Posted by Zach Yeskel, Classroom Product Manager (and former High School Math Teacher)

When we introduced Classroom back in May, we asked educators to give it a try. The response was exciting — more than 100,000 educators from more than 45 countries signed up for a preview. Today, we’re starting to open Classroom to all Google Apps for Education users, helping teachers spend more time teaching and less time shuffling papers.

One of the first schools to use Classroom was Fontbonne Hall Academy in Brooklyn, New York. Sister Rosemarie DeLoro, who has been teaching for more than 60 years, had never used computers with her students before Classroom was introduced at her school. Classroom made it easy for her to assign digital worksheets to students in her Italian class and provide direct feedback to help them learn. In fact, after just a few weeks, Sister Rosemarie was showing the other teachers how to use it. “You can’t stay in teaching and keep going to the old ways,” she said.

Teachers and students have been instrumental in helping us build Classroom. For example, we heard during the preview that educators don’t want to wait until an assignment is turned in to collaborate with students. Now, with Classroom, teachers can view and comment on students’ work to help them along the way. We’ve also heard that educators want a simple place to post information and materials about their classes, so we added an “About” page for each course, as well.

When teachers create assignments, they can attach files from Google Drive — including Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Keynote, Google Slides, Excel, Google Sheets, and many others — then choose to automatically make a copy for each student.

Teachers can review assignments from Classroom and provide feedback and grades to students all in one place.

Classroom is available in 42 languages (including right-to-left ones, such as Hebrew, Arabic and Persian). It also works well on mobile devices and most popular screen readers. We’ll be rolling out to more users every day, so if you go to classroom.google.com with your Apps for Education account and don’t have access yet, please check back soon.

Hopefully Classroom will help you spend a little less time at the photocopier and a little more time doing what you love—teaching.

Posted by David Andrade, CIO, Bridgeport Public Schools

Editor's note: Schools bought more than 1 million Chromebooks in the second quarter of 2014. Today’s guest blogger, David Andrade, the CIO for the Bridgeport Public Schools district, which serves 23,000 students in Connecticut, shares why they selected Chromebooks. Learn more about going Google and follow our Google for Education Google+ page to see a selection of tips from David. 

When I started my role as CIO a year and a half ago, I found that our technology was not up to scratch to meet the needs of our students. We only had a few desktop PCs located in each elementary and middle school classroom, and only a few in our high school computer labs. We definitely needed more machines so students would get more time to work on class projects and do research.

Our district doesn’t have a lot of money for buying new technology, and grants can be hard to come by. Adding to our challenges, Bridgeport Public Schools are based in a working-class community with high unemployment (95% of students receive free or reduced lunches). Most students don't have access to computers outside of school and, at the time, there was a limited supply in our schools.

Bridgeport uses a variety of Chromebook models including devices from Samsung, Acer and HP.

When the technology committee for Bridgeport Public Schools raised the idea of bringing affordable computers into our classrooms, I suggested we consider Chromebooks, coupled with Google Apps for Education. I was a fan of the Chromebook right from the start because of their affordable price and ease of use. In 2010, Google sent me one of the first Chromebooks to review on my blog, Educational Technology Guy, where I write about technology resources for teachers and students.

The affordability and easy maintenance of Chromebooks clinched the deal – we could buy three Chromebooks for the price of a single desktop computer and the district’s small IT team wouldn’t have to struggle to keep up with the repairs and updates on aging PCs. We would also save on support time and costs since Chromebooks update automatically. Initially, we bought 4,000 Chromebooks for our high schools, where every classroom now has a Chromebook for each student. At the same time, we decided to start using Google Apps for Education so every student would have an email address, something we’d never been able to do before. We also used Google Drive to move student documents off of our internal file storage system – another way to save the IT team time and money. So they can now work together and communicate with teachers even while not in the classroom.

When we received some hard-won grant money, we bought more Chromebooks, and we’re now at 9,000 district-wide. Our goal is to bring Chromebooks to every classroom in grades 4 through 12. The Chromebooks have already changed how teachers teach and students learn: there’s less “listen-to-me” lecturing, and more active student involvement in creating their own projects.

Now that we've been using Chromebooks for a while, we've been able to provide our students access to technology and take the strain off of our IT department, but what makes this truly successful is the what our students say. One of our 12th graders told me she loves that she can "take school work anywhere" or as one of our 10th graders told me, "they make it easier to hand in work and decrease your chance of failing."

Posted by Jaime Casap, Global Education Evangelist, Google for Education

As giddy students in the US are beginning to enjoy their summer break, we're feeling nostalgic looking back on the school year and are equally inspired by all the teachers we've had the chance to work with.

For example, the educators at Fairfield County Schools -- a rural district in South Carolina -- are committed to helping each and every student achieve success in academics and dedicated to helping them pursue their personal passions. The IT team may be small, but their achievements are not. And while the district is using Google for Education tools, it’s really the teachers there that make the difference.

It's because of inspiring educators, like those at Fairfield, that we work closely with teachers to build new tools made just for the classroom — to enable them to spend more time teaching & less "tech-ing". And we’re now expanding the availability of these tools, giving even more teachers new ways to engage students when school starts in the Fall.

One destination to find the right content for students
To make it easier for teachers to find content that inspires their students, we announced last week that we expanded Google Play for Education — creating a single destination for US K12 schools to find and distribute educational content — whether students are using Chromebooks, tablets, or both. Schools that use Chromebooks can start using the site for flexible book rentals, to distribute a selection of free Chrome apps and to share YouTube EDU videos. Administrators for Chromebooks can enable Google Play for Education today by visiting google.com/edu/play. If you do this by July 15 you’ll get a $20 credit for your school to use for book rentals. Learn more.

New tools to enhance Google Apps for Education
Last month we announced Classroom, a new tool coming to Google Apps for Education. We designed Classroom side-by-side with teachers to help them better engage their students and make time-consuming tasks like managing assignments easier. Classroom is currently in an invite-only preview but we are working to make it available to all Google Apps for Education schools in August. In the meantime, teachers can view the demonstration video. Administrators will also gain a new tool that saves them time: Google Apps School Directory Sync. It allows a school to export data from their student information system and quickly sync it to their Google Apps for Education domain. With this tool, it’s easy to create users, organizational units, and Google Groups, and also to keep everything in sync. Learn more.

