MS Word

• Slides - the Google equivalent of MS PowerPoint

• Sheets - the Google equivalent of MS Excel

• Forms - for the creation of self-marking quizzes as well as surveys

• Drive - cloud storage

• Jamboard - collaborative whiteboard space

• Meet - video conferencing

• Hangouts - video conferencing and messaging

• Classroom - virtual classroom environment

All of the above can be accessed outside school and allow the sharing of content with other school users.

Home Learning

Google has produced a very simple guide to support home learning using its apps - this can be found here.

It has also produced two really useful sites, Teach from Home and Learn@Home (educational You Tube channels).

Additionally, of particular relevance in support of home learning are the following tools and resources:

Google Classroom

Classroom is the reason many schools select G Suite for Education for their school. As its name suggests, it allows a teacher to very easily setup a virtual classroom and to share this with their pupils. Classroom has a discussion area allowing two-way communication between staff and pupils and a classwork area where materials and assignments can be pushed out to pupils. It is also possible to assess pupil work within Classroom, assign marks and provide feedback/comments. To find out how to use Classroom, please see this video resource. Further support on using Classroom is also available here.

Google Drive

Google Drive is very similar to MS OneDrive in that is provides cloud storage for all of your users. It has one important additional benefit that under our managed service, ICTDS sets up two shared drives within Google Drive for your school to use. A pupil shared drive and a staff shared drive mimic the shared drives you have on your curriculum server but with the additional benefit that they can be accessed anywhere on pretty much any device. Your shared drives appear in your Google Drive in the left hand menu under 'Shared Drives'. Please see the following video resources for Google Drive;

• My Drive and Shared Drives

• Google Drive Tutorial

Google Meet and Hangouts

Both Meet and Hangouts provide access to video conferencing tools. Meet provides both video calls and the ability to share your desktop with others in the call, e.g. to run a Slides or PowerPoint presentation. It also includes a chat facility. Please see this video for further information on Meet.

Additional G Suite Support Materials

Please click here to view our G Suite and Chromebook micro-site including further G Suite support materials.

* Important

Schools should not be using G Suite home/commercial accounts with primary school children. These have a minimum age requirement of 13 years and have no user management or monitoring tools.