GoogleAppsForEducation
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The EFF claims that Google spies on school kids
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint alleging that Google is being a bit creepy when it comes to school kids' personal information. The search engine stands accused of data-mining the users of the Chromebooks that are handed out in schools as well as those using Google Apps for Education. It's doubly galling because, if true, Google has broken a promise that it made in January to not to exactly that. The firm, along with many others, signed the Student Privacy Pledge, barring it from vacuuming-up student data that wasn't for educational purposes.
Google Classroom helps teachers easily organize assignments, offer feedback
In doing its part to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day, Google has announced a preview of Classroom: a simple system for course work organization. The free software is nestled inside Google Apps for Education and serves up a quick and easy way to create/organize assignments, give feedback and communicate in real time with students. As you might expect, Classroom leverages Google Docs, Drive and Gmail in order to complete the aforementioned tasks, automatically creating folders in the cloud-based repository for each student when there's a new assignment. "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," writes product manager Zach Yeskel. If you're an educator that's interested if giving it a shot, you can apply to be part of a limited preview. Google plans to release Classroom to any school using is education-minded apps program in September -- just in time for the fall semester.
Malaysia's Ministry of Education goes gaga for Google, adopts Chromebooks and Apps for Education
In the past, "going Google" was something only cities or state and federal governments did -- transitioning entire systems to the tech giant's cloud. But now, entire countries are making the leap and to do it, they're getting a giant Mountain View-assist. Following in the footsteps of the Philippines, Malaysia's Ministry of Education is embracing Google's Apps for Education nationwide, while also doling out Chromebooks to its entire school system. The initiative, part of the government's Education Blueprint, should go a long way towards reducing the barrier to the web in developing countries, while simultaneously reinforcing its use as a crucial learning tool. It's a smart move for a cash-strapped country like Malaysia, since Chromebooks are simple to use (there's no real OS), boot instantly and are relatively low-cost -- not to mention, GApps are free. And for Google, it's a really great way to bolster adoption.
