Google Set Up a Remote Online Teaching Hub for Educators

• Google is inviting teachers to set up their classes and lessons using Google's remote teaching hub.
• The tech giant has had all of the tools needed already there, so they merely bundled them.
• Google is investing in distance learning technologies, and others are joining them in the field.

The Covid-19 outbreak has forced the closing of schools and educational institutes around the globe, with more than 50% of the student population being unable to attend classes. Google has come forward to provide something to alleviate the negative side of the situation, so they have set up an online platform containing 'free to use' resources, such as remote teaching tools, apps, and material. The tech giant is offering educational videos, blog posts, and even webinars to help educators learn how to “teach from home.”

The online teaching hub offers the following:

• Perform video calls and live streaming with auto-generated captions on “Hangouts Meets”
• Create quizzes and grade them on “Google Forms”
• Create class websites using “Google Sites”
• Encourage student collaboration with “Google Classroom”
• Comment on written assignments and do voice typing on “Google Docs”
• Set up class times, breaks, and appointments on “Google Calendar”
• Demonstrate and explain concepts on a virtual whiteboard with “Jamboard”
• Use “Guardian Notifications” to keep parents in the loop
• Share anything with students or co-teachers through “Google Drive”
• Set up mailing lists for your colleagues via “Google Groups”

Google already owned most of the tools needed for remote teaching, so they only had to bundle them together under a common platform and offer specific instructions on how to use them. Of course, the company is planning to enrich the “Teach from Home” hub with more resources and tools, and they already have the support and cooperation of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education in this effort. The feedback received from partners and teachers will be extremely useful in figuring out the next steps. Right now, the supported languages are English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Danish, and Polish. More languages will be added soon, but groups from other countries can use the hub anyway until then.

Google has also put in a $10 million fund to support “Distance Leaning” efforts from around the world, and particularly those from degraded communities. Already, the tech company has partnered with the “Khan Academy” non-profit organization to reach out to 18 million learners each month. As they stated, they expect more organizations to join this effort soon. That said, this program is inspiring everyone in the education domain to get involved in a dynamic response to the novel Coronavirus crisis, and also to contribute to the development of a field that has been forced to evolve quickly.