One if the best tools Google has released to educators is Google Classroom. Using Google classroom may seem daunting at first, but really its very straight forward. Google has designed Google classroom around its other Google apps, many of which are well suited to utilizing for collaboration between faculty and students. They also help to create a sense of connectivity between students as students can use the same tools to collaborate on group projects
Google boasts the over 40 million students are using Google Classroom. The system is used by education institutions all over the world and is enhancing the education opportunities for many institutions in economically depressed areas. The best part about Google classroom is its free and Google provides the service at no cost to non-profit educational institutions. This is in stark contrast to learning management systems such as Blackboard which can cost thousands of dollars in licensing fees each year.
The tools offered within Google classroom where designed with ease of use in mind. The core of the Google classroom applications as well as all of the Google document type apps is centered around Google drive. You could say Google drive is the glue that holds it all together. Since all your Google documents, spreadsheets, and Google forms that you will use in education store their data in Google drive, that is the starting point. Google classroom takes it to another level, but at the root, it is saving all your information in Google drive.
Initially a personal account you get 2 gigabytes of storage in Google Drive. This will be plenty if you are only doing individual type activities, but once you start using Google classroom, you may find you will need more. This is not a big deal as Google has plenty of space. Some of you may need to purchase unless your school has provided you with additional storage beyond the default.
The best way to get started with Google classroom is to check out some of the great resources Google has put together. Take a look at Google Classroom 101 to start your journey towards mastering this great learning tool for education.
Google classroom is just one element of Google gSuite and all the products available to educators for free through the Google for Education program. This suite of tools to include: Google Docs, Google Sheets( a spreadsheet type program), Google Slides( a PowerPoint type application), Google Drive ( which ties everything together), and my favorite Google Forms.
Google Drive and Google Forms are the most useful addition to Google classroom as you can use Google drive to share digital materials with your classes and if your institution has the full Google Apps For Education suite, then permissions ties over so you can control who has access to the materials.
Google Forms can be used with Classroom to receive feedback from your students. Google Forms can be used to create surveys as well as tests. The responses can be captured and then exported to sheets for further analysis. We created a sample survey using Google forms here so you can get an idea of some of the items that are possible with this product.
Using Google Classroom
There are many uses for Google classroom, and while a lot of people primarily use it in the college classroom, it can also be very useful in other settings. We will explore a few of those additional uses for Google classroom. Let’s look at a few other situations where Google classroom will prove useful.
Using Google Classroom in the Elementary Classroom
You may think that online learning is not appropriate for students at the elementary level, but educators are finding it can help to deliver information. Today’s young people are a lot more technically inclined than their teachers at this age, and many can easily grasp the concept. Of course, you have to be certain that the students have the needed computer and internet connection at home to utilize online learning at this level, but as long as they are plugged in it can help. Below is a YouTube Video where an educator is using Google classroom for her first-grade students.
This is one method where Google classroom has found success in the elementary setting and has some great ideas if you decide you want to bring Google classroom intro your elementary school instruction curriculum.
Here is another video of a teacher using Google classroom in her second-grade classroom. This one is fascinating as she does a good job of getting the students to engage. This would work well as long as your district is not entirely cheap and has provided you computers or Chromebooks in your classroom. This Google classroom trick not only helps you instruct students it is also teaching them to use computers for instruction at an early age.
Google Classroom is a great suite of learning applications you can use to take your ability to instruct students in ways never before possible. Google Classroom is a full-fledged Learning management platform that you can use to ensure students are receiving a variety of instructional methodologies. This will allow you to take your teaching to an entire another level. Using Google apps in the classroom can become a useful tool for enhancing the instruction you provide your students.
Google has been improving the feature set in Google Classroom consistently since launch, but at times it seems as if it’s going slow. Microsoft Office 365 is working on a release of Microsoft Classroom that may light a fire under google to complete this project and add some much-needed features to this product. Google and Microsoft are really starting to complete for the education market and that will help educators have more useful features in the process.