More value and flexibility from tablets
Based on feedback from schools, we’ve made a few changes to help schools gain more flexibility to meet classroom and student needs with tablets. Schools told us they want students to be able to share devices so we’ve made some changes and now our tablets can be shared with up to 5 students. We’ve also taken the first steps to make tablets compatible with standardized testing for the 2014-2015 school year, releasing a single-task-mode tool for developers so they can design apps that restrict the device for assessments only. Partners like Pearson (a PARCC assessment provider) have already started implementing this functionality with their on-line assessment delivery system, TestNav. Learn more.

Connect with other teachers
Educators at the ISTE conference can visit booth #2414 to demo Google for Education and see over 50 presentations in our teaching theater. If you are not at ISTE, follow along online by searching #googleedu. We’re asking educators to share tips each day to surface great ideas for when school starts.

Posted by Pratip Banerji, Product Manager, Google Play for Education

Whenever I visit schools and talk to teachers, I’m reminded of the innovation that happens every day in the classroom. The English teacher who knows just the book to send a curious student’s mind racing, or the Physics teacher who shows how force and acceleration factored into the goal that tied the US vs. Portugal World Cup game.

Google for Education aims to make technology easy for students to use, simple for schools to manage, and affordable. But these tools don’t make a difference without the teachers who bring them to life. That’s why, in the last year, we worked closely with teachers to build tools that save time and provide flexibility -- tools like Google Play for Education.

Google Play for Education helps teachers find and share exactly the right educational content -- giving them the freedom to adapt their approach based on students’ current needs and interests. Google Play for Education started with tablets, but teachers told us they wanted to use it to find apps, books, and videos for Chromebooks too. So today we’re expanding Google Play for Education to US K-12 Chromebook schools.

The landing page for Google Play for Education helps schools find the perfect content for their students across Android apps, Chrome apps, books and videos.

Chromebook teachers can use Google Play for Education to:

• Share Chrome apps instantly, with the whole class or with individual students -- starting with favorites like GeoGebra, TechSmith SnagIt and CK-12. Soon we’re adding brand new apps from partners like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Discovery Education and Scholastic.
• Adapt classroom reading to students’ current interests as they choose from thousands of K-12 books, from the latest non-fiction to free classics like Huckleberry Finn and Jane Eyre.
• Create custom YouTube playlists for students using videos from educator-approved channels.

As a result, districts like Council Bluffs in Iowa are trying new things. David Fringer, the Director of IT for the district, has seen a change in the way teachers are approaching classroom reading:

"With Google Play for Education, we're no longer limited by the number of hard copies of books available. It's easy for teachers to find appropriate reading, then assign it to individual students or the whole class. As a result, we’re saving time and money as we make the transition to digital."

Two students in Fresno, CA, work together on a Chromebook. When they head back to school next year, their teachers will be able to send them apps through Google Play for Education.

If you’re a domain administrator managing Chromebooks, visit play.google.com/edu to turn on Google Play for Education. Enable by July 15 and we’ll send you a $20 credit for your school to use on paid books and other content purchases. If you’re an education developer for Chrome or Android interested in participating in Google Play for Education, learn how to get your app included.

If you’re coming to the ISTE conference this weekend, check out the sessions in our teaching theater at booth 2414, which include more information on the expansion of Google Play for Education. Stay tuned for more information next week on this blog, at ISTE, and by following #googleedu.

Posted by Jason Katcher, Head of North America Large Customer Education Sales

Editor's note: If you are thinking about going Google with Chromebooks, complete the interest form on our website and a member of our team will be in touch.


As students in the United States put down their pencils and head out for summer vacation, educators across the country are hard at work planning for the school year ahead. For some, it means putting together the summer reading list or having year-end conferences. For others, it means studying materials for a new syllabus or decorating the classroom. And for Chesterfield County Schools, one of the country’s 100 largest school systems, it means securing the best teaching materials and technology to greet students when they return to school next year -- including 32,000 new Chromebooks.

Chesterfield, which serves students across 62 schools in Virginia, joins a number of other large districts who have chosen Chromebooks for the 2014-15 school year. They join Oakland Unified School District (8,000 devices), Boston Public Schools (10,000 devices), Milwaukee Public Schools (11,400 devices), Edmonton Public Schools (13,000 devices), and Chicago Public Schools (16,000 devices).

Chesterfield is one of many public school districts that believe providing access to technology for every student is possible even when budgets are tight. They chronicled their journey on a website they created, called “Anytime, Anywhere Learning,” so the community could engage in the project and efforts. One of the most important steps the District took was running an in-depth pilot study where teachers, students and administrators tested 6 pilot devices in the classrooms, to determine which were best for their schools.

Adam Seldow, Executive Director of Technology, letting younger students test the new Chromebooks

After testing and assessing the devices, Chesterfield selected Chromebooks for all 32,475 middle and high school students. What’s especially remarkable is that they were able to move to Chromebooks with existing funds — without requesting additional budget, since Chromebooks are nearly half the cost of PC desktops and laptop alternatives. Chesterfield also saved by reducing the amount of classroom peripheral devices such as interactive whiteboards, which they could replace with web-based tools. They selected Dell Chromebooks with local partner TIG, who committed to provide training and support for the journey to ensure students, teachers and administrators could take full advantage of the many benefits of the new technology.

Choosing Chromebooks wasn’t just about selecting a piece of hardware - it was about meeting Chesterfield’s goals at the right price to bring great education to all students. As Chesterfield Superintendent Dr. Marcus Newsome explained, "anytime, anywhere learning is a tenet of our strategic plan made possible by highly trained teachers, and actionable by our students' access to Chromebooks.” And as Adam Seldow, Executive Director of Technology, said, “with Chromebooks, we are now able to provide students with more opportunities to pursue their interests both inside and outside of the classroom."

Posted by Emily Bernier, Software Engineer, Google Play for Education

While most schools eventually want to get to 1:1, it’s not always practical to start with a dedicated tablet for every student. Asking students to share a single account isn’t advisable either -- too often the result is one-size-fits-all technology with more than a few management headaches.

