Software
Google announces new virtual training tools during the pandemic
On Tuesday, Google announced a range of new features to facilitate virtual education, including updates to its google meetings and a new homework help tool requiring a phone photo.
For Meeting, Google said that in September there will now be a larger tile view showing up to 49 meeting participants, which Google announced for the first time in June. Google first launched its tiled view for Meeting in April with 16 attendees. So that 49 people can see simultaneously, the gallery view of Meets matches that of Zoom's.
Google will also integrate its Jamboard digital whiteboard into the meeting in September and Google will add the ability to blur or replace the Meet history in October.
From October, G Suite Enterprise for Education clients will be able to create break-out rooms to allow virtual classes to split up into smaller groups. Teachers can track their participation in meetings also in October.
And Google also announe when new moderation controls are being implemented to help moderators and educators in the G Suite Enterprise for Education class management system more easily. After they have been kicked or refused entry twice, moderators can stop people from joining meetings later this month, which could help prevent them from disrupting classes. Google will allow moderators to end a meeting class simultaneously in September, accept or reject requests to take a class, shut down meeting chat, limit the attendance of a lecture and set up an environment which will not be held until the teacher is part of the course.
Google announced Tuesday that it would also share new tools for helping students learn on their phones among several other non-meet updates. In biology , chemistry and other STEM issues, students can now visualize nearly 100 concepts through Google searches and then view a model on Android and iOS devices in enhanced reality. And Google is just taking a picture of it by using Google Lens or Google's own app Socratic to help people with a homework problem.
