Head Back To School With Updated ‘Google Classroom’
Google Classroom was rolled out last year as a platform for students and teachers to host Q&A's, debates and discussion. Recently, the software has introduced a series of upgrades for the new academic year.
The newest features have been incorporated to provide the teachers with the right to save time, engage students and keep everything in order.
The previous version Google Classroom could interact flawlessly with Google Docs, Sheets and Slides only. But, the updated version would allow teachers to create a Google Calendar for each class. This could help them schedule field trips, guest lectures and other events, well in advance.
A student response system (SRS) has been added to Google Classroom's education productivity suite. This feature would allow the "teachers to insert question-driven discussions to their classroom stream page," reported EdTech.
The students and the teachers would be able to discuss the answers and respond to the questions via SRS. Teachers would also be able to grade them.
The updated version would allow teachers to reuse assignments, questions or announcements from any of their previously taught classes. They would be given an option to choose the content they wish to copy and would be allowed to make changes to it, before assigning or posting.
"The reuse post feature gives teachers the gift of time," told Heather Breedlove, who serves as a Technology Integration Coordinator in Arizona. She continued, "Making changes to something already created is way easier than starting from scratch. It's working smarter, not harder."
In addition, Google has launched YouTube settings for all Google App Domains. These settings would give the App admins the right to limit the YouTube videos viewable for signed-in users. The admins would also be able to keep a watch on signed-out users on the network.
Will Phan, a Software Engineer for Google Classroom informed that most of Google Classroom's features would be out by the end of August. But, he asked the students and teachers to "stay tuned" for the next few weeks, to discover more Google Classroom tools and features.
