Given the ongoing pandemic scenario, schools and colleges are forced to resort to online learning sessions. There are many platforms that have been aiding them in this process, and Google is one of them. Recently, Google has announced some new tools that will boost online learning. Google’s new tools might make online learning a lot easier for both teachers and students.
New features in Google
Back in June, Google announced about incorporating some new features in its Meet app that would aid teachers and students. Google said that the participants of a meeting won’t be able to ‘knock’ into a meeting that they are ejected from. Also, the ‘knock’ feature will disappear if the participant gets rejected by the moderator twice. Google has said that they are working on making these ‘knocks’ less intrusive. They also said that they are working on enabling the moderator to end the meeting at once, for all.
Google also spoke about not letting anonymous participants attend education meetings unless the school allows them in. The tech giant also mentioned about introducing a ‘blur background’ option and allowing participants to set a background feature. However, it will be up to the meeting moderator to allow the participants to set background pictures.
Google’s new tools
As a part of the ‘Anywhere School 2020‘ event, Google has introduced around 50 new tools on ‘Classroom’ and ‘Meet’. One of them will be enabling the 49 participants to appear on the screen at once. Google has announced that it will incorporate a digital whiteboard called Jamboard in Google Meet, in September. Along with this, the ability to blur or replace background will also come in effect from the month of September.
Then again, from October, the teachers will be able to divide the class into small rooms, called breakout rooms. This will help to divide students for various classroom activities like debates or discussions. Google also says that teachers will be able to keep track of the students’ attendance from the month of October.
All the new features that Google announced regarding Google Meet in June, are said to be introduced this month itself.
Google’s new tools for non-Meet users
Google introduced another bunch of tools for users that are not on the Meet app. This new tool will allow students to learn using their smartphones. They can app apps like Socratic and Google Lens when they are faced with a problem in their home-work.
Google also plans to incorporate a reading feature that will help to develop a healthy reading habit in kids.
