VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has recently created a record by being the first in the country to have held a Cabinet meeting online through an app. And clearly not lagging behind are the colleges of the City of Destiny, which are fast adopting mobile technology for use in classrooms.
Less than a month ago, the Google Classroom app was released and the engineering colleges of Port City are already making the best use of, it apart from messenger apps like Whatsapp and Hike.
It has become the hot topic for the city students, who are attracted to the features and functioning of the new app.
Some colleges are indeed insisting on the students submitting assignments and having discussions over the subject online by just logging in on the app as a member under the administrator (the faculty member). This apart, the app is completely free of cost and has no advertisements, which comes as a bonus.
The Classroom app enables creating a ‘class chat’ (folder) for each and every subject. With the faculty member being the admin and students being told to submit the assignment in the respective class, the app has caught the fancy of college-goers. Moreover, a classroom can have a maximum number of class chats according to the requirement.
The administrator (faculty member) can post his/her idea and topic of assignments, which the students have to submit to the group.
The faculty members decide and post the topic of assignment and the students, as soon as they log into the app, can receive the notification, just like on Facebook.
“The Classroom app has been very much useful for us, as there would be sudden decisions regarding tests or some announcements, change in schedules, etc. The students too find it flexible now that almost all of them use smart phones,” observed M Praveen kumar, an assistant professor with an engineering college in the city.
Though social networking sites have the facility to create a new group, the tech-savvy Gen-Y made the Classroom app popular.
Meanwhile, some other apps like Whatsapp and Hike are also being used by students, by forming class groups with their faculty as head, to discuss assignments and schedules. Using the apps, announcements can be made and students can question the faculty regarding the topic, anytime.
“Many apps have entered the cyber world, but the Classroom App is different as it has a complete classroom environment with all those subject icons and a faculty member as the administrator,” says M Mounica, a final year CSE student from an engineering college in the city.
What is Google Classroom?
Google Classroom is an interface application used to submit and store assignments and other files. Folders (class chats) can be created with admin being head and students as the members in it. Each classroom can have maximum number of chats. Classroom communication like discussions, assignment submissions and many more can be performed.
The Other Side of the Coin
Meanwhile, the negative side of the technology is also being witnessed in the city. It is observed that some colleges have been insisting the students to afford a smart phone. With this, the economically backward are finding themselves in a fix. In some cases, it was found that the fellow students were helping their economically backward classmates buy a smart phone, by contributing some amount.