At the ISTE 2023 conference, Google today announced a slate of education features across Chrome, Meet (including tile pairings), Workspace, and Classroom.
Chrome is adding the ability to convert PDFs that are basically images into text. This OCR capability will be especially useful for screen readers and goes hand-in-hand with the upcoming Reading Mode. Both will begin rolling out over the coming months.
The Google for Education App Hub was also announced today to find Google Classroom add-ons, School Information System (SIS) integrations, and app licensing. The last aspect is meant to simplify license management where schools buy apps directly from developers and then distribute to students/teachers. Google is partnering with Concepts, ExplainEverything, Figma, LumaFusion, Squid, WeVideo, and Adobe Express.
Elsewhere, Google Meet is getting the ability to pair a tile with “someone else’s so if one of you speaks, you’re both highlighted.” Intended use cases include co-presenting and making meetings “more inclusive when using voice or sign-language interpreters.”
Google is also letting Education Plus subscribers host meetings up to 1,000 attendees.
That tier, along with the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, is getting the ability to add interactive questions to assigned YouTube videos in Google Classroom. It’s meant to “help students check their understanding as they watch,” and can be done manually or be suggested by AI.
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