That’s why we’re adding support for multiple accounts to tablets with Google Play for Education, making it possible for schools to provide personalized learning for up to five students on the same shared device.
With multiple accounts, schools can test out tablets at a meaningful scale before buying hardware for every student. Here’s how it works:

• “Bump” tablets together as usual to get them set up -- you now have the option to specify the number of students who’ll be sharing each tablet (up to 5).
• Students complete setup by signing into one of the the tablets you’ve configured, then setting a pin code for individual access.
• From then on, each student can pick up their assigned tablet, select their account, and enter their pin to get back to all their stuff.

When each student has their own account it’s easy for them to collaborate on class projects using Docs, Drive, and other Google Apps. And teachers can use Google Play for Education to instantly send students the apps, books, and videos that match their academic needs and speak to their unique interests.

It's easy for your school to scale to 1:1 when you're ready -- just set up any new tablets with the student accounts you’ve already been using. The apps teachers have already assigned to each student will download automatically.

You can read more about multiple accounts in the Google Play for Education Help Center or contact our sales team to learn about a starting trial at your school.

Posted by Eduardo Gomide, CEO of Foreducation

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Eduardo Gomide, CEO of Foreducation, an organization created to deploy and manage the use of Google technology in the classroom. Eduardo is also the grandson of the founders of Colégio Mater Dei, a leading private school in São Paulo, Brazil. Today, Colégio Mater Dei is part of Weducation, a K-12 educational group comprised of seven campuses, 550 employees, and 3,000 students.

Since 1962, Colégio Mater Dei has been a family-run school that prides itself on its adoption of innovative technology. As part of our move to incorporate technology into the academic environment -- inside and outside the classroom walls -- we started using Google Apps for Education in 2013 after noticing that teachers and administrators were using Gmail and Google Drive on their own. We’re already seeing great results; since introducing Google Apps to math and science classes, teachers report that our students are earning better grades on assignments and tests and are more engaged.

Now, we’re taking things even further by creating the first ever physical Google Learning Space, a collaborative learning center where students of all ages come to read, learn, and share using technology in a specially designed environment. The colorful space is equipped with two Chromecasts, which students use to project assignments, presentations and videos from their laptops and tablets; two Smart TVs; a sound system; and a high-performance wireless network. The room is set up to accommodate a variety of learning activities -- students can choose from beanbags for independent reading, stools for guided instruction, or mats for interactive group work.

In the Google Learning Space students can use the Google Apps they already enjoy using to home, while they are at school. As Mater Dei high school student Thiago Pinheiro says, “Google tools make my life easier and more versatile because I can work wherever I am without worrying about storage, access or the possibility of losing something.” At the elementary level, all students are using educational apps with Google Play, a portal for Android apps on tablets.

Watching students improve their test scores and grades with Google tools has been incredibly rewarding, but the biggest impact of going Google is the new level of enthusiasm students bring to the classroom. When students are more engaged, they learn better -- our kids have proven that to us. Creating a learning environment in which students are truly engaged with technology distinguishes Mater Dei as what we like to think of as a school of the future.

Posted by Liz Sproat, Head of Education, EMEA

Around the world, schools are finding innovative ways to use technology to break down the traditional walls of the classroom, while overcoming the challenges of higher academic standards and tighter budgets. Today, we’re pleased to share the stories from two schools in Wales who’ve gone Google to help them meet the demands of a modern-day education system.

Gowerton School in Gowerton Village serves 1,135 students aged 11 to 18. The IT team migrated students and educators from on-premise email to Gmail and Google Apps. Industry experts recognize them as one of the first schools in Britain to embrace cloud technologies.

The school’s entire curriculum – from geography to cooking – is taught with Google Apps. Students can access assignments, lesson plans and other learning resources through Google Drive, while teachers can provide immediate feedback through Google Docs. This has brought about significant teaching and learning benefits including greater collaboration and more tailored feedback.

Additionally, the move to Google allowed the school to re-invest cost savings from using cloud-based technologies. Gowerton saved £30,000 (US$50,000) in licensing and server maintenance, allowing them to buy numerous Chromebooks. Chromebooks are ideal for Gowerton because they’re easy to maintain and can be used by anyone without much training.

“We’re very keen to deploy more Chromebooks. Students love them because they are intuitive to use and give them instant access to Google Apps,” said Darren Long, Teacher of ICT and ICT Coordinator at Gowerton. “They’re also great from an administration point of view. We experimented with laptops for a while but found they were too expensive and high-maintenance. With Chromebooks, we don’t need to worry about maintenance, updates are automatic, and they are good value.”

Students at Gowerton School using Chromebooks

Coleg Cambria in North East Wales has also gone Google. Coleg Cambria is one of the largest colleges in the United Kingdom, serving more than 7,000 full-time and 30,000 part-time students. Previously, students used Microsoft Live@edu accounts — but as the college expanded, the IT team struggled to support all the new accounts from a time and cost perspective. The problem was solved when the IT department moved everyone to Google Apps and installed Chromebooks around campus. Thanks to the remote, web-based management console, Coleg Cambria found Chromebooks easy to deploy to a large, growing body of students. Furthermore, the IT team no longer had to spend time going to each computer to install an update, since Google pushes these automatically.

With Google Apps, students and teachers are more proactive when it comes to learning and teaching. Teachers find apps from the Chrome App Store and incorporate them in lesson plans. Assignments and resources are saved to students’ Google Drive accounts. As a result, students can simply log into their Google accounts to access their own virtual “classroom.”

“The freedom for students and tutors to find and work with interesting applications -- anything from anatomy to mind-mapping -- has changed the way they think about learning and teaching,” said Mark Brandish, Head of IT Services at Coleg Cambria. “Traditionally students and teachers have just taken what we’ve provided. Now we’re a facilitator, giving them access to tools that allow them to be more innovative.”

Students from Coleg Cambria using Chromebooks outside the classroom

You can read more stories of how passionate educators and talented students are using Google for Education in their learning environments. We’re excited to hear such stories of how technology helps prepare today’s youth for a better future.

Posted by Martin King, Head of IT Services at Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College (EHWLC)

Editor's note: Today’s post comes from Martin King, Head of IT Services at Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College (EHWLC). EHWLC is one of the largest further education colleges in the United Kingdom, with over 21,000 students and 1,000 employees across four campuses in London.

Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College (EHWLC) is one of the largest further education colleges in the United Kingdom. Like “continuing education” programmes in the U.S., further education colleges focus on teaching post-secondary school students the skills they need to succeed in today’s competitive workforce. As a result, a lot of education takes place outside the classroom. For example, we might help students find mentors from the BBC or Michelin-starred restaurants, or show them how to produce their own music album under the College’s own record label.

Going Google perfectly supported our approach by providing anytime, anywhere access to a productivity suite that encourages collaboration. In 2008, we rolled out Google Apps for Education to students, teachers and support staff. We give every student a Google Apps account for life, so in total, the IT team manages about 75,000 accounts.
We began by using Google Apps in simple ways, such as collaborating on group projects in Drive or sharing assignments and feedback in real-time, even if the student isn’t in class. With our Apps account we can also use other Google products, like Google+ and Hangouts. Teachers use Hangouts to connect students to outside mentors. In one of our technology classrooms, we held a Hangout with someone at Google. That was a popular session.

Google+ has added a new social element, when it comes to learning. With nothing more than a smartphone, teachers and students across all campuses can instantly share photos of college projects, post thought provoking articles and announce college events. The teachers and students have many G+ communities where they exchange ideas and encourage each other.

From an IT perspective, Google Apps was easy to set up. Every year I can deploy over 20,000 new student accounts with 600 terabytes of storage in less than five minutes. Our environmental cost savings are substantial -- in terms of staff email alone, we will be able to save at least £2,000 ($3,365) in energy costs and reduce emissions by 16 tonnes each year, as well as eliminate expensive server disposal costs.

Although we talk a lot about openness, our administrators would not have allowed us to use Google Apps if it didn’t meet the UK’s high standards for data privacy and security. After consultation with UK academic institutions the conclusion was that with Google, we’re actually even more secure. In the past, we had the occasional problem of someone losing a thumb drive with important information, but by storing everything in Google-managed servers, we no longer have to worry about that issue.

It’s been six years since we began going Google and we’re still discovering new and delightful ways to use Google Apps to broaden our students’ learning horizons. This is especially important at a further education college where a lot of education takes place outside the classroom.

Posted by Lucie deLaBruere, Google Certified Teacher

Editor's note: Today, as part of Teacher Appreciation Week, we’d like to highlight Lucie deLaBruere, former technology coach and consultant, and all her fellow educators at St. Albans City School, a K-8 school serving 670 students in St. Albans, Vermont. Schools can get started with Going Google and see what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

St. Albans City School has seen its fair share of tough times, especially in the last few years, but we don’t let a struggling economy get in the way of our promise to give our talented students the best learning tools available. We just chose to adopt technology that's both affordable and easy to put in our kids' hands - Google for Education. Google's tools have helped level the playing field at St. Albans City School by bringing teamwork and collaboration to school projects.

Our students face challenges that would normally impede them from using the kind of premium technology available to other students across the country. Many don’t have their own computers at home, split their time between different parents’ homes, or attend after-school programs where they don’t have access to their homework or class materials. In our search for better learning tools that would address these challenges, we discovered we could use Google to provide each student with a digital locker that could be accessed from anywhere.

Students figured out before we did that they needed better ways to work together – many had already discovered Gmail and Google Docs and were using the apps for projects. When we made Google Apps for Education available for the entire school, the students quickly and enthusiastically joined in.

One of the first times that these tools helped provide a game-changing learning experience was when we conducted the “City Lights” project a few years ago. Our 7th and 8th graders used GPS devices, Google Apps for Education, Google Maps, and Google Earth to map locations of every streetlight in the city, then researched the link between crime and the lack of lights. They even presented their research to the St. Albans City Council - all with Google Docs and Slides. They got to experience civic engagement first-hand and watch how their recommendations played in the design of the city. More importantly, it showed students the impact they could have when empowered with Google tools.

I’m happy to say this impact continues today. Every day, students and teachers find new ways to weave Google into learning. Google Drive lets students offer peer feedback on writing assignments. Google Hangouts and Slides bring teachers from countries like India, Canada, and Japan into St. Albans classrooms. Google Presentations helped 3rd and 4th graders create e-books suggesting names and background stories for a new city fire truck. Some of the students shared their views:

“Being able to talk to the class in India was great because it's so different. It was interesting to see what their school was like, what they eat, their culture, and how they live in general.” - Ethan 

"The ‘Around the World in 180 Days’ project opened up my outlook on other cultures around the world. Learning about other cultures was a life-changing opportunity.” - Katherine

I work now with a handful of schools in Vermont, but I still consider St. Albans “my school.” Students there continue to uncover new ways of improving our community, like how they’re teaming up with local bike club members and parks employees to improve trails at the nearby Hard’ack and Aldis Hill recreation areas. This work will also reduce the amount of nitrates and other pollutants getting into Lake Champlain. They’re hiking every trail in the system, and will add coordinates, descriptions, and images into Google Maps. Eventually, students will report on their findings using Google Apps.

Google tools have become so essential to everyday learning that my colleagues and students now cannot even imagine getting through the day without them. Google Apps for Education, along with Chromebooks and Nexus 7 tablets with Google Play for Education, have helped transform St. Albans into a state leader for its use of technology, not just in the classroom, but beyond the walls of the school in the community.

Editor's note: Which teacher inspired you? Was there an educator that went out of her way to see how you were feeling? It’s Teacher Appreciation week, so we wanted to share a story about a teacher that has inspired us. In 2012, we filmed first-year high school teacher Andrea Kornowski two months after she began using Google Apps for Education as an avenue for students to share what was happening in their academic and personal lives. Today we’re following up with Miss K. about her success at Kettle Moraine High School in Wales, Wisconsin, and how Google tools have helped her and her students.

How did you come up with the idea to use Google Forms with your students?
I had been using Google Apps a bit for a few months when I attended a Google Apps for Education Summit. The presenter, Hank Thiele, asked us, “Do you know what’s going on with students outside of the classroom?” That question really made me think. It inspired me to find a way for students to communicate with me. I believed that if students could open up about what motivated them and what they were struggling with personally, they might feel more comfortable coming to me about academics, as well as issues outside of the classroom.

