We are going to explain what Google Classroom is and how it works. Google Classroom is a free tool to manage classes in the educational field. If you belong to a school, Google will ask you to use the professional G Suite account, but we will use the normal accounts so that you can see what can be done.

In this article we are not going to delve into explaining how to do each thing, but to teach you what the possibilities are. In this way, if you are considering using this tool you can get an idea of ​​how far it can go, and then it will be up to you to squeeze it to the maximum.

Google Classroom

What is Google Classroom?

Google Classroom is a tool created by Google in 2014, and intended exclusively for the educational world. Its mission is to enable a classroom to be managed collaboratively through the Internet , being a platform for learning management or the Learning Management System .

All the options of this tool are associated with a Google account , so that both the teacher and the students must have their Gmail, and their Google account will act as their identifier. This means that you will not have to create a specific account for this tool, since your Google identities will be used.

This Google tool allows you to manage online classes, and can be used both for face-to-face learning, also for 100% distance learning , or even for blended learning. Documents can be created, information shared in different formats, meetings can be scheduled and held virtually. Students can also access their classes, their notes or their assigned tasks from any device.

The main advantage of Google Classroom is that it is a totally free service, with having a Gmail account you already have access, and schools can access it with their G Suite accounts. It is also quite easy to use and incorporates real-time communication methods between teachers and students.

The tool allows assigning tasks selectively, allows documents to be shared with all classes, and facilitates the organization of information by generating automatic folder structures to organize resources. It has mobile and tablet applications in addition to the web client, so it can be accessed from virtually anywhere.

How to use Google Classroom?

To access Google Classroom, you have to be identified with your Google (or Gmail) account that you want to use within your browser. Once you have done so, you can use the classroom.google.com website to access it directly. You can also enter from the main website of Google.com , by clicking on the applications button at the top right and selecting the Google Classroom that appears with the icon on the whiteboard.

How to use Google Classroom

The first time you enter, you will have to confirm that you want to use the account with which you are identified by clicking on Continue . If you click on your name, you can also choose the option to identify yourself with another account that you prefer to use instead.

Then click on the + button at the top right , and a small menu will be displayed where you can choose between entering an already created class or creating a new one . If you choose to join a class, it will ask you for the specific URL of that class, and if you click Create a class you will start the process to create a new one.

You will go to a screen that warns you that if you use Classroom in an educational center, you must manage it from a GSuite account for educational centers. After that warning, coming from pressing Create a class you will enter the screen where you have to write the class data . You have to give it a name, a section, choose the subject and specify a classroom.

After creating your new class, you can enter it. When you do, the first thing you will do is access the main board with the summary of your entire class. Above all you can see that there are several tabs with sections that you have to enter. But on the board you will already have direct access to create and schedule announcements, write normal publications or respond to those of the students.

How to use Google Classroom

If you enter the tab Classwork , is where you see all the tasks you have created. Here, you can click on the Create button to start creating content for your classroom, which can be tasks or questions, upload material or organize all the work in modules or units through the Topics option .

How to use Google Classroom

If you choose the option to create tasks , you will enter the creation tab where you can put a title and description. Below you can attach files from your PC, and create different types of office documents with Google tools. On the right you can specify the delivery dates, the topic to which the points obtained are and upload an evaluation guide. Here it is you who should take the time to familiarize yourself with the process and configure the tasks.

On the other hand, if you choose the option to upload material , you can attach files from a link, from your computer, from Google Drive or upload YouTube videos. This is didactic material that your students will be able to use to study, and to the right you can specify if all the students can see it or only some, and specify the topic.

Finally, if you enter the People tab you can add new students and teachers to your class by inviting them through their Gmail emails, which link to their Google accounts. In this list you can also manage students by silencing them or sending emails. There is a fourth Grades tab , where you will see each student’s grades depending on how you have been grading their assignments.

Companies are constantly looking for new ways to increase productivity, security and profitability of their operations. In the case of large companies this is a natural way, because there is almost always money and even departments of innovation. In the case of small and medium-sized enterprises, despite having the same importance, this is a more delicate route due to the reduced budget and the smaller margin of error. Cloud computing technology meets this bottleneck and brings many possibilities.

