Lesson 1 Google Classroom

Hello and welcome.  There are several ways you can use Google Classroom with your lawn care business. Start with going to google.com.  You are looking at google.com and we are going to start the process by looking at the Google Classroom application. And we're going to just write in Google Classroom into the search box or you can go to classroom.google.com. Once you've done that you'll just hit search. You'll see here that there is a result at the top classroom signed in and you'll click that link. Once you do that, you'll be able to come to this screen. If you have not created a course before in Google Classroom, you'll then be able to click continue and then go ahead to the dashboard. Once you do that, then what you'll be able to do is you'll be able to click this button that says create or join a class.

You'll then click create class and then you'll just need to tell Google you are not a school, and you are not signing up with students. Once you do that then you'll click this button and then you'll click continue. You'll want to give your class a name, a section, and subject. Once you do that you then click the create button. Now what you can do inside of Google Classroom is you can conduct instruction whether it is with employees, staff, outsources, or even with clients. So we're going to do is we're going to say, got it, and we're then going to see some areas that we can add content. Now you'll notice here that what you can do is you can post certain items to your class, and these can be YouTube videos. You can also post Google documents.

Now in the right-hand corner, if you hover over the button, you'll notice that there are 4 things that you can post. You can create an announcement. You can create an assignment. You can create a discussion question, or you can reuse a previous post. Now what we're going to do is create an announcement. Now because this is going to help us be more productive, we can either post this item now or we can post it in the future. So you can post items ahead of time. You can do all of your posting on one day and then you can set those posts to go at a certain date.

And so for example what we're going to do is write an announcement. We're then going to categorize this by creating a topic. And once we do that we can then click post. Now along with the announcement, what we can do is we can bring something in from our Google Drive or we can even connect to a video. So in this case, what we're going to do is we're going to connect a video. And, when we click the video box, then what we can do is we can then search YouTube. We'll see a list of videos that we can attach. We can then choose the one we are going to attach and then we're going to click add.

Now these can also be videos that you have already created, and this would be a great way for you to add in additional information for the person who’s going to be reading your announcement. And we can add multiple items. As you can see, we've added in a PDF by clicking this attachment. We can connect a Google Drive item as we said. And as you can see here, we've added a Google Slide from our Google Drive. We can also add in a hyperlink to this announcement. So all we'll need to do is to click this button and then write in our link. Once we do that, we'll click add link.

So once we have everything ready for our announcement, all we'll then need to do is then click post. We can also create an announcement for the future. All we'll need to do is to hover over the button. We'll click the link. We'll write in our information, we can then schedule this for the future, and we can set a date into the future. What will happen is this will be visible to us however it will not be visible to the person who is part of the course or the system. Now what we can also do is to assign a task and we can do that by creating an assignment. And, if we click this button what we'll do is we'll write in the assignment's name and then we'll write in the exact instructions.

When we do that we can categorize this with a new topic, or we can place it inside of the same topic that we created earlier. We can then set a due date for this task, and we can do that by writing in the due date. When we do that, we can give a time also. Once we have it, then we will then click assign. Now note that what we can do is we can put a drop-down box here and we can either set this assignment for the future or we can assign it now. So we can make sure that it appears in the future, or we can assign it now. So what we're going to do is assign it now. We're also going to assign it to all the present students.

And you'll notice here that our assignment now shows up inside of the feed. And what we can also do is we can go back to this area and then we can write in a question, and we can write in that question in a way so that it must be answered. This is another way of being able to interact with the people that are going to be inside of the Google tools course. Now there are some other aspects to the course. We can look at all of the students that are there and invite new students. We can write in a description for the course. We can determine whether those who are students in the course can comment in the class stream. And we can also invite in other teachers.

Here, you might invite in other partners who are going to be working with the staff and you can have them in on this one assignment. We can change the appearance, and all we'll need to do is we can then either select a theme that Google gives us, or we can upload our own. Now a more important aspect is how you invite people you're going to be working with inside of the course. Of course, you can have students, you can have employees, you can have outsourcers. You can use this in any number of ways that will allow you to communicate to a student across a platform. So what we're going to do is we're going to go to the students button. We're going to click invite students. And what you'll need to do is you'll need to have the student's email address.

Once you have their email address in, you'll click add recipient. Now the person or student or employee that has been invited will get an invitation from Google Classroom and look like this. All that person will need to do is then click the join button. Now that student will see the same thing except they'll see it from the employee or the student perspective. And so you'll be able to control what they see based on what you post and on what date is going to be available.

So for example, this future scheduled post will not be visible to the student as we can see here, and you'll see it with this browser. The person can then open the document, and what they can do is once they have completed the task, they can mark the assignment as done, and this can be a very useful way of being able to work together and have conversation with outsourcers. We're going to click mark as done.

Lesson 2 Voice Typing

Let's say you are needing to write a new page for your lawn business website.  Maybe you want to create some new newsletter posts.  This tool could save you a lot of time.  Use it while you are driving to your next appointment.

We are now going to look at doing audio transcription with Google voice typing. To get started, we're going to need to go to Google Docs. So if you're in the search area, what you're going to do is just write in Google Docs. Once you have it, you'll search and then you'll see a search listing right at the top. You're going to click Google Docs. You'll then enter Google Docs. You will then be in the Google Docs area.

Now the very first screen that you're going to see is going to default to the text document area. So what we're going to do is start a new document by clicking this square and you're going to open into a word processing document. So, to get started you want to write a title into your document. When you do that the title will auto save. One thing that you'll note about Google Docs is that you'll notice that there is no saving. Mostly, Google Docs will auto save every 30 seconds. So now what we're going to do is we're going to start the voice typing application. To do that, we're going to go to the tools menu and then we're going to click voice typing.

