Google Classroom

   Google has made a new tool available for educational domains called Classroom, which enables teachers to seamlessly and easily assign  Google Apps work to groups of students.  Classroom works like this:
A teacher logs into Classroom, and starts a class.  Once inside the class, the teacher can add students.  Students then "join" the class by entering in a unique class code. Using files created in Drive, the teacher can then "assign" work to any student in the class via  Google Apps.  The assigned work is then "turned in" by a specified date, and Classroom allows the teacher to leave comments and grades on the work.  The best part is that all of this happens in the cloud using  Google Apps.
  Another function of Classroom is for teachers and students to have feedback conversations through a chat feature.  Assignments and chats can also be emailed to students, along with due dates.

   Below is a video created by Roger Nixon showing both the Student view in Classroom and the Teacher view in Classroom:




Classroom makes sharing a single document with multiple students quick and easy, where each student gets their own copy of the document.  Classroom also allows teachers to share links, videos and attachments with students. While  Google claims that Classroom is not intended to be a Learning Management System (LMS), it does make sharing docs with students and grading those docs far easier than before.

   Jonathan Wylie also has a great blog post (CLICK HERE) on getting started with Classroom.