A study by Gartner shows that by 2020, companies that do not use cloud computing will be as rare as those who do not use the Internet today. That’s because most of the technological innovations are cloud-centric. According to the article ‘The ROI of Cloud ERP for SMBs’, the cloud business software market (ERP) accounts for only 2 to 7 percent of the total market. However, the forecast is that this percentage doubles every 5 years.According to Paessler AG’s “The State of Cloud Acceptance by SMBs”, which heard 2,000 IT decision makers in the US, UK and Germany, 63.5% of companies with fewer than 500 employees rely on cloud computing and are planning to expand the IT services they run in the cloud over the next few years.

Gartner analysts also predict that by 2020, more computing power will have been sold by laaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) in the cloud than technologies sold and deployed in enterprise data centers. This is a representative transformation, since the IaaS market has grown by 40% per year since 2011 and is expected to continue to grow by more than 25% per year by 2019.

That said, we know that Cloud Computing will still bring about major changes in the near future. But why should an SME prioritize migration to the cloud?

Affordable cost

The main reason for SMEs to adopt cloud computing is obviously the costs. Hiring a service in the cloud is much cheaper than building and maintaining a data center, since the structure would involve spending on electricity (about 33% of the consumption of each establishment), skilled labor that is not leased to other areas in addition to system maintenance, in addition to network costs. Meanwhile, by adopting cloud computing, the whole of this equation is solved in a monthly fee.

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The main reason for SMEs to adopt cloud computing is obviously the costs. Hiring a service in the cloud is much cheaper than building and maintaining a data center, since the structure would involve spending on electricity (about 33% of the consumption of each establishment), skilled labor that is not leased to other areas in addition to system maintenance, in addition to network costs. Meanwhile, by adopting cloud computing, the whole of this equation is solved in a monthly fee.

ROI (Return of Investment)

In addition to the much lower cost, another benefit of cloud computing that can be calculated in figures is the return on investment, ie it is possible to tangibilize in how long the amount spent by the company will be offset. Nucleus Research reported a ROI calculation from the adoption of enterprise cloud software and ranged from 73% to 589% with a payback time ranging from 2 to 23 months, with average annual benefits of $ 72,790.00 a $ 715,603.00.

Mobility

Cloud computing enables remote work, among other things, enabling managers and employees to access any type of company data anytime, anywhere. This technology was one of the main responsible for the increase of the Home Office modality.

That is, cloud computing allows a much faster and faster service delivery than traditional computing would be capable of.

Scalability

Scalability in cloud computing allows the expansion of technological resources according to the needs of the company, being able to follow the growth of the company over time or even a temporary need to increase the computational resources to perform a certain work in a short period of time. time. Providing the necessary resources very quickly, not requiring large investments in software, equipment and teams.

• Benefits of scalability:
• Reduction of costs;
• Elasticity: Possibility to increase or reduce computational resources, according to the company’s need;
• Effective use of available IT resources.

Productivity

Because of the high collaboration that cloud computing provides organizations, the productivity of your company will only grow with the adoption of the same. For example, a file can be viewed and edited by several people from the same organization at the same time, without the need to save a file, send an email, wait for another colleague to get back to work.

Equally important factor are the backups. While traditional ones take hours, this process is automatic in the cloud system.

Additionally, it becomes much simpler to cross-company data to produce any type of report.

Additionally, it becomes much simpler to cross-company data to produce any type of report.

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 Safety

The biggest discussion of the year was about data security. The cloud provider is responsible for the security of the Data Center where your company information is stored. This means that all information is located in an environment with maximum security, thus protecting your employees and your business as a whole.

There are those who think that if company data is not stored in internal hard drives, there is a greater risk of losing the information or that it is being invaded.

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But international security standards require advanced encryption, SSL, ISO and other protection tools, which makes these possibilities practically nil.

And with the automated backups mentioned earlier, if any errors occur, all company data will be available on another server a few clicks away.

And with the automated backups mentioned earlier, if any errors occur, all company data will be available on another server a few clicks away.

The Data Age is a path with no return

We are in the midst of the Data Age and all companies, even the medium and small ones, cannot fail to be prepared for the real advent of the market that is now Data Driven. In fact, Data is the main asset that each company has and to use them for business and revenue generation is the difference between competing, winning and even existing in the years ahead.

Monetizing data with applications of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotics, among other advances is the mission of managers tuned in the new economy.

Cloud Computing is first and foremost an enabler for the data input, to gain the most important highlight in each corporation generating benefits, revenue increase and even new lines of business.

To postpone such an important decision is to leave a flank open for obsolescence and misalignment in this new Data Age.