Now, one thing you will want to note is that you can only use Google voice typing inside of the Chrome browser. So if you have the Chrome browser open and you haven't enabled your microphone, what you'll need to do is you'll need to open the browser and we're going to do that now and we're going to go to the settings. And we're going to go to the settings area here.

We're going to scroll down to the advanced settings. We're going to scroll down to the privacy area and click content settings, and then we're going to click microphone to customize our mic. If we click the default down arrow, we'll be able to choose the mic that we want to work with Google Chrome. So we're now going to set the default. We're going to close back, and we're now going to go back to our word processing document.

So now that we've enabled our microphone, going to And when we talk, we'll notice that Google Docs is writing the information in to the document as we speak. We can use a word like period to indicate period. Now if we click the mic as we just did, that'll turn off the voice commands. Now, if you want a list of specific voice commands, all you'll need to do is to hover over the microphone. You'll click the question mark and then you'll see a drop-down menu on the right side. You can then find all the specific ways that you can use Google Docs and speak to the document to make it do what you want. For example, we can click edit your document. And if we turn on the mic and we say one of these commands we can edit part of our document.

So, for example, if we look at delete last word and we turn on this mic, delete last word, And you'll notice that the last word in the document was deleted. So now you have learned how you can basically create documents with your mic and headset or your microphone by speaking into your default microphone, Google Docs, and Google Chrome.

Lesson 3 YouTube Transcripts

Are you making YouTube videos for your business?  This tool is free and can save you time by transcribing your video.  Then you can use the text on your webpage, in a newsletter or email, Facebook, and other marketing channels.  Maybe you just want it for employee training.  Know matter what you are going to do with it, this is more time savings.

We are now inside of youtube.com and we are inside the screen where we upload our videos. Now what we're going to do is we're going to look at one of our videos so we can get a transcript. Now the transcript will not be perfect, but if you need a quick transcript of something that you have done and you don't have time to outsource it, you can get the words from your video. So what we're going to do first is we're going to go to this edit button. That's going to take us to the edit screen of our video. We're going to click subtitles and closed captioning. We're going to set the language for the transcription as English. We're going to click set language.

Once we've completed that, we can now go to the video itself and we can now extract a transcription of the actual video. So if we go to the watch page of the video and we scroll down, what we're going to do is we're going to go to the more area. We can then click transcript. And then we're going to click this English button. That's going to give us the drop-down arrow. We're going to click English. And then we have transcription. And so to download it all we would do is we would then left click and hold down to copy the entire text and then we're going to copy it into a document.

We can then copy the document inside of Google Chrome or Google Docs or any word processing document. Now again, this will not be a perfect transcript, but if you need something fast before you can have it outsourced, this is a great way for you to get the text of an actual video that you have completed. Now it's quite possible that you may want to gather the words from a video that is not yours.

Now you want to be mindful of copywriting and you also want to be mindful of crediting the actual creator of the video if you're going to use it in anything that you're going to be using for commercial purposes. However, what you can do is to come to the front of any video inside of YouTube and go through the same process that we went through with our video. We're going to click the transcript link. We're going to click the English transcript and we're going to click automatic captions. And then we can go through the same process.

We can then copy and paste the entire transcript. And, again, all we would need to do is to paste the document inside of any word processing software that we are using. Now this again will not be a perfect transcript. However, again, it's going to be a quick way for you to get to the actual text of a document if you are going to be using it in something that you were doing.

Lesson 4 Gmail External Productivity

Even if you have an official email for your business that matches your business name and website, it is good to have at least one gmail account also.  You can set your business email up to come into your Gmail so that you can see both your personal mail and your business mail at the same time.  There are lots of great uses for Gmail and these external hacks are handy to know.

You are now looking at gmail.com. And we are inside of a Gmail mailbox. And if you receive email through your Gmail account, you will achieve productivity through a few apps that work outside of Gmail. Now these are called extensions. And you're going to find them inside of Google Chrome. And if you go to the extension store and type in Gmail you'll see several extensions that you can add to Google Chrome that will help you gain more from Gmail. Now, in this video we're going to focus on 2.

The first is called actions for Gmail. So if you go to the extension store and type in actions for Gmail you'll be able to come to this extension and then you're going to click add to Chrome. Actions for Gmail is going to ask for some permission and give you a notification. You're going to click Add extension. And note, this is beta software and a free trial. And they say that in the future you may be asked to pay a fee for ongoing use. Now once you know that, then you can use the software. So you have some options that you're going to get inside of the extension.

We're going to click these and then click Save. What the extension does is add 4 buttons to your Gmail. You'll notice that you have an archive tab, you have a mark as spam tab, you have a toggle read and unread tab, and then you have a delete tab. And what this does is give you handy set of buttons to do some of the frequently required tasks with your Gmail quickly so that you can move through your inbox. So what we're going to do in this case we're just going to use the button. And then we can move quickly. Now the second external extension is called email dictation. And we're going to look at that right now.

Email dictation is also a Chrome extension. So if you type in email dictation into your Chrome store you'll find the plug in and then you'll click add to Chrome. Email dictation will ask for some permissions. You're going to click add extension, and then the plug in will tell you it has been added to Chrome. So now what we're going to do is head back to our inbox. We're going to refresh our box. And what we're going to do now is compose an email. And when we open the compose box we're going to notice that there is a mic at the bottom.

We're going to click this mic. And you may notice a notification here at the top that says that Google wants to use your mic. What you may notice as I speak is that the typing reflects what I am saying. So this is a great way to use the Google dictation voice typing program inside of Gmail.

There are 4 parts with a total of 20 videos, so I will see you for part 2