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4 things to bear in mind when using Google Classrooms as a teacher — ICT & Computing in Education
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4 things to bear in mind when using Google Classrooms as a teacher

July 31, 2022

These are the things I’ve discovered from personal experience (and we all know what Oscar Wilde said about experience!).

Firstly, if you have ore than one Google account, such as a personal one and a college one, it’s easy to try and log in with the wrong one, and then wonder why nothing is happening!

Secondly, I’ve found that, for some odd reason, my mic and video won’t work if I use the Google Chrome browser to try and log into Google Meet — despite the fact that Chrome is made by Google. But using Firefox is fine, and probably other browsers are as well. Just not Chrome!

Thirdly, when you upload a file, whether in the Stream or the Classwork area, it won’t actually be available until you click on Post (or Schedule or Draft). In the Stream area, you can’t click on Post until you’ve entered a comment (such as, “Here’s my file”).

Fourthly, there’s lots on Google Classroom. I’ve been using it for a while, both as a student and as a teacher, and I still keep forgetting where things are, and discovering features I wasn’t aware of. I would strongly recommend giving yourself enough time to become familiar with Classroom before your course begins. You really don’t want to just leave it to the day before and then upload stuff and hope for the best. Well, to be fair, you could probably get away with that, but you could do so much more to make your course engaging.

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