Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Education
Online classes: Google adds new tools for students and teachers
Excerpts from article published in Gadgets Now
Internet search giant Google has announced new tools to help students and teachers. In a blog post, the company said that it is adding 50 new features to Google Classroom and G-Meet. Here, we list out some key new additions to these tools:
1. Offline mode in classroom android app
Google is adding offline support to the classroom android app. This means that students will be able to review their assignments, open Drive attachments, and write assignments in Google Docs even when offline.
2. Tracking student engagement
Google is adding an engagement tracking feature that will allow teachers to see relevant stats about how students interact in Classroom. This includes ability to track which student/students submitted assignments or commented on a post on a particular day.
3. Makes sharing pictures of homework easier
Classroom Android app will allow students to combine photos of homework into a single document for easy submission. Further the app will allow them to crop or rotate images, and adjust lighting before submitting.
4. Teachers get the option to end meet calls for everyone
Teachers will get the option to end meetings for everyone on the call, with an aim to prevent students from staying on after the teacher has left.
5. Teachers get option to mute everyone during classes on G-Meet
Teachers will be able to mute all participants at once, and decide whether students can unmute themselves or not.
6. Add third-party Ed-Tech tools without new login
Google will allow teachers using Education Plus or Teaching and Learning Upgrade to add third-party tools and content directly into the Google Classroom interface.
7. Support for more than one moderator
Meetings will soon support multiple hosts, which Google claims will make it easier to partner with others helping facilitate the class. All hosts will have access to moderation controls, so that they can share the load of managing who can join, control, use the chat or present their screens.
8. New tools to detect plagiarism
In a bid to detect potential plagiarism, Google will enable students to add originality reports in 15 languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Finnish, German, Korean and Danish, Malay and Hindi.
Career
Don’t let work stress sabotage your career
Excerpts from article by Bryan Robinson, published in Forbes
There’s one thing that adds insult to injury and can put the skids on your career. We must distinguish between first and second zingers that come our way in the workplace. The first zinger is the inevitable stressful or upsetting work situation we can’t control. The second zinger is the added stress of how we react that we can control.
When work pressure is experienced, a negative reaction layers stress on top of stress. One thing we can count on is pressure at work in one form or another. Although we can’t always control it, we can control our reactions—the ones we sting ourselves with. A given situation may be unpleasant and stressful, but sometimes the worse stress comes from our reaction to it.
1. Don’t get carried away by your emotions
We’ve all had the experience of a career disappointment or colleague setting us off. A manager makes a rude comment, a co-worker talks over us in a meeting, we have a computer glitch or a unexpected deadline looms, and we lose our temper.
Suppose your boss takes credit for your idea. You react by lowering the boom on her. If so, you may end up saying or doing something you may later regret.
Self-judgment can also create stress. When you fail at something, make a mistake or have a setback, judging yourself creates a second layer of stress, making you more likely to give up. Self-judgment throws you into a cycle of setbacks. This can throw you into seeking comfort in the very behaviour you’re trying to conquer. Facing an upsetting situation with impartiality reduces the intensity of your stress. When you remove the second layer of condemnation, you feel an ease in dealing with the real stressors.
2. Learn to differentiate between an event and the feelings it generates in you
Mindfulness meditation helps us to recognise the difference between an upsetting turn of events and the emotions we feel as a result of that. It helps you cultivate the ability to stay calm in the middle of a storm.
As we develop the skill to see them as separate, we realise we don’t have to react every time. This recognition is a good medicine for reducing work stress because it softens our reactions.
3. Replace self-judgement with self-compassion
Comforting self-talk can help in such stressful situations as job interviews, the aftermath of a job loss, racing against a deadline or falling flat on our face in a presentation.
Self-compassion can soothe job stressors, not because you replace negative feelings with positive affirmations, but because as you embrace your negative feelings, new positive emotions rise up within you. When you’re kinder to yourself and accept your shortcomings and limitations with compassion, you’re better able to deal with the stressful situation, not the added negative feelings from self-judgment.
Watching our inner reactions without judgment keeps us from adding insult to injury. Once we become mindful and observe our thoughts with curiosity instead of judgement, we start to notice we’re calmer, more clearheaded, less stressful and and more productive.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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