Google Apps for Education offers several free apps available for educators and parents. With this app, learners can work together on their files with a live display showing what part is being edited by whom. Also, learners can come together in a group to create a diagram, prepare a presentation with a slideshow, and so on.

Website: https://edu.google.com/?modal_active=none

What Users Love About the App

“Google for Education is very versatile and efficienty. The entire Google Suite lends itself perfectly to meeting the needs of both educators and students. Google Classroom for example is an essential part of my classroom experience as it allows me to communicate with students and families and extend learning opportunities.”

“I like that all of the apps are synched across devices. This helps me to transition from in-person settings to virtual work. It is very easy to share resources with students and colleagues.”

“Google is very user friendly for both students & teachers! I like that I don’t have to repeatedly teach students how to save and LOVE how one document can easily be saved & used in several different locations.”

“Google for Education easily transitioned with me from Google Classroom to my district’s required Canvas. Due to security concerns, we switched to Canvas for virtual learning only this year. I can still easily create worksheets in Google Slides and inport them into Canvas.’

“Google syncs so well together! I use a desktop at my desk to do my work, then show it on my promethean board to share with the kids. When I go home, I can easily do all of my work on my laptop through my google accounts. I love how easy it is to share something with someone else for them to view, edit, or comment!”

What Users Dislike About the App

“I didn’t like the price that we had to pay per device. I also wasn’t crazy about the cloud printing because it wasn’t always consistent. The other problem we had was with the heirarchy and settings, some users made changes that ended up changing all schools.”

“If Google is down or not working properly, it can be difficult to work on assignments and or projects that have been previously started.”

“The Google Chromebooks for Education are still a little clunky. Sometimes they work slowly. However, the Chromebooks in a classroom (used simultaneously with Google Classroom) can be an effective way to incorporate tech, even with its drawbacks”

“Difficult to navigate at first. You will need to follow their step-by-step direction the first time just so you know how to look for good quality documents. Especially if you have a difficult time understanding technology have someone break it down.”

“I dislike that during group projects other students can delete work without the approval of the entire group. This was an issue during a group last year. One student did not like the work of another student so she deleted the entire project and wanted to start over. I think the delete function should need approval from other members if the document is a shared document.”