LESS AN LMS, MORE AN ADDITIONAL TOOL
Google Classroom is no Blackboard-killer, nor does it
aspire to be. While instructors can use it to share
materials, make announcements, and simplify the
collection and evaluation of student work, it lacks the
customizability of Moodle, the analytics of D2L
Brightspace, the ecommerce of Instructure Canvas, and
the third-party resources of Blackboard.
Realistically, Classroom competes more directly with
social-learning upstarts like Edmodo and Editors’
Choice Schoology, though even those platforms boast
granular roles (Schoology) and educational app stores
(Edmodo).
Google Classroom is really a front-end interface for G
Suite for Education. It’s a platform that enables
instructors to move some of their traditional classroom
work to the internet rather than transition their entire
curriculum to an online environment. That may be
enough for many educators, especially those who work
at schools that are wary of technological adventurism
(or perhaps unable to support it). For those educators,
Google Classroom lowers the technical, economic, and
institutional barriers to experimenting with online
education.
JILL DUFFY, WILLIAM FENTON
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION (^) I SUBSCRIBE (^) I MAY 2020
It’s a platform
that enables
instructors to
move some
of their
traditional
classroom
work to the
internet.