Google is working its way into the classroom.
The tech giant is releasing four new apps to help guide classroom learning. One tool that I seriously would have liked to play with in school is the Expeditions App, which lets students take trips in virtual reality.
The beta version of the Expeditions App was launched in September 2015 and has already been used by one million students in 11 different countries. The app lets students take immersive trips to places like the Great Barrier Reef or the London Eye. It's a pretty cool way to learn about a new place without staring at boring slides on a projector.
The Expeditions App can be used on smartphones or tablets, but for an immersive experience students can use Google Cardboard for more affordable VR watching. Best Buy is also selling Expedition kits that include a tablet, virtual reality viewers, and a router to connect them all.
Google is also adding three more apps to Chromebook to make it more educationally friendly. There's Explain Everything, an interactive whiteboard app; Soundtrap, which lets you make music and podcasts online; and a video editing platform called WeVideo.
Google is also adding quizzes in Google Forms so teachers can grade easier and get instant data on what questions students struggled with the most.
Lastly, Google is launching Google Cast for Education, which lets teachers and students share their screens wirelessly anywhere in the classroom. So no more wasting class time trying to "figure out" how to synch your laptop to that massive projector.
All of these product launches show a strong interest in getting Google products in the classroom. It could be that the Google is aiming to be the go-to source for educational tools going forward.
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