Remember that feeling of accomplishment after a fantastic lesson? When every student was engaged and learning? Yeah, these new features by Google AI are about to become your secret weapon for creating those moments more often. So let's dive in and explore the Artificial intelligence (AI)! Hold onto your lesson plans, because this is about to revolutionize your teaching life!
Where can you find new AI features from Google?
YouTube: Smarter Engagement
Remember those days scrambling to come up with engaging questions for video assignments, especially when juggling diverse learning needs? (We've all been there!) Those days are over, my friends. AI will be suggesting questions based on different parts of the video, making differentiation and engagement a breeze.
In my K-5 special education classroom, a Youtube tool like this would have been a big help. Imagine creating a video lesson on fractions, and then using AI-generated questions to target specific learning styles and challenges. Visual learners could get questions focused on diagrams, while auditory learners could receive questions related to the video narration – the possibilities are endless!
Google Classroom: Enhanced Learning and Management
Google Classroom has evolved to not just manage but enhance learning through AI with:
- Practice Sets on steroids: The popular Practice Sets feature, powered by AI, is now available in over 50 languages. You can even transform a Google Form into a personalized practice set for targeted skill reinforcement.
- Organized learning at your fingertips: A new Resources tab in Classroom keeps your AI-generated practice sets and interactive questions neatly organized, so you can spend less time searching and more time teaching.
- Differentiation made simple: Create different learning groups within your Classroom and assign specific tasks to each one. This is a dream come true for differentiated instruction, allowing you to cater to individual needs and learning styles.
This speaks directly to my heart! In my special education classroom, I used small group instruction extensively. With Google Classroom's new group feature, I could have easily created targeted reading groups, math intervention groups, or project-based learning groups, all within the same platform.
Chrome Accessibility Tools: Enhancing Access for All
ChromeOS and Chrome browser are now more accessible, supporting students with different needs:
- ChromeOS Screen Readers: Now, ChromeOS screen readers can extract text from PDFs. This enhancement is particularly impactful for students with visual impairments, ensuring they have access to the same information as their peers.
- Chrome's Reading Mode: Additionally, Chrome's reading mode feature allows students to highlight text and have it read aloud. This tool is invaluable for students with reading difficulties, providing them with an alternative way to access written content.
These features would have been invaluable in my classroom. Students with visual impairments could access complex texts through the screen reader, while students with reading difficulties could benefit from the read-aloud function in Chrome.
Check out some other resources on accessibility in the classroom:
App Hub: Expanding Educational Possibilities
Whether you're looking to foster creativity with Adobe Express or enhance interactive learning with Kahoot!, Google’s new App Hub is your gateway to a richer, more connected educational experience and features:
- Comprehensive Access: Easily locate apps that enhance teaching and administrative tasks, supporting SSO (Single Sign-On) and API integrations.
- Curated Selection: Browse through a tailored set of 25 apps on the Hub's landing page, which can be filtered by subject, category, and compliance, to find exactly what your classroom needs.
- Security as a Priority: New security features help administrators maintain a safe environment for educational tools. These enhancements make it easier to manage settings and approve third-party app integrations, ensuring both safety and efficiency in tool deployment
Overall, these new features make Google for Education an even more powerful tool for creating engaging and inclusive learning experiences. Stay tuned for more updates on launch dates and how to get started with these exciting new tools!