The video about the Forms you created to connect with students received a lot of attention. What was the reaction of students and teachers at your school?
Students were very excited, especially those involved in making the video. The video started a Google Forms revolution. Everyone, from the school nurse to other teachers, wanted to use Forms to connect with their students too. There was a learning curve for faculty, and so we held EdTech Challenge Site Days, personalized professional development, and an Annual KM Technology Day to support school-wide learning.

How has your classroom changed since your students began using Google Apps for Education at school?
Google Apps has opened up the walls of the classroom because teaching and learning can now happen outside of school, too. Last year, my Physical Science students needed extra support writing blog entries. One student who had a lot of trouble with writing, emailed me at 3:45 p.m. before I even had a chance to leave school, right after classes let out, eager to review his blog post. We worked on revising his blog in a shared Google Doc together in real-time using Gchat. This scenario has happened multiple times.

I also have more flexibility with Google Apps. My workload is more manageable because I’m not confined to finishing everything during the school day. I can access lesson plans, student work and email after school hours from home.

How has your role as a teacher changed in the time since you started using Google Apps for Education in your classroom?
With Internet-connected devices in students’ hands, the teacher is no longer the sole owner of knowledge. Students consume Internet content voraciously, but I teach students that they can be creators and sharers of content, as well. I don’t always deliver new content — my Advanced Placement Environmental Science students each research specific topics and add content to class-shared presentations. We also recently created Google Sites to demonstrate the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy. Fifty out of 53 students had never created a website, so this was the first opportunity for most students to publish digital content. As content-creators, students take greater ownership of their learning.

I see how technology is affecting teaching everywhere, and teacher training. I have visited my alma mater, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, to share what teachers have to look forward to when it comes to technology.

What is the biggest impact you have seen from using Google tools?
My students are more prepared for college and the workplace because they are using the tools they will eventually use in these environments. I tell students they are allowed to have devices at their desks as long as they are in “Classroom Safe” mode, which means that devices are face-down until they are permitted to use them. Classroom management is a whole different world with the introduction of technology.

What do your students think of using the Google tools?
Using Google Forms, I asked my AP Environmental Science and Chemistry students in grades 10-12 how Google tools have helped them learn and work better. Here’s what they had to say:

• On Google Drive: “I really like how Google Drive gives me access to all my work wherever I am. I can type a paper on my phone, on the school computers, and at home without a flash drive.”
• On Google Presentations: “Google Presentations are extremely helpful when it comes to reviewing chapters together because we are able to collaborate and split the chapter into small chunks and share it with everyone.“
• On the use of technology in class: “The classroom is engaging and we learn a lot about applying things we learn in class to the real world or real life situations/current events.”

Posted by Jennifer Holland, Program Manager, Google Apps for Education

Editor's note: Yesterday we announced Classroom, a new tool coming soon to the Google Apps for Education suite that lets teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently and communicate with their classes with ease. Jennifer Holland, a Program Manager on the Classroom team, worked closely with over 90 teachers and more than 1,300 students to pilot and gather feedback on this new product. She recently sat down with some of the educators to get their stories of how they’ve used Classroom and understand the impact it has had on their schools. Learn more or apply for a preview on the website.

As a teacher, how has your experience been with Classroom so far?

Paul Lepore, 8th grade Social Studies teacher, Felix Festa Middle School, NY: Teachers are able to assign work to their students in a flash, therefore maximizing student learning in the classroom. I really think that Google has changed my craft as a teacher for the better. The products are easy to use and allow teachers the autonomy and flexibility they need to engage students in dynamic and constructivist learning activities.

Nicole Marinello, Fontbonne Hall Academy, NY

Phil Halbig, 6th grade English and Social Studies teacher, EA Hall Middle School, CA: We’re using it constantly, and we’ve gone 100% paper-free in under a week.

Laura Barton, Science teacher, Fontbonne Hall Academy, NY: By allowing students to submit their work with Classroom, I can keep track of my sections, view grades easily and mark assignments during any free time I have, without having to carry stacks of paper around. Classroom has made this process so easy and convenient.

Nicole Marinello, English teacher, Fontbonne Hall Academy, NY: Using this has opened the doors to the real world in my classroom. With my juniors, I was able to have them do a research project on brands that appear in Death of a Salesman. They were required to make a commercial and a Google Slides presentation. I used Classroom for the students to turn in their slides. The work generated from this project was incredible.

Tell us more about how you’ve used Classroom.

Jenna Caufield, World History teacher, Fontbonne Hall Academy, NY: I believe it’s important for every student to participate in class. I make sure to call on students even if they don’t have their hands raised. The reality is that some students have a lot of great things to say but they’re anxious about saying it out loud in front of the whole class. Classroom gives the student a chance to have an opinion without having to speak publicly.

Paul Lepore, Felix Festa Middle School, NY

Cathy Cowan, 8th grade, KIPP Bridge, CA: What impresses me the most is that all students feel comfortable communicating using the device, which is not the case in a traditional discussion-based classroom activity.

Elizabeth Fiorella, Math teacher, Fontbonne Hall Academy, NY: I posted an assignment to be done over spring break for my algebra classes, in which they have to watch a video and answer just 6 multiple choice questions. I love that some of them have already turned in the assignment so I can start grading a few of them at a time, rather than all of them at once when we get back from vacation. I also love that the link is right there so that they can just click on it and it will bring them right to the video.

How does managing assignments with Classroom differ from using Google Docs and Drive?

Heidi Bernasconi, 12th grade Marine Biology teacher, Clarkstown Central High School North, NY: With Classroom all the students’ assignments are in one spot for commenting. This is more seamless than if I had just shared a Google folder with all the same resources. The first assignment took a very short time to grade. I was even able to return assignments before the due date, something I can't really do with other tools.

Paul Lepore, 8th grade Social Studies, Felix Festa Middle School, NY: I was grading projects and I had an "aha" moment — I will never use a Google Form as a "turn-it-in-form" again. Classroom is really a faster way of grading. Teachers will really appreciate this.

As a school administrator, what impact have you seen from Classroom?

Toni Ann Piscitelli, Information Technology, Clarkstown Central School District, NY: This latest addition to the Google Apps for Education suite underscores Google’s commitment to providing schools with tools that fit seamlessly into the instructional landscape. And, at no cost for the product and no anticipated cost for training, this product fits seamlessly into our budget.

