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Google Classroom

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Re: Google Classroom

#51

Post by tnorthcutt »

giardini wrote: post #48

Why tie yourself to the current state of technology (keyboard, pc, printer), which may be defunct in 8-15 years? Let the kids learn to use computers but limit it specifically to that. In the classroom emphasis should be on teaching the subject (and let them use pencil, pen and paper). And I'm appalled that public schools now teach computer skills but have abandoned cursive writing.

This reads like "technology will change, so don't let kids use modern technology in the classroom".

Why not just keep up with the changes?

Re: Google Classroom

#52

Post by teach »

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #31
acbart wrote: post #29

I got into the demo over the summer, and I was pretty underwhelmed. They list the features on the front page there, and that's exactly what they have. So in other words, you can manage a feed of assignments ("X is due on Tuesday", "Here is a link to a video!") and some very simplistic google docs control. I really expected something on the level of Canvas or Moodle, but it's clearly just a few convenience features fo…

My thoughts exactly. I am in charge of Canvas at our school, and we are deploying Google Apps for Ed. next year. Not thinking of using Classroom at all - at least not with the current feature set.

On the other hand, at my school we ALREADY have a lot of teacher using Google apps with their students. The clever ones have been able to cobble together something decent using gmail, google drive, calendar, etc.

Google Classroom streamlines what they were already doing. And it will allow some less-technically-savvy teachers to do some of the same things.

Re: Google Classroom

#53

Post by boydjd »

vfgf wrote: post #33

Does it require Google Account for each student? What if student doesn't want account, and doesn't agree with Google Terms of Service?

Of course it does.

It also requires the institution to have a Google Apps for Education account, which usually means that the University email accounts are all Google Accounts anyways.

Re: Google Classroom

#54

Post by wsxcde »

zyxley wrote: post #16

If I was a teacher, there's no way I would use this... privacy concerns aside, there's nothing to suggest that Google won't suddenly shut it down in two or three years when whoever is maintaining it gets bored of it, like Google has with so many other projects.

Why would a teacher worry about something that might happen 3 years down the line? You only need this to work for a particular term or semester.

Re: Google Classroom

#55

Post by nacho2sweet »

sagischwarz wrote: post #14

I think the public educational IT system should not be outsourced to the private sector, where schools completely lose control of the data and depend more or less on the good will of the company. University courses should not be organized by Facebook and pupils should not be forced to use IT systems of non-trustworthy companies like Google, which earn money by profiling their customers. Maybe my view is too German, b…

I work in IT at a major Canadian University. I hear what you are saying, but the solutions provided by universities IT departments are usually sub-par to completely not useful. There have been attempts in the past to partner with other schools and develop solutions jointly but are often cost over run disasters.

It is really hard to attract any top development talent, or even try and convince current employees to stay up to date with current trends. Lots of development teams are stuck in old waterfall mentalities on huge java stacks.

We have laws that protects students data and doesn't allow us to host student or even employee information on U.S. servers. Provincial laws and mandates handed down from deans because of the Homeland Security Act hinder the use of any sort of SaaS's. It makes it really hard and disheartening to provide and develop good solutions.

I can't suggest someone go use certain survey tools, or use mailchimp to handle a small campaign for example. I am not supposed to promote the use of Google Drive or Dropbox for day to day use with other staff because of fear they will start storing data they aren't supposed to on it. We often end up with sub-par self hosted copies of great applications, but no one wants to use them. Google classroom looks really cool but there is no way any schools in this province would be allowed to use it.

Re: Google Classroom

#56

Post by sosuke »

wsxcde wrote: post #54
zyxley wrote: post #16

If I was a teacher, there's no way I would use this... privacy concerns aside, there's nothing to suggest that Google won't suddenly shut it down in two or three years when whoever is maintaining it gets bored of it, like Google has with so many other projects.

Why would a teacher worry about something that might happen 3 years down the line? You only need this to work for a particular term or semester.

Because learning new products each semester or term is a PITA? Just imagine how long books last in a curriculum, there is nothing that iterates quickly in education. A question though is do all teachers use the same software in a school or is it all ad-hoc?

Re: Google Classroom

#57

Post by scourge »

ceras wrote: post #45
stephenr wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never heard of or used this Blackboard software that keeps being referenced, but I find it hard to believe that Google entering nay market is "good news" for anyone except Google fanboys. Google has an atrocious history of entering a market with commercial and open source options, obliterating them all with "hosted, free" solutions, feeding all the new data into their already massive profile building infrastru…

Do you have an example of that sequence happening (other than Google Reader)?

google voice. google browser sync. google send to phone. google wave.

then there's a list of things that are STILL around but have stifled competition anyways: gmail (hopefully people might get behind mailpile but i doubt it), gtalk (again, we have to wait another decade at least before a sensible IM standard is used), G+ (how many in the tech community have moved from one company (facebook) to another (google Plus). Just because they haven't axed a product like they did with reader of voice doesn't mean they won't misuse their power. Look at all the features they've removed from google maps because "mama google knows best". And no one dares to compete with them.

Re: Google Classroom

#58

Post by VLM »

jrells wrote: post #40
yincrash wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many Universities already use stuff like Blackboard[1] which for the most part is TERRIBLE (at least how I remember it in school.) These pieces of software are already around, and if anything competition in the space will hopefully make things better. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc .

My University uses Moodle, which is also TERRIBLE. I do all my grades and such in Google Docs, since Moodle is a UX nightmare. Something as simple as entering grades in Moodle requires a lot of clicking around for each grade. We have multi-page documents describing how to perform even the most basic tasks, they require constantly clicking and going to new pages of indiscernible icons. Menus are impossible to navigate…

Tragically, the larger the organization, the more likely computers are to increase manual labor and repeated data entry, rather than reduce it. In the days before automation, you'd have simply written a letter on a piece of paper, in a second or so per student. I am not surprised to hear that "designed by committee" results in replacing something fast and easy with a long complicated process.

Re: Google Classroom

#59

Post by infinitebattery »

Senior at the International Academy here (a public high school in Michigan). One of my classes uses Google Classroom.

I think that Google truly took a "Google Plus" look and morphed that into a website for teachers. I love how it has a clean and easy to use UI. The assignments are on a side bar, announcements are clearly displayed in a "stream". You can easily post a message to your class, and you have access to everyone's email (making it easy to communicate).

Teachers in my school have used three platforms. Moodle, Google Classroom, and Edmodo. Quite frankly, I have come to like Edmodo much more. They're identical to Facebook, but the layout is so much better than the alternatives (in my preference). Edmodo has truly thought everything out.

Re: Google Classroom

#60

Post by freshflowers »

10 years ago, people would have welcomed this. Today, the brand Google is a red flag for any school that cares about their reputation and any parent who cares about their child's privacy.

It's utterly unsellable unless Google follows the old "evil" Microsoft route and simply bribes schools. And even that won't be enough to counter the shit storm that will hit any school that delivers the privacy of it's students into the hands of Google.

(The link sends me to the Dutch version of this. Google is seriously tone deaf it they think they can still sell this here.)

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