Google Classroom gains annotations & email summaries, Forms adds support for images

Google has made huge inroads into the education market thanks to Chromebooks and Apps with features specifically aimed at schools. In time for the new year, Google Classroom is getting a bunch of new features, like annotations and email summaries for parents. Additionally, Expeditions has more virtual field trips and Forms finally supports adding images.

Announced two years ago, Google Classroom features a suite of organization and management features for students and teachers alike. Today’s update adds the ability to annotate documents form within the app and thus allow students to work better. Teachers can use annotations to quickly grade work and highlight important sections in a reading or assignments.

Parents and guardians will be better able to keep track of what their children are learning with a new email summary feature in Classroom. Automated daily or weekly emails provide summaries of student work and class announcements.

Virtual reality still has a big content problem and Google aims to close the gap with over 200 Cardboard Expedition locations. With the app, teachers can lead students through a virtual field trip. New locations include the human body and a tour of the White House Kitchen Garden. Google has also announced that Expeditions is coming soon to iOS and will allow for virtual trips with iPads in full-screen mode instead of VR viewers.

Minor updates today include the ability to upload images to questions and multiple choice answers in Google Forms. This particular update is available now to all Forms users.