Heidi Bernasconi, Clarkstown Central High School North, NY

Mark Surdyka, Director of Technology, Fontbonne Hall Academy, New York: At first we were nervous about starting Google Apps and Classroom all at once with every teacher in our school. But it’s probably better to do it this way with a big bang than in stages, which would’ve taken forever. I see people who barely used technology now using this every day.

Mary Ann Spicijaric, Principal, Fontbonne Hall Academy, NY: When I walk by our classrooms I hear a lot of talking, and it’s not teachers talking — it’s kids talking. And that’s exciting. We’re moving more toward student-centered instruction.

As a student, what do you think about Classroom?

Grace, 9th grade student, NY: I love the easy access to most of my work right from my computer or phone. It organizes all of my work into different sections and I don't have to worry about keeping track of papers.

Lindsey, 8th grade student, NY: It’s very efficient and makes it really easy to share study notes; before only one of us had the paper copy, but now we all can use the same resources to study.

Alexandra, 8th grade student, CA: I definitely love this! It lets us communicate freely and lets us tell our thoughts without anyone description. Also, everyone gets to give there opinion and we are all participating.

Posted by Zach Yeskel, Product Manager, Classroom

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

As a former high school math teacher, I know all too well that teachers spend a ton of valuable time doing things other than teaching—waking up early to grade quizzes, collecting and returning piles of paper assignments, and battling copy machine paper jams. But with today’s technology it doesn’t have to be this way. Many teachers and professors have found ways to use technology to be better educators and avoid busy work. We spent the past year working closely with many educators to understand the systems they use to simplify their workloads, so they can get back to doing what they love—teaching.

Today, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, we’re announcing a preview of Classroom, a new, free tool in the Google Apps for Education suite. It helps teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and communicate with their classes with ease. Classroom is based on the principle that educational tools should be simple and easy to use, and is designed to give teachers more time to teach and students more time to learn.

With Classroom, you'll be able to:

• Create and collect assignments: Classroom weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly. They can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback to individual students.
• Improve class communications: Teachers can make announcements, ask questions and comment with students in real time—improving communication inside and outside of class.
• Stay organized: Classroom automatically creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student. Students can easily see what’s due on their Assignments page.

We know that protecting your students’ privacy is critical. Like the rest of our Apps for Education services, Classroom contains no ads, never uses your content or student data for advertising purposes, and is free for schools.
Starting today, teachers and professors can apply for a preview of Classroom. Based on the requests we receive, we’ll be inviting a limited number of educators to try Classroom in about a month. By September, Classroom will be available to any school using Google Apps for Education. Since we want to make sure Classroom plays well with others, if you’re a developer or partner, sign up to learn more about integrating with Classroom.

We’ve been working with more than a dozen pilot schools and universities to try out Classroom and provide feedback—and we can’t thank them enough. We can’t wait to hear your feedback, and to work together to make Classroom even better.

Editor's note: Earlier today we shared a story about Hillsborough School District in New Jersey, the first district to adopt the complete Google for Education solution. Today, we continue their story with an interview between Cristin Frodella, Head of Education Marketing at Google, with a few educators from the district — Todd MacDonald and Cara Flash (Technology Integration Specialists), Susan Fajen (4th grade teacher), and Jennifer Tuller and Carrie Sanchez (5th grade teachers).

Cristin: What impact have you have seen from using Google for Education that you couldn’t get with other products?

Susan: Google tools offer more possibilities for addressing a variety of student learning styles, which puts the kids in the "driver's seat" as far as engagement goes. Whatever you did before technology — packets, worksheets, notes, dry erase boards — you can do on a tablet or Chromebook. It's all inside.

Todd: In many of our Chromebook classes we’ve seen a big shift towards collaborative, student-centered learning. In these classrooms, you’ll find students that are self-directed, working at their own pace, switching between tasks with ease, and constantly working with their peers, both virtually and face-to-face. And in classes that use Nexus tablets, we’ve seen teachers finding new ways to differentiate instruction, giving students access to different apps, books and videos based on each student’s different needs.

Jennifer: Not only do I see the students engaged more, but they take ownership of their learning. They have the world at their fingertips at all times and can find out the answer to anything at any moment. They even email me resources that they find at all hours to help them and their peers understand and study the concepts that we are learning in class.

Cristin: Was there anything particularly surprising about the impact of Google for Education at your schools?

Todd: There were concerns that increased technology usage would take away personal interactions, but we actually found that the majority of students and teachers in our programs feel closer. They take advantage of the technology tools to stay connected whenever and wherever they choose. Teachers spend more time working with individuals and small groups, because the new technology has allowed them to monitor what each student is doing at any given time and adjust instruction on the fly.

Cristin: What’s your advice for teachers getting started with Google Apps for Education?

Carrie: Take full advantage of Google Apps to encourage teamwork. The most unexpected impact I’ve seen has to be the camaraderie between the students — and myself. There’s a willingness to problem-solve and help one another when working within the technology. These technologies foster teamwork otherwise not possible in the traditional classroom.

Susan: Ease into it and let the kids help. They catch on quickly. It's always good to have a few kids in the classroom who can be the experts and roam around the room to help you and the other students.

Cristin: What’s your advice for educators whose students will have Chromebooks in their classrooms?

Todd: Learn the basics before doing anything in the classroom. This goes for teachers and students — everybody should know how to use Gmail (for sending, receiving, and organizing mail), Google Drive (for creating, naming, sharing documents and folders), and Calendar (for organizing agendas and tasks).

Jennifer: Yes — start with the Google Apps basics, but also join online professional communities, such as Edutopia, to learn about how other teachers are finding success with Chromebooks in the classroom. The Chromebook is your paper and pencil — you can do pretty much anything on it that you did before, but with newer, exciting tools.

Cristin: Finally, what advice do you have for teachers getting started with tablets with Google Play for Education?

Cara: Tablets with Google Play for Education help teachers search for tools and apps by grade level, content or curriculum standards. Take your time to look through what is available and test out the app yourself or with a small group of students before rolling it out to everyone.

