Google’s Classroom Monopoly – The Next Generation of Education, or a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

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This is a decently wordy title, but it states exactly what the topic of this post is going to be. I have been floating through districts as an observer, student teacher, and substitute for a few years, and there is a trend that I am noticing more and more recently – since the company Google took the world by storm as the leading search engine on the internet, it has been building its influence and growing in power. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Google has proven that it can turn out quality content and has created possibly the most convenient digital storage platform (Google Drive) linked to a word processor/spreadsheet creator/presentation maker that rivals Microsoft’s previous monopoly in this area because of a simple reason: though Microsoft’s products are better, more polished, and have more customization options, Google’s are completely and totally free. And now, they have synthesized these programs with one of their newer programs, Google Classroom.

Google Classroom is a convenient way to track assignments, work, and distribute homework to students in their homes and at school. It is perhaps the ultimate classroom convenience to come out of the past ten years. And schools have been attempting to get their hands on the ability to conveniently own, use, and distribute this technology since its fame and renowned capabilities reached the ears of those who listen to such things.

This transition has occurred in a whirlwind in the past four years, and now, nearly every school district has a partnership with Google, including every single district I have visited and subbed for. What does this mean? Well, first of all, every student in a district has a school email and account they use to access Google Classroom that is provided for them by their school. Google Classroom is just that – a virtual classroom capable of hosting online sessions, and creating a hub for students to receive and submit assignments, collecting all student work under one digital roof for the classroom. This is a huge convenience for the teacher, as there is no fear of losing assignments or getting things confused with other classes (as long as the software works properly, which we will get to later on), and students will have access to the assignment 24/7, giving them no excuse for forgetting about something because they were absent or simply scatterbrained. The technology is a godsend in many ways, and the students have opportunities to use it often in many districts. Some have put into practice a one-to-one initiative – providing students with chromebooks to take home and use at their leisure (for a small rental fee). The district I am subbing in primarily at the moment has this initiative, as did one of the schools that I student taught within. Both of these schools had started this process within the past year, and many schools will certainly follow their lead.

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So where does that leave us? Obviously, this is not something to be taken lightly. We are giving access to this technology to people who might normally be unable to afford it, and are providing students the ability to further synthesize Google Classroom with their educational experience. All of this sounds excellent, like this is the greatest advancement in classroom technology in the history of the school system. And, honestly, it very well may be. But are there hidden dangers here?

I believe that there are. I am not one of those conspiracy theorists who walk around claiming that the NSA is watching your every move through a webcam, but for those who have such concerns, this is a huge issue. Every single one of these chromebooks has a working webcam built into it, as well as a microphone. There is something to be said about the fact that Google now has access to thousands of student accounts, names, and other personal data at their fingertips. Do I believe that there is a malicious villain lurking behind the Google corporation? No. But there are ways to hack even the most secure system, and so much information about our country’s minors collected in one place can be considered a danger.

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Though these concerns may be legitimate, they are not the biggest concerns I have with this monopoly. Honestly, my concerns have a lot less to do with the fact that Google is the “Big Brother” in charge of the newest classroom craze, and more with the technology in the classroom. Should classrooms be utilizing technology? Of course! Is having Chromebooks accessible to the students when needed a blessing and a valuable usage of our funds? I would say so. But the danger comes from how much access the students are given to their chromebooks in school. Quite a bit of classwork is now done digitally, in school and outside of school. The students are given large quantities of thinly observed time on the chromebooks, and are provided with an easily accessible data stream at all times. Chromebooks may not be able to do much outside of accessing the internet, but that is often all you need. There are plenty of games on the internet, plenty of things for the students to distract themselves with. Extra time and study hall periods are being taken over by chromebooks, instead of books and classwork. And teachers only have the ability to regulate so much. When I have my own classroom, I will try to regulate as much as I can, but it is so easy for a teacher today to become reliant on the chromebook system and Google Classroom, because it is so convenient. But systems are not perfect.

During my Student Teaching experience, there were times when the network dropped out in the school. When your assignments are accessible over Google Classroom only, and your lesson involves the students doing an online activity, the lesson can become reliant on technology, more than any style of lesson done before we became wholly dependent on a system like this. If something goes wrong in Google’s servers, assignments can be lost, damaged, or destroyed (which I have experienced firsthand). Technology is never wholly reliable, and when you put so much trust in something so fallible, you turn what should be a minor inconvenience into a disaster.

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The other issue with chromebooks is the problems nowadays with filtering negative content. A school can apply filtration software to their network, but there are so many ways to get around it nowadays that it is almost a joke. And not only can students get around this software through the internet itself, but nowadays students have access to smartphones with unlimited data plans that allow them to use their own internet connections on their chromebooks, taking off all filters. And if they haven’t figured this out yet, you can be sure that they will.

All in all, I support the initiative the schools have taken to provide students with chromebooks and access to Google Classroom. But I believe that we should use quite a bit of caution in our enthusiasm, because while there is unlimited potential for convenience and the advancement of learning and technology, there also is the danger of becoming too reliant on screens and the technology around us in a way that disables us from being able to interact with each other and with our students as teachers in a personal way. Never should the classroom deviate from the dynamic between the student as a learner and the teacher as a guide – a screen will never replace the ability to have one on one interactions with students and teach them on their level in a personal way. We must be very careful that we don’t get so overwhelmed with the advancements in technology that we sacrifice our own humanity in favor of the digital world we have created in our classrooms.

Response

Anonymous

March 15, 2018

Wow, Stephen. This is quite a blog. You are perceptive in your analysis and in comparing and contrasting educational technology and educational humanity. Most of us realize that the digital world is a reality that is here to stay. Many years ago (probably 40), during teacher professional development workshops, the idea of “teaching machines” was anticipated with dread. Color photos of happy students hovering over “machines” while the teacher hovered in the background created a scenario of a future of robotic students led by teachers who hovered. The belief was that the teacher would be no longer needed, since students had their amazing “machines” to educate them. Some people hung on the hope that those horrid “machines” would never take the place of a human teacher. We saw it as something far into the future and that, with grace, the day would never really materialize. Human teachers would always be needed…wouldn’t they??? However, has that much maligned day arrived? The “machines” are much more sleek and immensely more sophisticated than the massive, outdated ones in those long-forgotten photos, but here we are: students hovering over their “machines,” and the teachers hovering. On the bright side, yes, human teachers are, of course, still needed. The fear of a teacher plunking a child in front of a “machine,” (now called computers, chrome books, etc.) hasn’t really come to pass. The computer is not the panacea that it was once thought it would be. We are not plunking a child in front of a computer and programming lessons and just letting him learn…are we??? I hope not. The ability to store homework assignment, research topics, assign grades, arrange parent/teacher conferences are all positive facets of the technological age. But…privacy. It is okay for the private information of minors to be broadcast all over the cyber universe?… and don’t talk to me about security. We all know how that goes. The most important reason for this long reply is that I wanted to give some historical perspective on technology invading the classroom. It’s not a new idea, but its time has come. Is it possible to embrace technology without sacrificing our humanity and the personal touch of one teacher and one student engaging in the excitement of learning? I hope so, and I agree with you, Stephen, that our humanity is always our priority, in class and in life.

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