A Google Classroom Wish List
Google Classroom came a few years too late to rescue me from Moodle and Google Docs folder management nuclear winter but it’s out now and teachers are picking it up like wildfire. Early critics, myself included, criticized Classroom for all the things it didn’t do when in fact the simplicity of it is probably a big factor in it’s rapid adoption among “non-techie” classroom teachers. As more teachers have started using it, feedback and feature requests have started to roll in. Rather than try and remember all the ideas and issues teachers have had with Classroom in my district, I think Jeremy Davis (@teachtech) from Capistrano Unified School District hits the nail on the head with these 7:
1. It would be amazing if our classrooms automatically generated a group with the same name so teachers could assign google play apps, extensions, and books to their classes. Maybe even a play store button on the classroom screen.
2. The student count next to the word students on the main screen would be huge, because as students join the class, if the total was in parentheses next to the word students teachers would know when everyone was in and could disable the code so no stragglers popped in (parents, friends, other students who want to get the work ahead of time)
3. Student View – A lot of teachers want to show off a student view (I need this during training as well) but we can’t manage 2000 dummy accounts for teachers. If there was a “student view” button in the stream that would flip the classroom to what the students see, it would be easier to teach.
4. We would really love it if we could assign group work – When a teacher goes to assign work and wants multiple students working on the same template from Drive, they now will assign, it creates 35 copies, then the teacher asks one student from a group to go in and change the name on the assignment to include the last names of each of the students in the group, then the teacher has to go in and either delete the 20 copies that aren’t being used or just figure it out on the grid. If there was a fourth option in Classroom, “assign by group” that would pull up a list of all students in the class, with a drop down A-Z menu next to each name, then the teacher could assign John, Sally, and Jose to group A, Joe, Eric and Adam to group B, etc. Then Classroom would make a shared document between the selected students and the teacher. That is one of our most asked-for features.
5. Timed assignments and date fix – We love that teachers can make an assignment and then select all 5 classes and assign it all at once. However, this doesn’t work so well if the teacher is pushing out an assessment. If they push to all classes at once, the students who don’t have her class until 1pm get the essay question at 8am. If there was any way to have a timer next to each class, so when you drop down and select the 5 classes to send the assignment, you could also select a time. Schools across the country have strange bell schedules, so you would want it in 5 minute increments. But if I could select Period 1 gets it at 8:05, Period 2 gets it at 8:55, Period 3 gets it after snack at 10:00, and so forth that would make things easy on assigning. Lastly, we have gotten reports that when a teacher selects multiple classes to assign, the date and time due do not transfer over to other classes. Is this a known issue?
6. When we look at assignments in grid in the assignment folder, every assignment has the same name, and the student name is cut off unless you mouse over and click. There is no way to get a quick glance. Is there any way that google could put the student name before the title of the assignment rather than on the end?
7. (also known as “the dream”) We would really, really like a snapshot button on classroom, that would take a quick snapshot of every student’s screen and create a quick grid with names for teachers. This would allow us greater classroom management (even just letting the students know it is possible) so teachers can feel more comfortable having side bar conferences and one-on-one coaching with students where they can’t see the screens of students. While some may ask for a live feed, the screenshot would not tax our networks in the same way.
Ditto! Seems pretty reasonable to me. What do you want to see from Google Classroom in the next 3-12 months?
rrasco, 
There is no box 
Alice Keeler 11:41 am on February 14, 2015 Permalink |
My list
Student View
No Due Dates required
A list of recently submitted (not by assignment, just a list)
Save but not publish an announcement or assignment. I want to work on it in advance.
Announcement has title and is bolded like Assignment
Announcement lets me have all students can edit or all students get a copy option so I can pass stuff out.
A list of recent comments from students so I don’t have to go into each assignment to see communication
Reorder stream
Reorder attachments in Lesson Set
Student document titles are last name + first name + assignment title
Email digest… some students are getting too much email. How about the option to get one Google Classroom summary email each day.
tommullaney 1:06 pm on February 14, 2015 Permalink |
#3 co-sign big-time. Another problem with student view is that students don’t see all the attachments to an assignment in student view. They have to click into the assignment and this causes confusion.
Your “whole class automatically gets apps” and class screenshot ideas are awesome.
Classroom also needs to have more than one teacher per class for co-teaching arrangements and unit buckets so that the whole class is not just one long continuous Facebook-like or Twitter-like feed.
Nathan McGehee 1:47 pm on February 14, 2015 Permalink |
1. I like the idea of being able to push out apps/extentions.
2. This is more of a Docs/Drive want, but I’d LOVE frictionless, touch-enabled ability to screen write.
3. I’d love to schedule assignments and more granularity in pushing out the same assignment to different classes at different times.
4. Ability to “close” assignments so that unsubmitted work from the past that’s no longer accepted will stop showing on students past due list.
5. A parent view that gives parents limited view of their students activity and work, possibly with a basic activity report. This would also be great for easy parent communication individually or as a parent group.
6. Basic polling/student response in the stream
7. Ability to “freeze” student work for helping ensure work is only done in-class (some assessments require that students only do them in class).
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head on a lazy Saturday.
JenInEden 9:54 pm on February 14, 2015 Permalink |
The ability to have more than one teacher for the same class would be very helpful for co-teaching with a teacher-librarian, student teacher, or co-op student.
Arnie 6:11 am on February 15, 2015 Permalink |
Your wishes already have names. They are called schoology and canvas.
g3mostone 6:58 pm on February 15, 2015 Permalink |
Love/want all these items, including those people have taken time to type up in the comments. As a teacher/support person they’d all make life much easier and a great tool just that bit more effective in an educational environment.
March 23-27 | WIS Staff Blog 5:04 am on March 23, 2015 Permalink |
[…] and Google is always listening to teachers for ways to improve. Check out this educator’s Google Classroom features wish list and the many comments to his post. Then, comment below what capabilities you would like to see […]
rrasco 9:49 am on March 23, 2015 Permalink |
Love all these suggestions. One I would make would be improvements and greater flexibility in the grading part of assignments. Currently there is a limited number of points you can give an assignment. Being able to customize that would be cool. (We don’t even use points at our school.)