Susan: Encourage students to stay organized from the start using some simple tools. They can try Google’s app Keep. It’s great for organizing & note taking, and everything can be saved on Drive. Also AnyDo is a great organizational tool to help students accomplish all their tasks.

Todd: I would also advise that teachers not put pressure on themselves to become masters of the technology. There is too much to learn, too little time to do it, and once you learn it, everything changes anyway! Teachers should continue to be the experts in their subject matter, learn enough to facilitate the technology, and design learning experiences where students are the ones working hardest in the classroom.

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Google for Education

Jennifer Tuller and Carrie Sanchez are 5th grade science teachers at Auten Road Intermediate School in New Jersey, part of the Hillsborough Township School District — the first district to offer its students and staff the complete Google for Education solution. In Hillsborough, the students and teachers work together with Google Apps, Chromebooks and tablets with Google Play for Education.

When we visited Jen and Carrie’s classrooms a few weeks ago to see how students used the tools, I was extremely inspired by what I saw. Students were working on an ecocolumn project, where they were closely observing the interaction between living and non-living elements in land and water environments. Before this year, the teachers told me, students had to individually log their observations on paper, which limited them from working as a group. But this year, students eagerly documented their observations together in real-time with Google Docs on their Chromebooks, compared the growth in their ecosystems by looking through the photos they had taken with their tablets, and presented the final report of their findings through Movenote — an app in Google Play for Education.

Carrie Sanchez

The kind of new, collaborative learning I saw in Jen’s and Carrie’s classrooms reinforced the impact of simple and powerful tools when used together. Inspired by the Auten Road students and their ecocolumn project, we put together this video. Everytime I watch it, I smile thinking about the kids working together to construct their own ecosystems and wish I could have done a project just like it when I was in 5th grade.

Later today we’ll share an in-depth interview with Carrie, Jennifer and some of the other teachers from the Hillsborough school district, who will provide some tips about how to drive classroom impact with Google for Education.

Posted by Bram Bout, Director, Google for Education

Today more than 30 million students, teachers and administrators globally rely on Google Apps for Education. Earning and keeping their trust drives our business forward. We know that trust is earned through protecting their privacy and providing the best security measures.

This is why, from day one, we turned off ads by default in Apps for Education services. Last year, we removed ads from Google Search for signed-in K-12 users altogether. So, if you’re a student logging in to your Apps for Education account at school or at home, when you navigate to Google.com, you will not see ads.

Of course, good privacy requires strong security. We have more than 400 full-time engineers — the world’s foremost experts in security — working to protect your information. We always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email in Gmail, which means no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between your laptop, phone or tablet and Gmail’s servers — even if you’re using public WiFi.

Today, we’re taking additional steps to enhance the educational experience for Apps for Education customers:

• We’ve permanently removed the “enable/disable” toggle for ads in the Apps for Education Administrator console. This means ads in Apps for Education services are turned off and administrators no longer have the option or ability to turn ads in these services on.
• We’ve permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail for Apps for Education, which means Google cannot collect or use student data in Apps for Education services for advertising purposes.

Users who have chosen to show AdSense ads on their Google Sites will still have the ability to display those existing ads on their websites. However, it will no longer be possible to edit or add new AdSense ads to existing sites or to new pages.

We’re also making similar changes for all our Google Apps customers, including Business, Government and for legacy users of the free version, and we’ll provide an update when the rollout is complete.

On Thursday, May 1 at 9:00 am PT, we’ll be hosting a Hangout on Air on our Google for Education G+ page with myself; Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Product Management for Docs and Drive and Hank Thiele, Chief Technology Officer for District 207 in Park Ridge, IL who uses Google Apps. We'll be discussing these changes and answering your questions. We look forward to hearing from you.

For more information about student privacy in Google Apps for Education, please visit our website.

Posted by Tia Lendo, Google for Education Team

Today is Digital Learning Day - a time to celebrate the incredible ways schools use digital tools to help students learn. As a former 4th grade teacher, I'm constantly blown away by the ways today’s teachers have embraced technology. What is happening in today’s classrooms (collaborative writing, virtual field trips) seemed light years away just 10 years ago.

In honor of Digital Learning Day, we'd like to highlight a few benefits that teachers using Google for Education often mention: more powerful sharing, greater student ownership, new insights into the learning process, and connections beyond the school walls.

More powerful sharing
Google Certified Teachers like education trainer Jack West tell us about the transformative power of sharing with Google Docs. Jack says, “The essence of what we do as 21st Century teachers has been distilled by the visionary educators at Point England, New Zealand. We want our students to (1) learn, (2) create and (3) share. Until digital tools like Google Docs came around, it was difficult to help students share their work beyond the other students in their class.”

Students at Passaic High School work together on a timeline of the French Revolution

Greater student ownership
At East Leyden High School in Chicago, teacher Katie Diebold has found her students are more motivated when using digital tools. In her “Exploring Tech” class, she taught a unit on transportation. In the past she had her students do research and then make posters. But this year she had them use dynamic apps like Stupeflix, a video editing tool in the Chrome Web Store, to deliver their projects. Katie explained, “With Chromebooks we can provide students with more choices in how they do their assignments and learn in flexible ways. Students have a range of different tools they are able to use when completing projects to demonstrate what they have learned.”

At Passaic City Public Schools in New Jersey, the district is also using Google Apps and Chromebooks as a centerpiece of their 1:1 model. Even in the early days of their 1:1 program last year the district was seeing impact. Joshua Koen, District Coordinator of Technology, said that “the most obvious benefit of using Chromebooks at Passaic is that students can take an active part in developing their own lesson plans. Rather than a teacher dictating facts to their class, the students can build their own learning experience, working together to solve problems.”

New insights into student learning
Digital tools give teachers views into the student learning process that were never available before. A few months ago I visited a high school English classroom in which the teacher was “dropping in” on the papers students were writing with Google Docs. We opened up one student’s document and we saw that she had pasted the feedback from her last assignment as well as the scoring rubric into the top of her current paper. The teacher was impressed and immediately added a comment into the document praising her approach.

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Dr. Dan Maas, Chief Information Officer for Littleton Public Schools, a school district just south of Denver, Colorado, with 15,000 K-12 students across 13 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 3 high schools, several alternative programs, a preschool, and 2 charter schools. Check out their case study to learn more.

