Posts with Tag: Google Apps Archives - Modern Pen
Leaving School District 21? Information about what’s in your CCSD21 Google Apps for Education Account
May 7, 2021
Tags: Calendar, G Suite, Google, Google Apps, Google Docs, Google Drive, Staff, Staff Laptop
At the end of each school year, students and teachers ask questions about taking their School District 21 materials with them. Due to issues of ownership, there are actually different rules about how students and teachers can take their documents with them. What happens to the account when I leave? School District 21 has […]
Google Apps on your mobile device
May 19, 2018
Tags: Calendar, Contacts, Email, Gmail, Google, Google Apps, Mobile, SmartPhones
A number of years ago, CCSD21 had hoped to be able to provide access to CCSD21 email, calendar, and contacts to CCSD21 staff members on personal mobile devices. Technical and policy issues were examined and preparations were made. Ultimately, there was no way around the fact that School District 21 would have needed to invest […]
Leaving School District 21? Information about what’s in your CCSD21 Google Apps account
May 20, 2016
Tags: Calendar, Google, Google Apps, Google Docs, Google Drive, Staff, Staff Laptop
At the end of each school year, students and teachers ask questions about taking their School District 21 materials with them. Due to issues of ownership, there are actually different rules about how students and teachers can take their documents with them. What happens to the account when I leave? School District 21 has […]
Google+ Photos: Now in Drive
May 7, 2015
Tags: Google, Google Apps, Google Drive, Google Photos, Google Plus, Photos, Pictures
This week, Google is rolling out a new feature to Google Apps for Education domains. Google+ Photos will now appear in Google Drive on the left side titled as “Google Photos” as pictured below. There are some great benefit to this feature, and staff members also need to understand the distinction between the storage of […]
Google Hangouts: Getting Things Done
May 7, 2015
Tags: Chat, Google, Google Apps, Google Hangouts, Hangouts
Beginning today, Google Hangouts is enabled for all CCSD21.org users, students and staff. (Hangouts was originally opened as an option to staff only when it became mostly compliant with Google Vault.) Google has recently made Hangouts fully compliant with Google Vault, the service that School District 21 uses to necessarily archive email and chat messages. […]
Google Drive: 2 Ways to Navigate
November 7, 2014
Tags: Google Apps, Google Drive, Lenovo, Staff, Staff Laptop, Windows
Nearly all of the time that School District 21 staff members interact with their Google Drive, they do so in the Chrome browser. This is the best way to use Google Drive and will work for nearly everyone, nearly all of the time. Additionally, during the laptop set-up process, all staff configured Google Drive in […]
Writing in Other Languages
November 2, 2014
Tags: Chrome, Google Apps, Google Docs, Google Drawing, Google Drive, Google Slides, Lenovo, Staff, Staff Laptop, Windows
Living in a the small global community that exists in our world today requires most people to have proficiency in multiple languages and to be able to use devices across those languages. Previously, instructions have been provided regarding how to use Mac OS X in languages (Typing en Español and 1 Computer, Multiple Languages) other […]
Organizing Your Google Drive
October 19, 2014
Tags: Chrome Apps, Google, Google Apps, Google Drive, Lenovo, Staff, Staff Laptop
As staff members move to the new Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 11e staff laptops, the only way to safely store and back-up files is in Google Drive. There, in addition to Google’s server infrastructure, School District 21 also has three additional services providing back-up and security for both our productivity as a school district as well […]
WeVideo–Setting up a CCSD21.org Account
August 31, 2014
Tags: Chrome, Chrome Apps, Chromebook, Google Apps, WeVideo
Beginning with the 2014-2015 school year, School District 21 has purchased licensing from WeVideo. There are a great many benefits to this. These include: collaborative video editing, additional features (like green screens), and the ability to export more video than on free accounts. At the same time, there is a limit to how many accounts […]
Google Classroom–Now Available!
August 17, 2014
Tags: Google, Google Apps, Google Classroom, Google Drive
Throughout the summer, we’ve shared information about Google Classroom, and we’re excited to announce that, in response to educators from around the world, Google has doubled-down its efforts in order to get Classroom out even earlier than had previously been announced. We’re pleased to share that Google Classroom is now available for teachers throughout School […]

Each District 21 school is named after an American author, and learning and literacy is at the center of our Professional Learning Community. The Modern Pen provides a collaborative location in which District 21 teachers can come together to learn the skills that will enable their students to learn new skills and to understand concepts at an even different level than before.