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Google Play for Education Offers Thousands of K-12 Books

• By Leila Meyer
• 03/04/14

Google has made thousands of books available for use in K-12 classrooms through Google Play for Education. The announcement was made at the SXSWedu conference taking place this week in Austin, TX.

The books in Google Play for Education range from classic works of literature to recent textbooks. Teachers can assign the books to their students, and then the students can use the Play Books reader to access the books on their Android tablets, Chromebooks or other devices. According to information on the Google blog, Google Play for Education offers access to the books for periods of 60, 180 or 360 days, so teachers can change their book selections as needed.

Some of the digital textbooks available include GO Math and Journeys Common Core from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the literature includes books such as Bridge to Terabithia, Lord of the Flies and The Giver.

Google has also made some changes to the apps in Google Play for Education. The online store now includes additional information about each app, including the target grade levels, subjects and supported Common Core standards. The goal of this change is to make it easier for teachers to find the apps best suited to their students' needs.

Effective April 2, Google Play for Education will also make it possible for schools to reassign teacher-approved apps to different students. Currently, when a student transfers to a different school or changes grades, the schools can't reassign that student's app licenses to somebody else, so the school loses its investment the student's apps. With this new policy, schools will be able transfer licenses between students. The company is also adding the ability to uninstall school-owned apps from student devices remotely through Google Play for Education.

Further information about the updates to Google Play for Education can be found on the company's site.