Google Has Some New Tools for Teachers

Google says that Expeditions will be available on iPhones and iPads soon.

Google has announced a slew of new tools that is going to further enhance its presence in the classrooms.

Google for Education is a new tool created to make the life of teachers easier and education more accessible. The latter product is likely to get the lion’s share of attention.

Expeditions is virtual reality app that lets you go on an immersive field trip.

Field trips are usually a nightmare for teachers and a load of fun for students. Google is offering more than 200 Expeditions to students and the app can be downloaded from Google Play Store. This can be used by people who have the Google Cardboard or the 2D screen mode on their tablets. “By teaming up with Google for Education to offer Google Expeditions Kits, we’re giving teachers an out-of-the-box ready tool that adds a first-person dimension to their students’ studies”. The bundle price for the kit from Best Buy is $9,999. The TES portal has Virtual Reality Content designed for schools.

“We think bringing this kind of experience into classrooms for free could have a large impact on the long-term interest in VR platforms, particularly as many segments of the general population will not otherwise have the means to experience high-quality virtual reality otherwise”, she said. But with Google Cast app, both students and teachers will be able to share their screens wirelessly from anywhere in the class. Teachers turn their computer into a Cast destination.

The Google Cast protocol lets you stream content from a smartphone, tablet, or computer to a TV. It is available in beta as a Chrome app that works in Chrome OS, Mac, and Windows for free starting today. Starting today quizzes will be integrated right in the forms. The company has also updated Google Forms so that teachers can give paperless quizzes to the class and immediately check their students’ answers. Once the teachers get the results of these exams, they can see where in their lessons they need to put more focus on.

Finally, Google has collaborated with EdTechTeacher to create a collection of creative apps on Chromebooks. These include a music and podcast making app called Soundtrap, a video project tool called WeVideo, and an interactive whiteboard called Explain Everything.