Last month I was contacted by Google to take a short online survey about their educational apps. My main focus was asking: Why do you not have a learning management system? As an adjunct at a few colleges and a former Virtual High School teacher, I know the Blackboard system all too well. It is well known for being stuck in the 1990's and always being down for system updates. I explained in the survey that although Google offers some learning management systems through the Chrome App Store, I will not trust them. The main reason for this is that Blackboard is purchasing successful learning management companies left and right. Training a team of educators on a new LMS takes a long time and it also take a long time for them to want to utilize and embrace it. A free LMS might seem great but if it is extinct a year later, you lose a lot of traction with teachers who do not want to be trained on something new. I also spoke to the fact that the Google Apps are beneficial for classrooms, however you need to have multiple tabs open and must give instructions for integrating with your school's LMS.
This past week Google announced they will be introducing their new "Google Classroom" this September. This will be a huge game changer for education. Finally, free online tools with no advertising will be connected with a user-friendly classroom learning management system.
The question is, what will Google do next? My answer or rather hope is that they solve the challenges we have in today's public schools with text books. I envision Google hiring top-notch teachers to write out curriculum. This would not just be your typical text book. Instead the curriculum would include projects, or "missions" for every lesson. This means for each new concept comes a project (online or hands-on).
Personally, I think we are going through a weird time in technology integration and text-books. The big name textbook publishers (no need to name them, we all know who they are) are creating enriching online texts. They are at the same time receiving lots of negative press due to their very questionable relationship with the creation and implementation of the Common Core. Then you have other resources jumping in and trying to create copyright-free texts. The problem is that the free texts are not always of high quality and as a result have little respect from the teaching community. Google has the resources to bring in top-notch teachers and have them write curriculum. Every teacher likes to have their own curriculum but they also like the safety of having a textbook to keep their lessons on track.
On the other end of the spectrum, internet servers in schools are simply way too slow. I have visited plenty of schools in Massachusetts where the internet could not handle playing basic video tutorials. I am not sure how the PARCC's assessment roll-out will occur if schools are unable to provide internet and computers to students. It should be an interesting couple of years ahead of us for sure.
This past week Google announced they will be introducing their new "Google Classroom" this September. This will be a huge game changer for education. Finally, free online tools with no advertising will be connected with a user-friendly classroom learning management system.
The question is, what will Google do next? My answer or rather hope is that they solve the challenges we have in today's public schools with text books. I envision Google hiring top-notch teachers to write out curriculum. This would not just be your typical text book. Instead the curriculum would include projects, or "missions" for every lesson. This means for each new concept comes a project (online or hands-on).
Personally, I think we are going through a weird time in technology integration and text-books. The big name textbook publishers (no need to name them, we all know who they are) are creating enriching online texts. They are at the same time receiving lots of negative press due to their very questionable relationship with the creation and implementation of the Common Core. Then you have other resources jumping in and trying to create copyright-free texts. The problem is that the free texts are not always of high quality and as a result have little respect from the teaching community. Google has the resources to bring in top-notch teachers and have them write curriculum. Every teacher likes to have their own curriculum but they also like the safety of having a textbook to keep their lessons on track.
On the other end of the spectrum, internet servers in schools are simply way too slow. I have visited plenty of schools in Massachusetts where the internet could not handle playing basic video tutorials. I am not sure how the PARCC's assessment roll-out will occur if schools are unable to provide internet and computers to students. It should be an interesting couple of years ahead of us for sure.
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