A lot of education was forced to move online during the COVID pandemic, and a lot of that rapidly-made infrastructure has been maintained, and its use continued. As such, a lot of modern education organizations are continuing to use Google Classroom as a market-leading technology and consider how it can help them achieve their goals.
Here, let’s talk about Google Classroom in depth, from how it works to how it will continue to give educators a suite of impressive online learning tools to help their classes.
What’s Google Classroom’s goal?
Google Classroom is now over ten years old since it was released in August of 2014. The general idea of the software at that time was quite general, with Google looking to make it useful in more specific use cases following user feedback.
Essentially, the goal was simple: to allow teachers and students to engage in digital learning by removing paper and pens from the equation. In an increasingly modern world, this caught educators’ attention, and the software has grown in popularity.
Google Classroom is compatible with a wide range of Google services, from simple things like Docs and Sheets to more complex social software, such as Google Hangouts or Meet. This wide functionality has allowed for a range of teaching styles to adapt well to the new environment.
Convenient Google Classroom features
Since the software was first released and used, a number of features have become quite beloved. A few of these are listed below, along with some additional information, but it’s worth pointing out that with Google’s ubiquitous nature, many additional features are created regularly.
Video meetings
Video meetings are perhaps the most obviously powerful feature – they allow for staff and students to take on different roles in the online classroom, empowering dynamic learning, and preventing disruption wherever possible.
Managing admin
A large swathe of teaching-based administrative tasks are covered within the Google Classroom ecosystem. For instance, creating and managing classes that one could be teaching, as well as marking work and distributing relevant assignments. Having a central point for all of these tasks makes the system very efficient.
Parental integration
An impressive element of the digital learning platform is that teachers can effortlessly communicate with parents and guardians. Email summaries of a given student’s progress can easily be generated, as well as reminders about upcoming work and events.
Super modern innovations
As AI technology has proliferated, Google Classroom has taken it under its wing. An impressively modern feature of the software is the AI-driven Read Along application. Essentially, it allows a child to read aloud from the text in front of them, and have immediate feedback on their developing phonetic knowledge.
A data-based approach to teaching has also allowed Google Classroom to roll out a feature where teachers can create and manage groups of students, addressing their specific needs. This may be particularly useful when helping those who need a little extra one-on-one time to truly grasp a subject.
Google Classroom has evolved regularly to be a very powerful tool. As it continues to be used throughout education, more applications and services will likely be integrated to make it even more powerful.
