Week 5: Is there anything Google doesn’t do?

On this, the fifth and final week of our journey into educational technology we will be taking a look at Google Classroom.  This tool was released in 2014 to help streamline classroom activities and allow teachers more time to teach.  In the first year after its release it already had nearly 10 million teacher and student users.  As a non user seeing how quickly it was adopted has me very optimistic.

Without digging to deep I already see many benefits that using Google Classroom can provide.  Teachers can create worksheets digitally and keep their paperwork for all their classes organized in one dashboard. Homework can be assigned to each class roster with a few clicks.  Sharing and collaboration are simplified through toggling the editing functions for delivery to peers or students.  Quizzes can be given out and graded in real time, rather than waiting to return paper copies for review.  Websites and other content can be shared to the entire class at once.  With this also being my first time using the product I have found it simple to use and surprisingly intuitive.

The two things that have me most excited about this tool come from it being a discreet web based classroom.  I think that the ability to provide unique assignments or content to groups or individuals that may be struggling is a game changer.  Being able to give the extra learning materials without drawing attention to it can help alleviate any embarrassment a student might feel from not grasping a concept quite as quick as their classmates.  The web based nature of the tool also can be huge in keep students who miss class up to date, or ensure the class stays on task during a teacher absence.

Have you found any other hidden benefits using Google Classroom?