Google ups its classroom cred with Cast for Education and Quizzes

By Christian de Looper Published June 27, 2016

Google is taking education seriously. Its Chromebooks have found huge success in schools around the country, and are now the go-to computers for students, thanks to their low cost. Today, however, Google is launching a number of new tools that could further its presence in the classroom. Not only could the new tools be helpful in schools, but they’re also free to use.

First up is Expeditions. Google first launched this virtual reality app in a trial last year, but is now opening up that program to anyone with an Android device, with plans to bring it to iOS soon. Expeditions has already been used by over 1 million students, but by opening it up to a wider audience, Google hopes to make over 200 million “virtual field trips” available. Expeditions can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

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The second big announcement is Cast for Education, which is essentially a Chromecast for the classroom projector. All a teacher has to do is turn their computer into a Cast destination, and they can then approve or deny requests from students to cast their screens to the projector. The tool works as a Chrome app that’s available in Chrome OS, Mac, and Windows.

Google has also announced that Google Forms will be expanded to integrate quizzes directly into it. Forms, according to Google, is extremely popular among teachers, but one of the main requests has been the ability to offer quizzes through the app. Quizzes through Forms will automatically grade multiple choice questions, and can provide feedback to students upon incorrectly answering a question.

Finally, Google is now making it easier for teachers and students to access services like Explain Everything, Soundtrap, and WeVideo. Schools can now purchase these services for Chromebooks at a discounted price.

Clearly Google is making a serious push into education, and it’s likely we’ll see more announcements like these as time goes on and Chromebooks continues to dominate in the classroom.

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Christian de Looper

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…

Computing

Google is bringing AI to the classroom — in a big way

a teacher teaching teens

Google is already incorporating its Gemini AI assistant into the rest of its product ecosystem to help individuals and businesses streamline their existing workflows. Now, the Silicon Valley titan is looking to bring AI into the classroom.
While we've already seen the damage that teens can do when given access to generative AI, Google argues that it is taking steps to ensure the technology is employed responsibly by students and academic faculty alike.
Following last year's initial rollout of a teen-safe version of Gemini for personal use, the company at the time decided to not enable the AI's use with school-issued accounts. That will change in the coming months as Google makes the AI available free of charge to students in over 100 countries though its Google Workspace for Education accounts and school-issued Chromebooks.
Teens that meet Google's minimum age requirements -- they have to be 13 or older in the U.S., 18 or over in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, Canada, and the U.K. -- will be able to converse with Gemini as they would on their personal accounts. That includes access to features like Help me write, Help me read, generative AI backgrounds, and AI-powered noise cancellation. The company was quick to point out that no personal data from this program will be used to train AI models, and that school administrators will be granted admin access to implement or remove features as needed.
What's more, teens will be able to organize and track their homework assignments through Google Task and Calendar integrations as well as collaborate with their peers using Meet and Assignments.
Google Classroom will also integrate with the school's Student Information System (SIS), allowing educators to set up classes and import pertinent data such as student lists and grading settings. They'll also have access to an expanded Google for Education App Hub with 16 new app integrations including Kami, Quizizz, and Screencastify available at launch.
Students will also have access to the Read Along in Classroom feature, which provides them with real-time, AI-based reading help. Conversely, educators will receive feedback from the AI on the student's reading accuracy, speed, and comprehension.
In the coming months, Google also hopes to introduce the ability for teachers to generate personalized stories tailored to each student's specific education needs. The feature is currently available in English, with more than 800 books for teachers to choose from, though it will soon offer support for other languages, starting with Spanish.
Additionally, Google is piloting a suite of Gemini in Classroom tools that will enable teachers to "define groups of students in Classroom to assign different content based on each group’s needs." The recently announced Google Vids, which helps users quickly and easily cut together engaging video clips, will be coming to the classroom as well. A non-AI version of Vids arrives on Google Workspace for Education Plus later this year, while the AI-enhanced version will only be available as a Workspace add-on.
That said, Google has apparently not forgotten just how emotionally vicious teenagers can be. As such, the company is incorporating a number of safety and privacy tools into the new AI system. For example, school administrators will be empowered to prevent students from initiating direct messages and creating spaces to hinder bullying.
Admins will also have the option to block access to Classroom from compromised Android and iOS devices, and can require multiparty approval (i.e. at least two school officials) before security-sensitive changes (like turning off two-step authentication) can be implemented.
Google is introducing a slew of accessibility features as well. Chromebooks will get a new Read Aloud feature in the Chrome browser, for example. Extract Text from PDF will leverage OCR technology to make PDFs accessible to screen readers through the Chrome browser, while the Files app will soon offer augmented image labels to assist screen readers with relaying the contents of images in Chrome.
Later this year, Google also plans to release a feature that will allow users to control their Chromebooks using only their facial expressions and head movements.
These features all sound impressive and should help bring AI into the classroom in a safe and responsible manner -- in theory, at least. Though given how quickly today's teens can exploit security loopholes to bypass their school's web filters, Google's good intentions could ultimately prove insufficient.

Mobile

A new Google Pixel Tablet is coming, but it’s not what you think

Google Pixel Tablet on its charging dock.

It's been almost a year since the Google Pixel Tablet went up for preorder, leading many Android tablet fans to wonder when the inevitable Pixel Tablet 2 will arrive. A new rumor suggests that Google could release a new Pixel Tablet as early as next month, but it's probably not what you were expecting or hoping for.

According to @MysteryLupin on X (formerly Twitter), Google is planning to "relaunch" the Pixel Tablet without the charging/speaker dock included in the box. As you'll likely recall, the speaker dock is the Pixel Tablet's standout feature. You can use the Pixel Tablet on its own as a traditional Android tablet when you want, and when you're done, you throw it on the dock to transform it into a smart display. The idea of Google selling the Pixel Tablet without its claim to fame is an interesting one.

Audio / Video

Google is expanding Fast Pair, casting to more devices

Google Fast Pair.

One of the most underrated features of any platform is the ability to quickly (and easily) pair headphones and earbuds to whatever device you want. And to that end, Google announced a couple of improvements on that front at CES 2024.

First up is Fast Pair, which makes it simple to pair accessories like the Pixel Buds Pro to devices like an Android phone or Chromebook. Over the next month or so, Fast Pair support is expanding to Chromecast With Google TV. And it’ll expand even further later in the year to additional Google TV devices.