Google classroom is a great organizational tool for teachers, students, and schools that aim to go paperless for creation, distribution and grading of assignments. Google classroom has been a very powerful platform used by educational domains to create courses, communicate, save time, stay organized, send out homework tasks, and more. As of 2017, Google made it available to anyone with a private account, meaning you can also utilize this powerful tool.
You can think of Google classroom as an assignment manager for Google Drive and Gmail. Google classroom utilizes functionality of Google Drive for assignment creation and classroom communication is facilitated using Gmail. Students can be added using the school information management system or invited to join a classroom using a private code. Google classroom also integrates with your Google calendar to provide timetable and notification for your classes. Each class is created as a folder in Google Classroom, where students can submit their work or assignments to the teacher for grading. The functionality of Gmail allows the teachers to ask questions and make announcements. It is important to note that Google Classroom is not used to serve Ads to the users (Students, Teachers, Schools) and user data is not used for any advertising purposes.
Learning Activities
Google Classroom provides learning activities for teachers and students. Teachers can utilize the functionality of Google Docs to collaborate with other teachers by working on the lesson plan at the same time. The lesson plans can be stored and shared via Google Drive so that other users in the same network can search and access the database. In addition, teachers can also share resources by creating a folder for their grade level. For students, there are learning activities in the field of Math, Science, Reading, and Writing. For Math, Google Draw allows for modeling Mathematics by creating visual manipulations. Students can also collaborate to solve a math problem by working on a document or slide presentation. Peer tutoring is also possible for students in upper grades through creation of a classroom for providing support to students in lower grades.
Stream feature can be used to create a discussion on a topic. Stream tab appears once you login to your account, where students can share their opinions by creating new posts and topics for discussion. Google classroom also allows the students to keep a record of their weekly readings by using Google Form as a replacement for their reading diaries. Google form can be used a place to enter reading data, which can be accessed from any computer.
For writing, E-portfolio method can be used for uploading documents and assignments by creating folders and documents that can be shared with everyone. For group work, students can share and upload their work so that it is available for all members, so that group is not impacted if a student take a sick day. In addition to collaboration, teachers can use Google Form to create spelling tests, which will allow students to enter their spelling when the teacher calls out the word and a formula can judge the correctness of the answers automatically, providing instant marks to the students.
Google Maps integration allows the students to explore maps and learn about famous landmarks by organizing a fun activity as a scavenger hunt with QR codes.
What’s new in 2018 for Google Classroom
In 2018, Google has introduced the biggest refreshed to Classroom since it’s launch. Google Classroom was designed with one Stream to share new ideas and content. As Stream was a single page, it became crowded over time so Google has introduced a new Classwork page, which allows the students and teachers to group assignments and work in different modules.
Google Classroom in 2018 provides a new grading tool for better and faster feedback. Google has introduced a new tool that is built into Classroom’s grading workflow that allows teachers to use a comment bank to easily save and reuse commonly used feedback. The new grading tools also allows the use of office files, docs editor, pdf files, video files, and more.
The new Google Classroom also allows teachers to copy and reuse classwork so that topics and assignments can be shared between classes. In addition, the Google Classroom provides improved people and settings pages and ability to turn off notifications for a class.
Google Classroom provides a modern and paperless approach for teachers, students, and schools for creation, distribution and grading of assignments. It is a great way for students and teachers to collaborate, communicate, and organize topics and courses for the classroom. Google Classroom is the best way to prepare the students for the Technology driven future.
Source: Google
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