Hello GEC Community! ๐
As we wrap up our February focus on Digital Well-Being and Safety, we are highlighting updates that reduce administrative burden for teachers and offer safer, creative outlets for students. This week, Google has introduced several "quality-of-life" improvements that make personalized instruction more manageable.
Here is your weekly recap of the latest Google Workspace updates:
๐ AI-Suggested Feedback in Google Classroom
Personalized feedback is one of the most effective ways to support student growth, but it is also one of the most time-consuming. Educators can now use Gemini to help draft personalized guidance on written assignments in Google Classroom.
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How it works: Gemini suggests feedback tailored to the specific student's work and grade level, which teachers can then review, edit, and send.
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Impact: This allows teachers to provide high-quality support to every student more efficiently, freeing up time for direct classroom interaction.
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Learn more about AI-suggested feedback in Classroom
๐ต Create Custom Soundtracks with Lyria 3
For our creative arts and multimedia projects, students (and teachers!) can now generate custom 30-second soundtracks in the Gemini app. Powered by the Lyria 3 model, these are created using simple text or image prompts.
๐ New Gemini Usage Reports for Admins
To help schools understand how AI is being adopted, the Admin console now features comprehensive Gemini usage and threshold reports. These provide visibility into which apps (Docs, Slides, etc.) are seeing the most AI engagement.
๐ก๏ธ Enhanced Controls for Meetings and Groups
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Meeting Notes Control: New "Take notes for me" configurations allow hosts to better manage AI note-taking visibility, including a more prominent notice in the Meet "green room." Details here.
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Google Groups Permissions: A new "Who can modify group details" permission allows owners to delegate the ability to edit group names and descriptions to specific roles. Details here.
๐ Forecasting in Connected Sheets
For secondary Math or Business studies, Connected Sheets now allows users to generate data forecasts directly using BigQuery ML and the TimesFM modelโbringing professional-grade data science into the classroom environment.
Original Source: Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap - February 20, 2026
