Google to integrate Google Classroom calendar in Chromebooks

Reading mode is also set to integrate OCR, read aloud text-to-speech, and line-by-line focus next year

Kate Mills - Jan 24, 2024

An undated image displaying Google app icon on a mobile screen. — Unsplash

Google has announced the integration of the latest Workspace education features, such as a new student-facing Classroom, into Chromebooks.

In addition to a calendar on the ChromeOS Shelf, there will soon be a new Google Classroom widget for upcoming assignments on Chromebooks. This will allow students to easily switch between different assignment categories and quickly access their homework.

Reading mode is also set to integrate OCR, read aloud text-to-speech, and line-by-line focus in the next year, while ChromeOS will receive new, more natural-sounding TTS in the coming months.

The search engine giant also introduced a new Resources tab for Classroom that enables teachers to create, manage, and share practice sets, video activities, and interactive lessons. Teachers will soon be able to share links to class templates and Classwork pages to simplify lesson planning.

Google is also promoting potential Duet AI use cases, such as drafting lesson plans in Docs, creating images in Slides, and building project plans in Sheets.

Another AI feature will generate suggested questions for interactive video assignments from YouTube. On top of that, teachers will also be able to create groups of students in Classroom and the App Hub will be available in more than 10 languages later this year.