Abstract:

Teaching innovation undoubtedly conducts to the use of new technologies (ICT). Nowadays there exist a lot of interesting apps and software programs at different fields as tutorial booking, form creating, document-in-the-cloud collaboration, online tutoring and meeting, chats, quick surveys in class… There are plenty of them. More and more teachers around the world are using some of them for implementing their learning innovation. However, these programs and apps are usually devoted only to one purpose and they are in many cases not interconnected. Teachers demand that at least the most relevant applications were integrated in a unique platform. Google Suite for Education (G Suite) (formerly Google Apps for Education) is an answer to this claim. It is a software environment, with interlaced and fully compatible applications, that allows students and teachers to do many of the tasks involved in the modern teaching-learning process. It allows the use of several Google products in a unique domain, which is customizable by the client. It is obviously oriented to educational centers. Schools, colleges, learning centers… can obtain a G Suite account with a domain, which identifies them.

G Suite includes different tools. Gmail allows a common email account with 25 Gb storage for each individual user. It has an effective "anti-spam" filter and allows the configuration of personalized accounts with the domain of the center. Storage and ubiquitous access (for u-learning and m-learning) is guaranteed by Google Drive. Google Sites gives the school the ability to create easily interactive webpages without HTML or programming skills. Google Calendar is a scheduling and appointment book for teachers. Timetables, meetings, deadlines… are managed so students can schedule their worktime. G Suite also includes Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides (similar to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint). With Google Forms teachers can collect information and know the student assimilation through forms and questions and answers questionaries. Each of these programs may be used individually but it is the joint use what makes the G Suite a unique and very useful set of tools. For example, Google Classroom is an interesting and powerful educational platform, as teachers can easily create, share and grade assignments using tools as Forms, Sheets, Docs, etc. Because of a complete integration, G Suite allow teachers and students to work in a collaborative environment. For example, students can create, share and edit files simultaneously in a real-time basis. This is possible because the document is in the cloud through Google Drive and the students gain access to it with their Gmail accounts. This fact is also important to develop group and collaborative work skills.

Also Google ‘Universe’ offers more interesting tools for educational use, as Google Keep (accessible-for-everyone notes), Google+ (a social network as Facebook and others), Google Hangouts (similar to Skype), Google Scholar (books and documents search), Google Maps and Google Earth (locating in some subjects), Google Translate (language studies and more) or Google News (select sources and receive alerts from news).

Google Suite for Education and ‘Google Universe’ in general is a powerful group of integrated tools that it is worth to use. It is a great option if teachers and students desires to work collaboratively using interactive and easy-to-manage tools for improving their learning process.

Keywords:

G Suite, Google Suite for Education, Flipped Classroom, Blended learning, Mobile Learning, active-collaborative strategies, Higher Education.