Education is continuously evolving, and the physical and digital spaces where students learn must adapt to prepare them for a changing world.
We envision the future classroom as a place where students collaborate, create and actively engage, with a shift from a primary focus on teacher-led instruction to an environment designed for student-centered exploration, facilitating critical thinking. ChromeOS was developed with this shift in hardware and software in mind. Find out what’s new and coming to classrooms worldwide this year by reading on.
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A new set of ChromeOS tools for educators and students alike
Class tools, a new teaching mode for managed Chromebooks that lets educators share content to and from students’ screens, is now available. Make the most of class time with Class tools. With Class tools, teachers can connect directly with students via Google Classroom (or a code) to share a workbook of resources like videos, articles, slides and quizzes.
Class tools also lets teachers broadcast instructions to students’ screens with captions so they can read along at their own pace and even change the language of the broadcast. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing, students who are learning a second language, and executive function skills can all benefit from this. With a live video feed of the student’s screen, teachers can also show the class their work or check on a student’s progress. We’ve been piloting Class tools with schools to get early feedback and help us improve the product. “Setting student devices to focus, which allows teachers to restrict browsing to specific tabs, is very valuable for keeping students on task.” said Michael Steinberg, Assistant Director for Technology at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.
Read more about the Class tools pilot here.
Teachers with a Google Workspace for Education Plus license whose entire classroom, including educators, uses Chromebooks now have access to class tools. New options for apps, including a universal document camera app: If you use a document camera to project worksheets onto paper and handwrite math problems in front of the entire class, you probably know that most document cameras come with companion apps. However, many of these apps were previously unusable on Chromebooks. Coming soon is a universal document camera app, Camera Studio, optimized for ChromeOS, that will work with all common document cameras. On your Interactive Flat Panel Displays in the front of the classroom, you can use this app to present, store and share, annotate, freeze, zoom, and mirror. Camera Studio will be available in the Google for Education App Hub in the coming months as well as in Admin console where admins can force install the app to teacher Chromebooks, and you can find document cameras in the Works with Chromebook program. Some even go beyond documents and can record people and objects (like science experiments).
12+ new Chromebooks, Chromebook Plus and Chromebox OPS
Teach from anywhere in the classroom with Chromebook Plus: Available as modern and sleek convertibles with long battery life; touchscreens with stylus; or detachables, Chromebook Plus lets you move around the classroom. Additionally, it offers teachers and staff up to a twofold increase in memory and performance. Hear it firsthand from the teachers at Hillsborough Township Public Schools, who switched to Chromebooks Plus for deeper learning and instruction. Advanced AI-powered features like Quick Insert with Image Generation, which enables you to automatically generate high-quality AI images to add to emails and lesson plans, and Text capture, which enables you to quickly extract information from anything on your screen and receive contextual recommendations on the next steps, can boost teaching and productivity regardless of which Chromebook Plus you select. The brand-new Lenovo Chromebook Plus (14″ x 10″) is one option. It’s the world’s first Chromebook powered by MediaTek Kompanio Ultra processor with an integrated NPU (neural processing unit), dedicated to handling AI workflows, and built-in NPU-enabled features. In order to process AI features more rapidly and effectively, it provides 50 TOPS, or trillions of operations per second. In addition, this Chromebook has the longest battery life of any Chromebook and comes with Google AI, which includes exclusive features like On device image generation and Smart grouping, which help you stay organized across all of your open windows, tabs, and applications. On our updated device discovery page, you can also look at the new ASUS Chromebook Plus options we have available to you. Teach with front of classroom displays with Chromebox OPS: Chromebox OPS is a plug-in device that maximizes existing teaching technology, like by upgrading Interactive Flat Panel Displays to run on ChromeOS for better integration with Chromebooks and other devices. This allows educators to use their large classroom displays as giant ChromeOS touchscreen computers with the same OS and apps as students. And by using Chromebox OPS with Class tools, teachers can easily showcase student work in the front of the classroom for peer feedback or to highlight exemplary work. You can now purchase your preferred hardware from a reseller with the brand-new Chromebox OPS devices that come from LG, AOpen, CTL, and Newline. We’re sharing many updated resources, including webpages for Chromebooks and device discovery (with a selector experience coming later this year), an updated Chromebooks for educators training course and Class tools professional development sessions that districts can access with one of our professional development partners.
This school year, we can’t wait to see how educators and schools all over the world will make learning and teaching with ChromeOS easier than ever. Our launch guide contains additional information regarding our launches.
