Students and teachers will love these new Google Docs and Classroom features

By Robert Nazarian Published September 2, 2015

students and teachers will love these new google docs classroom features student with computer shutterstock 85369135 — Shutterstock / Robert Kneschke

Google held an event today in San Francisco, and the topic was Classroom and its productivity suite, which consists of Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. A slew of updates were announced that will likely make students and teachers more productive.

Docs

How many times were you writing a paper and needed to look something up? The new Research tool in Docs for Android lets you search Google while in a document. And you can simply add a quote or image from the search with a couple of quick taps.

Research in Google Docs

A new Voice Typing feature is perfect when you’re on the go. Now you can record ideas or compose an entire essay in any of 40 languages without ever touching your keyboard. You can enable it by opening the Tools menu within Docs in Chrome. Once enabled, tap the microphone button on your phone’s keyboard and say whatever is on your mind.

Voice typing in Docs

If you find yourself collaborating with other classmates on a doc, you can now get better information as to what was added or deleted while you were gone. Just click on “See new changes” and pick up right where your classmates left off.

Forms

Forms is now the perfect way to conduct surveys. You can choose from many colorful themes or even customize your own with a photo or logo. Google provides a selection of question formats, and you can even insert GIFs or videos. Once you send the survey out, you can see the responses live as they happen.

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Templates

Google is now making it easier than ever to create good-looking newsletters, presentations, or any other type of document. A new collection of templates has been added to Docs, Sheets, and Slides. They include options for reports, portfolios, resumes, and more.

Google_Docs_New_Templates — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sheets

A new Explore feature creates charts and insights automatically from your data, which will make it easier to understand the data faster. This feature works on the web or on Android.

Explore in Google Sheets

Classroom

The Share to Classroom Chrome extension makes it easy for teachers to share a website with the entire class at the same time. It doesn’t even matter what type of computer each student has, as long as they are using the Chrome browser.

Google Classroom: Mission control for students and teachers

Google has announced that all of these new features are rolling out today, so go and be more productive.

Topics

Robert Nazarian

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…

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