In honor of Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday, Google celebrated by previewing a new simple system for course work organization. Part of its Google Apps for Education suite, “Classroom” will be a free software option; serving as an easy way for teachers to create and track assignments, provide feedback to students, as well as communicating with classes. Google states Classroom is “based on the principle that educational tools should be simple and easy to use...designed to give teachers more time to teach and students more time to learn”. Google’s effort is part of a larger scheme to tackle a very persistent need in schooling; the need for better software options. Classroom will use Docs, Drive, and Gmail to facilitate assignments, as well as the platform shown here as a profile feed for organization and communication.

Classroom works by automatically creating a Drive folder for each student and each assignment given to them. All pupils can see what is due on their very own assignment page. Everything is free, with no need to waste paper, and very importantly, no ads! Speaking of, Google claims to never use teacher content or student data for such purposes. One might remember back in April, when Google announced it “stopped scanning the Gmail messages of those with Google Apps for Education accounts”, yet Google still scanned accounts for other uses. This is a huge concern among parents, teachers, and students, but Google says it has stopped. In fact, after this bad publicity, Google said it “will eventually extend the same courtesy to business, government, and legacy users”.



An Internet, cloud-based software product such as Google Apps has the ability to do wonders for the teaching and education sectors. Now that it is about to be available, it is hoped teachers will ensue the trust needed to use Classroom as a valuable tool, rather than spending valuable time going through piles upon piles of paper assignments. It is the way of the future, and perhaps Google is giving it a head start. With today’s technology, we can only look forward to more and more accessible ways to be productive online. Currently, Google is working with a dozen “pilot” schools and universities, testing out Classroom. For anyone interested in apply for Google Classroom, the company is currently opening it up to a “limited number” of educators next month. If all goes to plan, the app should be available to all schools using Google Apps for Education by September.