What motivated Littleton Public Schools to move to Google Apps?
Students today are growing up in a different educational world. Online tools have fundamentally changed how today’s kids learn, interact and work with each other. Moving to Google Apps was a natural step in creating a modern learning environment for our students, because the tools are intuitive and familiar to them. Before using Google Apps, the district was hosting email servers for teachers and staff, but had no collaboration tools and homework was done largely by emailing attachments or making paper submissions, a cumbersome process. Our top priority was to address these challenges.

LPS buildings average 50 years in age, but with Google, the learning is in the cloud.

How is the district using Google Apps now, nearly two years after deployment?
Today, every Littleton staff member, teacher and student in 4th grade and above has a Google Apps account — some schools have even started introducing their kindergartners to the Google tools. Adoption has been incredible across the board: during the 2011-2012 school year, Littleton students created more than 200,000 new Google Docs, and by the spring of 2013 they were averaging over 20,000 each month.

Are there any teachers or departments in particular that have embraced Google Apps in innovative ways?
I'm inspired by literally hundreds of classrooms in our district and how they're using technology to help their students learn. Katie Christie’s 5th grade class at Runyon Elementary School, for example, is using Apps in a particularly impressive way as part of the "Inspired Writing" initiative. The curriculum revolves around a Google Site that houses learning objectives, resources and videos, assignments, student and teacher work. Mrs. Christie posts assignments daily on a Google Calendar, which is embedded into the class’s Google Site and can even be added to a student or parent’s personal Google account. Google Docs lets students do different kinds of creative homework, including using Google Drawings to creating flowcharts for a book report and relying on Presentations to collectively create and speak to a deck about astronomy. It’s validating for us to know that Google holds her work in equally high regard — Mrs. Christie was recognized as a Google Certified teacher last spring.

Even second graders are using Apps for writing projects like pen pals among multiple schools, where kids don't write together several times a year, but several times every day.

Are you seeing any cost savings from using Google Apps?
We’re saving more than $42,000 each year with Apps, since we no longer have to maintain email servers, storage or licensing software. That’s not even including all the time we’re saving our IT team, since they no longer have to waste hours clearing out full email inboxes and resolving downtime issues.

What are you personally most proud of when you look back at how Littleton has changed since moving to Google Apps?
I love seeing how the technology empowers our students. Google Apps are great equalizers – regardless of their home situation, every student has the opportunity to learn with Apps. These tools, paired with the skills students gain in school, are universal and will serve them for the rest of their lives. It’s so inspiring to me and all our teachers to see the students light up and become masters of their own direction.

LPS students create 20,000 Google Docs every month as a normal part of their learning.

One cannot underestimate the power of collaboration. Any given feature set of a software or cloud application will evolve over time, so the specific skills are not as important. But the habits of mind that one develops by working with collaborative documents are truly different than what a 20th century education encouraged. Collaboration means inclusion; inclusion means more brain power applied to a problem; more brain power means better solutions; and better solutions produced by an inclusive process means better overall understanding. What more could any educator hope for?

Posted by Bram Bout, Director of Education

Earlier this week we announced the release of the Google for Education Learning Center, an online portal that helps educators learn about Google tools for teaching and learning. The Center is a one-stop-shop for hundreds of best practice how-to videos, cases studies and guides. It also includes links to online communities and our newly revised exams. By passing 5 exams teachers can become qualified as Google Educators.

We wanted the bulk of the content in the Center to be made for teachers, by teachers. So we worked with some of our Google Certified Teachers to create it. Today we’ll hear from three of those educators to get more information about their tips and tricks for teaching and training.
Bram: What are your top tips for running successful professional development with educators?

Jennie: My tip for training is to leverage the same best practices you’d use with students. Focus on differentiating for your (teacher) learner, engage them in active learning and allow them to collaborate with one another to make the experience social.

Jay: I have two pieces of advice: start small and give it a go. Pick just one part of your course to enhance with technology or just one tool to use more effectively. Learn something new and give it a go. Get support from your peers, school or PLN. Failing is okay, that’s how we learn.

Kevin: Whether you are teaching or training, clear communication is essential. The best slides have the least amount of text. Make images on the slides focused, keeping words to a minimum, to emphasize the point made in the actual presentation. No one wants to “read” a presentation.

Jennie: It is important to practice what you preach. If you're training people on Google Apps, use Google Apps. If you’re leading a session, create a Google Site to share information. Share a collaborative Google Doc so participants can take notes together and exchange ideas.

Bram: What are your most effective training activities?

Jennie: I have a professional development opener I like to call the "Gripe Jam." While I play the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” teachers write down their gripes and I compile these into a Google Doc. The teachers then vote on the most important ones. This is how we decide where we begin our exploration of digital learning. Crowd-sourced PD is a huge buy-in generator. Many teachers respond better to new ideas when we first listen to their current issues.

Jay: I advise people to keep a YouTube playlist for “Stuff I’ve Learned.” I learn a lot from YouTube videos. As I’m looking up videos and learning new things I add the videos to a playlist with other things that YouTube has taught me. This not only serves as a great repository I can come back to for review, it also helps me to model how and what I am learning. This could be embedded on your professional portfolio site to help demonstrate how you are a contemporary learner.

Bram: What is a top piece of advice about Google tools for teaching?

Kevin: The number one recommendation I have for teachers who assign projects using Docs and Drive is to turn the hand-in process upside-down. Rather than having students turn-in their work at the end of the assignment cycle, have them turn it in at the beginning. The first step in any class project is to have students create their document, presentation, or spreadsheet, and have them share it with you as the teacher immediately. This allows teachers to monitor and support students through the entire process.

Bram: Have any recent professional development experiences really stayed with you?

Jay: Recently I was working with a teacher named Rick, a master teacher with decades of experience who wanted to use technology to improve student writing. We started small with the prewriting process and brainstorming with Google Drawings and Docs. I pushed him a little more. He was amazed when we looked at the Comments feature, which allowed him to provide better feedback to his students and they blossomed. He was so energized and excited about teaching writing again. Even with his vast experience and being so close to retirement, Rick demonstrated my two recommendations: start small and give it a go. He was able to rekindle his own passion and effectively integrate technology. We can all do this.