TOWAMENCIN- North Penn High School is always evolving with new students, new clubs, new methods of learning, and more advanced technology. From computers to Chromebooks to iPads to 3D printers, NPSD is always keeping up with the latest technology. Going along with the vast improvement of technology in the start of the 2016-2017 school year, North Penn has pushed the use of Google Classroom.

Google Classroom is an online learning platform that allows schools to distribute and grade assignments paperless. It was released on August 12^th, 2014 and has been used by more than 40 million people worldwide.

North Penn decided to use Google classroom as a way for teachers and students to keep track of their assignments and allow students to be able to work from the convenience of their own phone or laptop.

“This school year is focused on the digital age of learning. This plan speaks to expanding one to one technology for students for in school and take home use and standardizing on productivity tools that live in the cloud,” explained Kristen Landis, the NPSD Director of Technology. “The device chosen is the Acer 738T Chromebook. Chromebooks work coherent with the google suite of tools.”

Making the shift from tangible assignments to online assignments could be a challenge, but NP is trying to make it an easy transition for students and teachers.

“The transition to google classroom started in the 2015-2016 school year as professional activities were provided to teachers to assist them in learning this tool,” explained Landis. “Our professional development focus for teachers continue this year to help teachers in learning all the features of google classroom. In addition to formal professional development opportunities, eLearning coaches and technology support specialists are available to each building so that teachers can ask for help as needed to learn these new and powerful collaborative tools.”

Many teachers find Google classroom helpful because it allows them to grade things online and keep track of the work more efficiently.

“Google Classroom is great. It allows me to have both a physical and a virtual classroom, which is very beneficial to students,” explained Sarah Levandowski, English teacher at NPHS. “The most helpful thing about Google Classroom is that it keeps students on track, regardless of whether or not they are in class. Since I can post everything we do in class on Google Classroom, it prevents anyone from falling behind. It also gives me the chance to appeal to a lot of different types of learners. For example, I can post an audio book and a PDF version of the same text, and students can choose which one they want to use”.