With Course Kit, students and teachers can use Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides with existing school software. Ahead of the new semester, the service is now called Google Assignments, with Google also introducing Originality Reports.
Earlier this year, Google rolled out Work Insights for G Suite enterprise customers that help track adoption rates, collaboration statistics, and work patterns. A similar tool is now coming to Google for Education users with “transformation reports.”
Ahead of next week’s ISTE 2019, Google for Education announced a slew of G Suite updates for schools. Classroom is adding grading rubrics and SIS syncing, while locked mode Quizzes on Chromebooks are launching this August.
Chrome OS is a big player in the education space, and Google is continuing its lead with the new Chromebook App Hub. Announced at SXSW Edu today, it provides a collection of trusted apps and other activities that best leverage a Chromebook’s capabilities.
With the Machine Learning Crash Course earlier this year, Google published its internal boot camp to expose AI to everyone. The company is now partnering with colleges across the U.S. to teach machine learning to students that have already taken computer and data science courses.
After pilot programs in North and South Carolina, Google is expanding its “Rolling Study Halls” program to 16 more school districts. This ‘For Education‘ initiative equips school buses with Wi-Fi connectivity so that students who live in rural areas can study and do homework during their daily hours-long commute.
Many job openings in the field of computer science go unfilled — not for lack of quality applicants, but due to a lack of any applicants at all. This is a big problem for technology companies, Google included, because it means they have to compete for the few candidates there are with large compensation packages and cushy benefits like on-site masseuses and shuttles to take employees to and from work (both benefits that Google offers). Google in particular has been working hard both to get more people into computer science and also increase the diversity of those going into the field, and today it rolled out an online destination where anyone can go to find computer science learning opportunities.
The new portal, which can be found on the Google for Education website (click here), aims to increase exposure to all kinds of opportunities for one to gain computer science skills — be it through online games, grants, summer camps, etc — by collecting them in one place and allowing anyone to then sort them by age and region for the highest relevance to ones needs. Google notes in its blog post about the portal that encouragement and exposure can have a direct impact on a child’s interest in pursuing computer science education, and that goes especially for girls. This development is aimed particularly at students, but anyone interested in the field can take advantage of it.
“CS is much more than computer programming and coding— it’s a gateway to creativity and innovation not just in technology but in fields as diverse as music, sports, the arts, and health,” said Google in its blog post about the portal.
Google today released what it calls “a guide to activating technology in schools” as part of its education efforts. Intended to assist teachers and IT administrators, Google says the new guide based on what other schools processes provides schools with the following frameworks to bring the web into the classroom.
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Today, Google’s Senior Director of Global Enterprise Marketing, Chris Farinacci, announced that the search giant moved over 1 million Chromebooks through its Google for Education program during Q2 of 2014. Part of the company’s success is based on school districts and teachers using Google’s alternative laptops and software as tools to educate students.