Google
Classroom is a blended learning platform
developed by Google for schools that aims to simplify creating, distributing
and grading assignments in a paperless way. It was introduced as a feature of G
Suite for Education on May 6, 2014, followed by its public release on August
12, 2014. In June 2015, Google announced a Classroom API and a share button for
websites, allowing school administrators and developers to further engage with
Google Classroom. In March 2017, Google opened Classroom to allow any personal
Google users to join classes without the requirement of having a G Suite for
Education account, and in April, it became possible for any personal Google
user to create and teach a class.
Google
Classroom combines Google Drive for
assignment creation and distribution, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for
writing, Gmail for communication, and Google Calendar for scheduling, and
Google search to help with school projects. Students can be invited to classes
through the institution's database, through a private code, or be automatically
imported from a school domain. Each class creates a separate folder in the
respective user's Drive, where the student can submit work to be a graded by a
teacher. Mobile apps, available for iOS and Android devices, let users take
photos and attach to assignments, share files from other apps, and access
information offline. Teachers can monitor the progress for each student, and
after being graded, teachers can return work, with comments, for the student to
revise and improve the assignment. Teachers can post announcements to a class
stream, where students can comment.
Google claims that, as part of G
Suite for Education, it does not show advertisements for Google Classroom
users, and does not collect data or information for advertising purposes. This
has been disputed. Google stopped scanning students' Gmail messages in April
2014 following privacy concerns, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation has
twice, in December 2015 and April 2017, alleged that Google has broken its
commitment to privacy, by gathering information without consent[citation
needed]. Google has responded, saying that it is "confident" its
tools comply with applicable laws and privacy pledges.
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