[youtuber youtube=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUiLc0If0CI’]
The old “dog ate my homework excuse” is about to become a thing of the past. And kids will have Google to thank.
The search giant has just released Classroom, a free tool that allows teachers to do everything from assigning projects to collecting and grading assignments, all online. Classroom uses Google’s own products such as Docs and Drive to manage and organize the often chaotic classroom workflow.
Google launched a pilot of Classroom in May, but on Tuesday, the search giant announced it was offering Classroom to anyone with a Google Apps for Education account. The goal, says Classroom creator and Google product manager Zach Yeskel, is to make already overburdened teachers more productive by reducing the time spent pushing paper around a classroom.
“We did user research, and what came to the forefront was the fact that teachers were spending a lot of time doing things other than teaching,” Yeskel, a former high school math teacher, says. “The goal of Classroom is to make the things that should be simple, simple.”
